Discipline – by Kathy Kearney © 1993

We live in a culture that demands immediate reward. As the drama director at a local church, it didn’t take long to see how much my young actors loved comedy. Comedy brought immediate response from the audience, it elicited encouragement to be even funnier and to garner still more gratifying reaction.

Separating the “goats from the sheep,” I made them do exercises that hammered on them, honing their timing, and sharpening their skills. Slowly, they began to realize that good acting is crafted not by audience reaction but by commitment to acting,  to perfect their craft and ability no matter what the response. The training sifted the group, leaving me with a core repertory that turned out remarkable, memorable performances.

I cannot find the doctrine of immediate reward anywhere in the Bible. In fact, just the opposite. I read about Joseph sharpened and trained by years of unjust imprisonment before arising to oversee Egypt and rescue the scanty beginnings of the nation Israel. David, the anointed king of Israel, flees from demented Saul for years and years before ascending the throne as Israel’s greatest king. Ruth suffered hardships and loss before becoming the wife of Boaz. Daniel loss of his family and homeland trained him for the position as King Nebuchadnezzar’s leading consultant.

We get where God is leading us through tribulation and trials.  Ouch, ouch, and double ouch!

What does God say about trials and tribulations? Here’s my paraphrase of James 1:24: “Count it all joy when you find yourself under fire, nearly wiped out, and going down for the third time.  Why?  Because the testing of your faith produces endurance. If you allow it, testing will give you the perfect (not immediate) result: faith to live victoriously in this world by trusting and obeying God.”

According to this passage, we can have joy in the midst of tests. We don’t slog from one test to another like prisoners in a chain-gang.

“But, how,” you ask, “Can I have joy when every time I lift my head it’s pushed back into the mud?”

First, realize that your trial is custom designed for you and fitted precisely into your life by the author and perfecter of life, God Himself. Understanding this takes trials to a new elevation. God never mocks his children. According to Romans 8:29, He trains them to be like His Son.

Second, realize that your trial has a designed outcome–even many outcomes. Some you will see in this life, others only in eternity because the lives you touch may not have even been born or saved yet. You don’t want to let them down, do you?

Third, God has promised you joy in the midst of affliction. Remember James says, Count it all JOY. Don’t try to whip it up in yourself, ask for it. David did just that in Psalm 51, he asks God to restore the joy of his salvation.

Fourth, (and the hardest) when the way is dark, the trial painfully hard with no comfort or relief insight, give thanks to God. That’s hard, isn’t it? Yet in Hebrews 13:15, “Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.”

Unbelievable! You’re stretched to the max, about to fly into a few million pieces give or take a thousand or so, and the writer tells us to offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving. There are times when saying thank you God is so costly we can hardly utter the words.

My husband and I were in our fifties, a time when thoughts of retirement brush the horizon. We saw our later years filled with the joy of grandchildren to love and spoil, trips to places we longed to visit, and money to take care of all our needs as we stepped from middle aged to elderly.

Forget that dream!  We lost our upholstery business of 15 years, a marketing business of four years, and our home. So broke and broken, it was actually a relief the day we lost our home. The struggle to keep it was over. We sold most of our possessions and put the rest in storage, cleaned the house for the next occupants, locked the windows and doors, climbed wearily into our car and drove away.

We moved in with relatives while Dewey continued the job search and began part time sales work. We could barely pay for our room and board.

Finally I took a position as a live-in housekeeper with a family that graciously accepted us both. We told them all that had happened, and that our goal was to be on our feet and on our way in eight months.

That first Monday after we moved into their home, I hit the bottom of my emotional well.

The family was at work, Dewey had just been hired as a part-time teacher in the adult education program at a local college. Finished with the housework, I went for a walk hoping the change of scenery would lighten my sadness. It didn’t work. Every step was accompanied by my broken heart’s weeping. This is what I wrote later to my friend, Darlene.

“The first Monday I went for a long walk. I cried as I walked. I don’t think I had ever allowed myself to grieve for all we have lost this past year. All the memories of the great times we had in our home-raising our kids, fellowshipping with friends, holding Bible studies, holiday times-just broke my heart. The tears refused to stop. Never had I felt so desolate as I did on that day. I wondered if we would ever have a home again or earn a living. While we are grateful for Dewey’s teaching position, it’s only part-time and tenuous at that.

“Please, Father, ” I finally cried out. “Make sense of this for me.”

The only answer that came was an encouragement to thank my way out of this spiritual despair. So, in spite of my tears and my aching heart I began to thank Him for all He had allowed to happen. I thanked him for the memories that now bore such a nostalgic pain. I thanked Him for the uncertainty of our future; knowing that no believer’s future is uncertain to Him. Slowly my tears dried and my heart ache eased. And slowly the memories that seared became memories that blessed.

I don’t know what this is all about, Darlene. God could have just as easily prospered our business. But I have chosen to believe that this is part of His plan for us.

If I didn’t stay in His Word, I would become bitter and angry. If I learn anything from this, He certainly will get all the credit.

One thing I have learned is that wherever I am, it is the home that God has given me. The American dream is to own a home, but I have learned that God isn’t tied to any culture’s dream. His primary commitment is to His plan for His children’s lives.”

Eight months later we moved into our own home. Did I learn a lot? Yes. Did I learn it perfectly? Surely, you jest. Did I learn it once and for all? Hardly. But that’s OK, God isn’t finished with me yet.

Obeying God does not always change circumstances, but it changes us. Not because I discovered them and wrote them down, but because they are what the Word of God teaches from Genesis to Revelation.

Your particular trial? It is causing you to bear fruit that remains. God is using this time in your life for eternal purposes. Begin thanking Him now. You see, thanking God is an everlasting step of, and into, faith.

See you in heaven!