Groaning and Growing into a “New Normal”

The month of May brightens our spirits with the greening of the landscape and the blooming of spring flowers.  Better weather is also motivating many Americans who have been isolated under the COVID-19 pandemic to want to return to “normal.”  Still, many deep concerns, anxieties, griefs, and questions remain.  Many of us wonder if life will ever be the same.

Meanwhile, I’ve been looking for reasons to be encouraged, and I think I have found two worth sharing.  First off, I’m thinking that while we’d like to see “normal” again, why not hope for a “new normal,” a “better new normal?”  And second, why not resign to the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic will not be the last “tribulation” we face.  Instead, why not seek to learn from this experience in ways that will build character and resolve in readiness for future tribulations?

Hope for a “New Normal”
Have you been seeing signs of an emerging “new normal?” For example, haven’t many of us adopted better sanitation practices?  Aren’t we becoming more inclined to avoid coughing and sneezing around others?  And, speaking of social interactions, maybe we’ll appreciate more our gatherings with family and friends.  Or maybe we’ll realize how easy it would be for authorities to take away our First Amendment right of assembly to worship God, causing us to be more vigilant to protect this right as well as our freedom of expression.  I wonder if our greater thankfulness for small things will include the blessings like exchanging smiles unobstructed by masks, or the joy of eating together in restaurants and attending sporting events. 

Maybe, in the “new normal,” the humbling memory of when life as we knew it was upended by a tiny “invisible enemy” will help us realize how fleeting and frail our existence really is.  Out of a new sense of gratitude, maybe we will cherish the blessing of touching and conversing with one another—in short, to “love our neighbor as we love ourselves.”  Perhaps our conversations will become more respectful of differing opinions so that we can reach understanding on some issues and learn to respectfully disagree on others.  Maybe a new spirit of love toward our neighbor will be just in time as educational institutions seek to offer more the potentially more impersonal approach of “distance education;” and, our health systems trend toward more “telemedicine.”

In this “new normal,” I pray that we will see a renewed economy, amazingly propelled by what Adam Smith called an “invisible hand” as we see small businesses and industry make adjustments that will better position them for future challenges.  International monetary and trade policies may be altered to hold “bad actors” accountable and honor trade partners who want to participate in a spirit of good will on the global scene.  Perhaps we as consumers will alter purchasing habits as we become better at distinguishing our wants from our needs and focus more on things that really matter in life and for eternity.  For example, if I choose not to buy products from Communist China whose leadership was evidently responsible for the global spread of COVID-19, then I also want to invest financially and in prayer to support the efforts of that nation’s innocent citizenry to achieve the freedoms of worship and expression which I enjoy.

Finally, the “new normal” may see us showing greater appreciation for things that are so readily available by a simple phone call or accessible on a store shelf.  We have all known that our food doesn’t ultimately come from grocery stores or restaurants.  Now, we will be more aware of the “supply chains” that involve farmers, meat packers, fruit and vegetable growers, inspectors, truckers, and those who stock shelves.  Maybe we will choose to make better decisions to promote our individual health while being more thankful for first-responders, doctors, nurses, therapists, and other health care workers who labor every day for us.

Fundamental to the inauguration of the “new normal” will be our development of a “new disposition” that recognizes that we are not kings of the Earth but something much better.  God our Creator has appointed us as stewards with the spiritual, mental, and technological gifts to express His love for all of His creation by the manner in which we serve as its caretakers.  As stewards in the biblical sense, we are made aware of the moral and ethical implications of both our freedom and our responsibility.  For example, we recognize that food doesn’t ultimately come from either grocery stores or “supply chains.”  It comes from the good hand of God who sustains the global ecosystems including the soil, water, air, and biodiversity.  Together, these are necessary to support the efforts of farmers and ranchers who must “work within” the creation to produce food.  Stewards also recognize that their health and well being comes not only from physical food, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4: 4).  Those who feast regularly on God’s Word will recognize that while God is the giver of every good and perfect gift that comes down from above (James 1: 17), God’s “good gifts” sometimes come in unpleasant wrappings.  This thought brings us to my second reason to be encouraged.

