Pastor’s Note
I’ve enjoyed thinking with you over the past few weeks about the progress of the gospel, in fact the advance of Jesus Christ himself, as Ken has so helpfully reminded us from Philippians 1. In particular we have been talking about how our sufferings can serve to advance the gospel in our own hearts and in the lives of others. I want to share with you a few things I am learning in the midst of this as we continue to flesh these challenging truths out in our lives.
Biblically speaking, our sufferings and difficulties seem to have almost unrivaled potential for drawing us closer to Christ as well as for distancing us from Him if we respond differently. Difficult situations look very different for each of us—an inconsolable infant in your arms (yes, I’m a new dad!), a poor health report, relational conflict, unfulfilled godly desires, and many more. The challenging decision for us individually in the midst of these situations is whether to turn to God in greater dependence and trust Him to handle our difficulties or to turn away from God in anger or pain and trust ourselves to push on through the tough time. To paraphrase Ken, many of us don’t know Jesus more fully because we avoid sufferings, but perhaps even more of us don’t know Jesus more fully because we avoid Him in the midst of our sufferings. So, if the gospel of Jesus Christ is to advance in each of us, we must learn to turn to Him in our pain, confusion, and trials.
Easy enough, right? Not usually. If you’re like me, in the epicenter of many of your difficult situations, you are physically tired, emotionally exhausted, and spiritually malnourished because of the very circumstance you’re now trying to face. I often need someone else to come alongside me, enter my pain, and help me turn to Christ rather than wallow in self-pity or cling to self-help. When Ken was preaching these past three weeks, I couldn’t help but think of the difficulties faced by even those in my own small group. Since we have shared some of our sufferings with each other as a small group, we have also been able in recent days to challenge each other to turn to Christ so that our sufferings truly are stepping stones to his gospel rather than stumbling blocks. We’re still learning what this looks like, but I already can tell how much I need this community to lift up my head in the midst of hard times … it’s painful and it’s glorious… it’s the body of Christ at work! And it makes me ache for any of you suffering on your own with no one in your pain with you to point you to Christ.
Our mission as a church is to see the gospel of King Jesus advance in our own lives and in the lives of everyone we meet—in Huntsville and around the world. I firmly believe that these advances will only take place through great difficulty and suffering for all of us. And if we don’t learn to turn to Him in our own trials, how will we help our neighbors do the same? Let’s learn together what it looks like to point each other to King Jesus in the midst of the suffering— remember, He’s already there, He’s entered our pain and our mess, and He desires to move His Kingdom forward in and through us!
Will Spink
Associate Pastor, Pastoral Care and Assimilation