I love Christian music, but I can’t stand Christian music radio stations. The branding is always focused on the positive message. They may quote James 4:8 (Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.) as their “verse of the day,” but you will probably never hear James 4:9 (Be afflicted, mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness).
I wish it ended with radio, but it cuts like a tainted knife into Christian culture, separating us from reality, and worse, cheapening the Gospel. The Gospel is only good news if there is bad news. God is a loving God. He is also a God of wrath. You cannot pick which He is. He is both.
John Wesley encouraged believers to “preach ninety percent wrath, ten percent grace.” It seems that somewhere within the last few decades we turned this idea upside down. Too many western preachers and teachers have become glorified motivational speakers.
We are inadvertently taught to avoid pain like the plague. Meanwhile, persecuted Christians in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia ask for prayer, not that the pain and persecution would go away, but that God would strengthen them to endure it. The funny thing is, the Church is growing faster in those places than it is here. Why? Because the Gospel is not cheap there, it is extremely valuable.
How do we redeem the value of the Gospel in the West? Embrace the pain. Endure the persecution. “...glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope.” (Romans 5:3-4) Hope is born in the midst of negative experiences. It is the factor that carries us through.
The Apostle Paul even talked about “godly sorrow.” He said that it produced “repentance to salvation.” He himself had been a conduit of this sorrow for the Corinthians. He did not apologize, though. In fact he said, “Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner…” (2 Corinthians 7:9)
We have to learn to immerse ourselves in the trials God allows us to experience. We also have to allow others to go through it. “Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.” (Romans 12:15) It is not the Christian’s job to cheer people up. It is our job to go through the process alongside our brothers and sisters. We must bear the pain they bear. We must feel the weight they feel.
Tolkien illustrated this beautifully in “Return of the King.” Sam wanted so badly to carry the ring for Frodo, but he could not. He eventually resolved that if he could not carry Frodo’s burden, he would carry Frodo himself. This is a striking picture of God’s command to “Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2)
This begs the question, can we possibly fulfill the law of Christ by being positive all the time? I am resolved that we cannot. We must learn to accept the positive, the negative, and the in-between. The God on the mountain is still God in the valley. In the words of Jesus:
“In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
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