How Can Groaning Lead to Growth?
Although we can hope for a new and better “normal,” our future is not certain.  We may be moving out of the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is unlikely to be the last trouble we will face.  In fact, Jesus predicted to His devoted followers (those who obey by “abiding in Him”) that persecution would come in the future.  His reason for warning them, He said, was so that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16: 33).  Notice, Jesus didn’t say, “might have tribulation,” but you will have tribulation.”  Here, “tribulation” is derived from the Greek word meaning “crushing pressure or affliction that causes anguish and groaning.”

You might be thinking, “Where is the sense of hope if inevitable tribulation is part of my “new normal?”  It doesn’t make sense!   If this is your response, you are absolutely correct.  But, in spite of inevitable “crushing pressures” and groaning that lies around the corner, there is bright hope for devoted Christ-followers.  But first, we must understand the context for “tribulation.” 

Trouble first came into God’s perfect creation when Adam and Eve sinned and brought judgment on themselves and all of creation as I explained recently in “Life Interrupted?” or “Life Inspired?”  As Romans 1: 21-22 explains (emphasis mine), although they knew God, they chose not to glorify Him as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools…  

The proof of our darkened, foolish thinking, is the fact that we find it hard to accept how “crushing affliction,” or groaning could bring about “good”—or, growth in character in us.  Yet, all over the world, even before the COVID-19 pandemic, people were already suffering great affliction.  Indeed, many victims of the COVID-19 pandemic already had been afflicted with respiratory or cardiovascular diseases; and many had suffered from emotional disorders that rendered their immune systems unable to fend off the Coronavirus.  Truly, the creation has been groaning as described in Romans 8: 18-23 waiting for the revealing of those who are led by the Spirit of God (Romans 8: 14).

Although persecution of Christ-followers in the US doesn’t usually rise to the level of physical abuse and martyrdom, the mental and emotional abuse is significant.  Janie Cheaney wrote an article entitled “Mind and Body” in WORLD Magazine on the subject of mental and physical illness among Christians.  She quotes a Presbyterian pastor who agrees that there are cases where Christians need seek to psychiatric treatment just as they would seek medical care for other health needs. The pastor stated, “a Christian may need treatment even more than an unbeliever because the life Christ asks us to lead is so fundamentally opposed to the way the world works.”

The Apostle Paul, in his early life as Saul the Jewish Pharisee, made a reputation of persecuting and jailing Christians.  When Christ appeared to Saul on the Damascus road, He addressed the persecutor with this convicting question, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? (Acts 9: 4).  After Saul repented and received Christ as His Savior and Lord, he lived among the Christian outcasts and identified with their groanings.  Saul, after he was born again spiritually and renamed Paul, devoted over fourteen years to the study of the Scriptures and in communion with Christ through His Spirit.  Later, Paul would write the following testimony of his life commitment: 

I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death… (Philippians 3: 8-10).

Notice that Paul’s sufferings drew him closer and closer in personal relationship with Christ and His sufferings on the Cross.  Under the inspiration of the Spirit of Christ, Paul wrote the words in Romans 5: 1-5 which has become an encouragement to persecuted saints down through the centuries (emphasis mine):

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.  And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured [into] our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
also declared his primary life purpose and joy with these words:

Elsewhere, in 2 Corinthians 4: 18, Paul explains how he could be steadfast in the face of suffering and persecution.  He urges Christ-followers today to follow his example; namely, don’t focus on the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.  Not that Paul was oblivious to his responsibilities of earning a living (He was a tentmaker as noted in Acts 18: 3.) and being a responsible Roman citizen (Acts 24: 16).  But Paul focused his life continually upon the goal of the upward call of Christ (Philippians 3: 14).

