These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.I found an invitation in my email inbox from Elizabeth DeBarros, of Finding the Motherlode blog to join her and other readers in an online book discussion for Michael S. Horton's book, "A Place for Weakness: Preparing Yourself for Suffering". I love reading Elizabeth's blog posts. The title and the exercise in discussing this topic online intrigued me.
 | A Place for Weakness: Preparing Yourself for Suffering By Michael Horton / Zondervan In a world of hype, where more and more Christians are buying into the idea that, through Jesus, they'll be healthier, wealthier, and wiser, where do they turn when they become ill, or depressed, or bankrupt? In A Place for Weakness, award-winning author, magazine editor, and radio talk-show host Michael Horton exposes the pop culture that sells Jesus like a product for health and happiness, reminding CHristians that their lives often lead to difficult routes they must follow by faith. As a child, Horton would run up the down escalator, trying to beat it to the top. Christians, he notes, sometimes seek God the same way, believing they can climb to him under their own steam. This book offers a series of powerful readings that demonstrate how, through every type of earthly difficulty, God keeps his promises from Scripture and works all things together for good. Formerly titled Too Good to Be True. |
Funny, I can relate to this description, as a grown woman I tried to run up a down escalator because there was a very long line of people on the up escalator - I nearly killed myself. Oh, I made it to the top and saw my vision start to go black just as the security guard put her hand up preventing me from stepping from the moving top step to solid ground, telling me never to do that again. Michael Horton is right, that story is a great analogy for how many Christians life life under their own steam rather than seek for the wisdom of God's Word.
I am just coming out of a very dark season of my life. In a manner of speaking I felt hunkered down in a war torn bunker with my Bible and a candle - not sure if the light from the Bible was brighter than the candle. On this side of things I still don't know how I made it except God, Himself, carried me. He sweetly reminds me how we (he and I) prepared for this season. He as the gentle instructor guiding me through lessons where I learned of His faithfulness, how and where to find strength in His Word.
In "A Place for Weakness: Preparing Yourself for Suffering" there is a quote in the first chapter, I'm reading it on my Kindle - so sorry I can't tell you what page - that speaks to this...speaks to the whole premise of The Faith Project:
Understanding who God is, who we are, and God's ways in creation, providence and redemption - at least as much as Scripture reveals to us - is to the trials of life what the preparing for the LSAT is to the practice of law. Theology is the most serious business. Preparing for this exam is not just a head game or a prerequisite for a temporal vocation, but it's a matter of life and death. It is about our heavenly vocation and its implications for each day here and now. It's about living, and dying, well.
I discovered in this recent time of trial that studying God's Word like my life depended on it was more than a metaphor - my life literally depends on knowing who God is, who I am and putting the living Word of God into action in my life.
The experience of suffering itself does not make us experts on the subject. Golfing more will not correct one's bad swing; only training can do that. And so we need to learn from God's Word how to meet trials, apart from which more tough times will only tend to reinforce what we already believe, whether it's good or bad theology.
Without the trials that life in a fallen world presents, faith is not really roused to grab hold of the promises of God, or the God of his promises (paraphrase on a quote from Horton). I don't believe the trials come from God to teach us - we live in a fallen world - they will come, but because God knows they will come He lovingly seeks to prepare us to overcome.
I am enjoying the discussion of this book that continues over at Finding the Mother-lode. Grab your copy of the book and join us.
| A Place for Weakness: Preparing Yourself for Suffering By Michael Horton / Zondervan |
If you are a visitor from Elizabeth's blog, please contribute to the conversation as a comment here. If you have a blog post in the discussion I will do the same for you.
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