The Follow Up Talk

I read Ecclesiastes 7 today and it related to conversations I’ve had with several people lately about feeling uncomfortable with where we are in life and dealing with the waiting for what we think is “perfect” to come along and satisfy us or reward us for our endurance. Chapter 7 describes sorrow and adversity as fundamental experiences that are equally made by God to make us rich in wisdom. It is a powerful concept! Right now I’m reading a book by Lisa Terkeurst about hardship and disappointment. It discussed how our heart longs for perfection and the garden of Eden. Here on earth, in between the first Eden and the second Eden- where God brings heaven to earth, we experience hardships. The verses in Ecc. 7 state so clearly that there is good in the hardship. Wisdom can be found there. I go on further to say wisdom can be found because we end up looking for and leaning on God more and more. It’s in the development of our relationship with God that we receive wisdom and are better ...

Yesterday we had a discussion about offenses, specifically about how we react to them. We discussed the purpose behind offense, which we saw was a tool the enemy used to turn us away from God. This morning I read Psalm 51 - David's plea for God's forgiveness. Verse 8 struck me as interesting. It says, "Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice." The bones which God has broken. This phrasing was so curious to me because here I am thinking, what did God do? How did he break David's bones, or rather, how did God cause David to suffer? Does God allow us to suffer? My mind went to the story of Job and how God allowed the enemy to break Job down. God allowed Job to lose his wealth, health, and children. What was the purpose behind this? I believe the purpose was to show us how to respond to hardship. No matter how much hard stuff comes our way, we should never allow our hardships to turn us away from God. God went to the extremes to...