Some years ago, Isaac Shaw, National Director and President of Delhi Bible Institute, presented a message at Grace Baptist Church, Cedarville, Ohio on the subject of the inevitable reality of Suffering in the Christian Life.  In this excellent message based on his experiences as a Christian in Hindu culture, Pastor Shaw recounts the testimony of an Indian journalist who had observed Christians being persecuted for their faith.  She had also privately studied the Bible, and eventually had given her life to Christ.  As a born-again believer, she said, “Pastor, it is absolutely illogical for anyone to be a Christian, and that is what has driven me to investigate; and, I have found that Jesus is utterly satisfying, and that Jesus is Lord.”

How About You?
Are you tired of the uncertainty, inconveniences, and isolation from the COVID-19 pandemic?  Are you finding yourself more thankful for basic requirements of life and those who make them available to you?  Can you envision a “new normal” that is even better than the present?  Or are you resigned that the current pandemic will not be the last “tribulation” you will face? 

Regardless, if you are not a Christian, may I recommend that you study the Steps to Peace with God which explains how you can become a devoted Christ-follower. If you are a Christ-follower and have questions about how you can grow in Christ through the struggles and persecution you may face, I hope you will dialog with me publicly using “Comments” below, or privately via my e-mail at silviusj@cedarville.edu.  Meanwhile, please take time read and meditate on the Scripture passages above.  Then, listen to the Pastor Isaac Shaw’s message, Suffering in the Christian Life in which he personally shares the experience of growing in Christ through sharing in the sufferings of Christ in India.

Burdens of Believing in God

My boyhood impression of God was very positive.  I learned about Him from my parents and other adults; and from the Bible.  Jesus seemed like a kind man with gentle, assuring words like, “I am the Good Shepherd (John 10: 11).  However, as I grew older, I began to view God’s commandments as burdens that restricted my freedom.  I was particularly wary of Jesus’s stern principle:  If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me (Luke 9: 23).  Was Jesus my Friend or was He a cruel taskmaster?

Whoever He was, Jesus was patient—and persistent.  I could not dismiss the Gospel claims about Jesus dying on a Roman cross for the sin of humankind; then, being raised from the dead on that first Easter morning.  Maybe Jesus had every right to invite me to “take up my cross daily” and follow Him.  After all, He had left me an example—He obediently carried His cross to His death by crucifixion.

As an adolescent, I learned to associate “cross bearing” with the love of God for all people.  That God’s love is expressed through “burden bearing” became more real to me one Christmas when we received stamps from Father Flanagan’s Boys Town.  Each stamp pictured a boy carrying his younger brother on his shoulders to school in the deep snow.  On each stamp were the words of the older brother expressing his burden-bearing love: “He ain’t heavy, Father.  He’s m’ brother.”

God continued to affirm His love and patience toward me as I finished high school and college.  Then, as a graduate student, I repented of my sin under the Power of Christ’s cross.  I felt the burden of sin and guilt roll off of my shoulders.  Then, through prayer, I invited Jesus to become Lord of my life, and willingly began to live as His servant.  Since then, I have been making it my priority to follow Jesus’s invitation in Luke 9: 23, noted earlier.  In seeking His path of self-denial and cross-bearing, I am moving ever closer to what the Apostle Paul described as knowing Jesus intimately, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings (Philippians 3: 10).  But, please don’t think I have “arrived spiritually.”  I gladly identify with Paul’s humility when he wrote, Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on… (3: 12).

Being a Christ-follower (disciple) requires disciplines that take years to develop.  Thankfully, God does not ask His followers to “go it alone.”  Instead, each obedient Christ-follower (those who “keep His commandments” as explained in 1 John 2: 4-6) “abides in Christ” and Christ abides in him or her (1 John 4: 16).  Therefore, Christ-followers are spiritually united with each other in the body of Christ.  And so, we who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another (Romans 12: 5).  Like embers of a fire that maintain their glow by staying together, so each Christ-follower can keep his or her faith ablaze by following God’s plan to regularly gather together for worship, study, and relationship-building in Christ (Hebrews 10: 23-25).

