Out Our Way: It's not if but when - 2Corinthians 12:7-10

Out our way, it's not unusual to see fellow riders in the doctor's office or hospital. My doctor, who is a horseman himself, got a chuckle the last time I was in with sprained ribs. "Doc toss you again?" "Yup." So down to the X-ray unit to be sure it's just a sprain and nothing is broken, then the tight wrap around the ribs for the next few weeks. Anyone who rides knows that when it comes to horses and wrecks it is not a question of "if" but of "when."

Now I grant you, really accomplished riders may not get "launched" as often as us less talented folks, but even the best get thrown. Look at Charlie - who had years of experience and rode his own stock. Doing great a round up when the owner's  dog comes through the tall grass, spooks "Freckles" and Charlie ends up in the ER.  Yup - you cowboy, you will get tossed. It is not a question of "if" but of "when."

I suppose the same can be said of life in general. Who gets through it without getting tossed, stomped, and busted up now and then. There are some who claim that being a Christian protects us from such things - that "if we have Christ in our hearts," no tragedy will touch us. In my years of ministry I have run into some preachers and churches that preached  this. I ran into a pastor in South Dakota who had the church secretary of many years fired and tossed out of the church because her husband was diagnosed with cancer. In Wyoming I ran into a husband/wife pastoral team run out of their ministry because of an equally serious tragedy in their lives. Apparently the people in those congregations were not especially familiar with the scriptures.

Look at the prophets like Elijah, Isaiah and Jeremiah. Look at Paul who suffered some unknown physical ailment not to mention persecution, beatings, assassination attempts, shipwrecks, hunger, thirst and some medical illness as mentioned in the text above. And above all, look at Christ, His suffering, torture, and eventual crucifixion.

Read on your church history and see how many of the greatest men and women of faith suffered in their lives from various tragedies, illnesses and sorrows. One of my favorite hymns, "It is Well with my Soul" was written by a man whose entire family had tragically drowned as they sought to sail across the ocean to Europe. Tommy Dorsey wrote his famous hymn, "Precious Lord, Take My Hand," after his daughter died of illness. So where do we get the idea that being a believer protects us from life's sorrows and tragedies? It is not in the Bible and it is certainly not the reality Christians have experienced over the centuries. If you are alive, there will be hard times and sorrows. It is not a question of if but when. But there is another reality that needs to be recalled - and that is also part of the story of believers down through the millennium. When we are tossed and stomped in this life, God is beside us to help us "cowboy up." Paul wrote of it in his Epistle to the Corinthians and went on to live it, as did all the other apostles. Look at the lives of other believers, famous and unknown, who also were badly mauled by life and yet found hope and strength in Christ to keep going and get back in the saddle.

As many of you know, I have been hit time and time again over the past few years by one sorrow after another. Like the old "Hee Haw" song puts it "Gloom, despair and agony on me. Deep dark depression, excessive misery. If it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all. Gloom, despair and agony on me." Yup. For the past few years it has been on hardship, tragedy and sorrow after another and now I am facing medical issues that make it difficult to even get out of bed most days.

Well, what of it? Yes, the when has come to me. This week I shared with a counselor that I mentally - and now physically - feel much the same as I did when Doc tossed me into the cactus or later onto hard rocky soil and sprained my ribs. One sorrow and "hit" after another have slammed me down hard. I just want to lie down and stay down.

But if the "when" has come to me, so has Christ. Everyone knows that when you get thrown, you have to "cowboy up" and get back in the saddle or you will never ride again. Same in life - especially as a believer - for we do not preach the gospel from the pulpit so much as by living it. Christ calls me to "cowboy up" and rise up. 

But getting up is the first and often the hardest part. It is easier to just lie there and cry out in pain. That is why He reminds me of Paul and Elijah and above all Himself. By His strength I am now off the dirt. Granted, I am weary, and dizzy from the devastation - not on my feet yet, but getting there. I am not finished yet and I need to get back up and back in the saddle. Will I get tossed and stomped again? Possibly - but so what? If He is with me, I still have work to do for the Kingdom. Others have done it with His help and so shall I. Even if I am, as St. John of the Cross put it, enduring "The Dark Night of the Soul" God still says in the midst of the emptiness: "Let there be light." And so it shall be. And that is not a question of if God will lift me up - but when.

Blessings.

Brother John Bruington