Growing Under Pressure
A few summers ago, Claudia and I along with a few friends drove up to Tombstone Pass, parked and hiked the trail to the Iron Mountain lookout tower. Beautiful at every turn, the trail first goes down through a cedar forest then up through at least three eco-zones until it emerges onto a bald summit with glorious views. From the top we could see where we began and where we then stood and what laid ahead back to our car. A very fun day.
Some parts of scripture are like that. We gain perspective on our life, past, present, and future in just a few words. The first two verses of Romans 5 are just such a place.
We discover that as a Jesus follower, God has crafted a past that has freed you, a present that emboldens you, and a future where all is made right. This makes sense of a chaotic world and fuels a person to rise each day and follow him.
Paul, in the opening chapters of his letter to Roman believers, lays out a deep explanation of salvation and how we come to where we are. Now he distills so much into two verses.
Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.
WOW. What a passage that sums up life in Christ and how that works in the rough and tumble of the world. Paul spotlights out our past, present, and future.
Our Past: That’s found in the first sentence of the passage. We’ve been “made right” or justified because of the love of Jesus for us, and the result is “Peace with God” once we believe in Jesus as our savior. The war is over. There is no longer any need to work to live well enough so as to earn his pleasure. He just loves you and Jesus made it all possible. That position of peace with God happened and carries on through life. And it’s a staggering thought that, with all our junk, says we are reconciled with him because of Jesus.
Our Present: The sense of the next words is that Jesus has ushered us into the throne room of the universe and introduced us, not as a groveling subject, but a loved child of God who continues to mature for all one’s days. “Grace” in this version is translated “undeserved privilege”, and that is a fine description of our state given that we have been chosen, adopted, accepted, redeemed, and forgiven. And Paul says that this is “where we now stand.” Now, that’s encouraging! Not only are we on good paper with God, but we’ve been lavished with amazing benefits because of that. Clean and confident without any hint that we earned any of it.
Our Future: With confidence and joy, we face all that life brings with hope that we will share in all of God when the clock runs out. He has promised to make all things right, and we hold a share in his plans. Anticipation is a good term for our attitude toward the future. It is a future of action and good work, of “back to the garden” kind of living, where everything is made right.
…but what difference does this make in the rough and tumble of life? I’d bet my lunch money that every person reading this has recently or is currently facing an insurmountable obstacle of some kind or another. I am. Mine is so huge that only God…I’ll let you finish the thought.
It’s interesting that Paul doesn’t continue with his lofty theological ideas, but immediately takes what he has just written out for a drive on the roughest roads to see if the wheels will fall off. What Paul writes in the next verses gives some context that can help navigate through these obstacles, even when no resolution seems to be near in our sight. Take a listen.
We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.
Like Jesus’ brother, James, Paul calls on believers to “count it all joy” or “rejoice” when the toughest times come. Why? It’s because of the truths in verses 1&2. Our standing and future in the kingdom of God frees us up to see trials as tutors, not tormentors, building in our lives that which can be learned nowhere else.
It’s worthwhile to follow the progression he lays out.
“Problems and trials” in the Greek is simply pressure. You’ve felt it. It’s like being a grape in a press squeezing out your very life juices. He says to rejoice when it’s your time in the press because it develops “endurance”.
The word translated endurance simply means “to remain under”. Not squirming out, running away, dodging and dinking, but faithfully sticking and staying with what you know is best. A dude who used to attend our church runs ultramarathons, some over 100 miles long. Explaining how he kept going, he said that often he just needed to “embrace the suck.” Enduring trials, sometimes, is just like that.
Why? Certainly not because we are to be masochistic in life, because Paul writes that endurance “develops strength of character”. Proven, tested, cleansed of much of what is trivial and use-less. The same word was used for the purifying process of metals through the crucible processes that scraped the bad from the good. A person who knows who they are in Christ and who stays under the pressure is purified. You’ve met them. You are, trail by trial, becoming one of them. Their value to others as they showcase God-in-life is beyond measure.
These folks who know who they are and who have gone through the fires, faithfully, are people of hope. Hope for the ultimate redemption of all things. And that hope does not disappoint. Jesus promised in John 16 that the God the Holy Spirit will be our encourager, reminder-er, our constant source of the love of God.
I want to be that kind of person who grows under pressure.
A person who walks daily knowing who I am: Made right, standing in grace, living in hope
A person who never assumes because of faith that my life will be easy, but might even be harder than many, yet still staying the course.
A person who sticks and stays to what I know is right, but with humility and grace, not arrogance and judgment.
A person who looks to be better and more hopeful and more loving to others.
Join me?
Music for the week
…and a couple of lame jokes
A pastor was visiting a woman who was about to die.
He asked her, "Do you want anything special at your funeral?"
The woman said, "Yes, at the end of the service, please take the bouquet of flowers off my casket and throw it into the crowd to see who is next."
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A young man was walking through a supermarket to pick a few things when he noticed an old lady following him around. Thinking nothing of it, he ignored her and continued on. Finally, he went to the checkout line, but she got in front of him.
"Pardon me," she said, "I'm sorry if my staring at you has made you feel uncomfortable.
It's just that you look just like my son who just died recently."
"I'm very sorry," replied the young man, "Is there anything I can do for you?"
"Yes," she said. "As I'm leaving, can you say 'Goodbye mother'? It would make me feel much better."
"Sure," answered the young man. As the old woman was leaving, he called out, "Goodbye mother!"
As he stepped up to the checkout counter, he saw that his total was $127.50. "How can that be?" he asked, "I only purchased a few things!"
Your mother said that you would pay for her," said the clerk.