John the Baptist--Burdened and Alone
In spite of my growing faith, I was still puzzled with the apparent contradiction between the blessed life God offers and the burdens He expects His children to bear.  Matthew 11 addresses this apparent contradiction.  Here we learn that John the Baptist was languishing in prison like an ember from the fire separated from the fellowship of other Christ-followers.  John’s faith was apparently faltering.  So, he sent his disciples to inquire whether Jesus was really the “Expected One.”  After all, John had been sent as a forerunner of Jesus to call his listeners to repentance and to point out the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1: 29).  Could it be that John had been mistaken?  If not, why was Jesus requiring him to bear such a burden of lonely imprisonment and impending death (Matthew 14: 1-12)?

F.B. Meyer writes in Great Verses through the Bible (Zondervan, 1966): 
“The Baptist was tempted to take offense with Christ, first, because of His long delay in asserting Himself as the promised Messiah; and secondly, because of His apparent indifference to his own welfare. "If He be all that I expected, why does He leave me in this sad plight, extending to me no word of comfort; making no attempt to free me from these dark, damp cells."

Meyer then applies John's suffering to the lives of burden bearers today:
“Are there not such hours in our lives still?  We say, if He really loves us and is entrusted with all power, why does He not deliver us from this difficult and irksome condition? Why does He not hurl these Prison Walls to the ground? Why does He not vindicate and bring me out to the light of life and joy?”

Jesus answered John's plea with this encouraging reply to the messengers John had sent:  Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over Me (Matthew 11: 4-5).

In the words of F.B. Meyer, Jesus was saying to John the Baptist,
“’Tell him to trust Me, though I do not deliver him.  Assure him of the blessedness which must accrue to those who are not offended at My apparent neglect.  I will explain all to him some day.' Thus, he speaks still.  He does not attempt to apologize, nor to explain--He only asks our trust and promises blessedness to those who do not stumble at life's mysteries.”

Jesus-- Perfect Burden Bearer
Today, many people bear heavy burdens.  Those who reject God’s claims on their lives and live under the penalty of sin may encounter unbearable burdens that lead to depression, drug addiction, and even death.  At the same time, obedience to Christ does not guarantee an easy path.  Statistics reveal that more and more Christ-followers are suffering greatly for their faith.  At least 327 million Christians are enduring persecution according to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).  Approximately “245 million Christians in the top 50 countries on Open Doors USA’s 2019 World Watch List experience high levels of persecution (i.e.: torture, rape, sex-slavery, forced conversion, murder and genocide), an increase of 14 percent from 2018.”

Many people who have been and are still suffering for their faith have been encouraged by the words of Jesus to the imprisoned John the Baptist.  First, Jesus’s words contained no hint of condemnation of John’s weak faith and doubt.  Instead, we see a God who allowed John to suffer the burden of rejection and persecution now come alongside through His Son Jesus with words of love and encouragement (v. 4-6).

Second, we see Jesus’s response when His ministry faced the burden of ridicule and rejection: He sought comfort in the Spirit of God and in fellowship through prayer with His Father in Heaven (v. 25-26).  And finally, Jesus, as if He is strengthened in His own resolve, lovingly invites all to come to Him by faith to receive relief from heavy burdens He knows we are carrying, and invites us to share in His “easier yoke.”  Jesus says,

Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light (v. 28-30).

When we submit to Christ’s “easy yoke” in faith and in recognition of the great burden He bore to purchase our freedom from the curse of sin (2 Corinthians 5: 17), we gain access to His love and strength to bear our own cross for Him.  Jesus reveals Himself as gentle and humble in heart, willing to understand our limitations and to give us a reasonable yoke to bear.  As we submit willingly to His strong presence under His “yoke,” we will actually find “rest for our souls.”  What an amazing truth!  Jesus makes our burdens lighter because He helps us carry them.

Burden Bearing Benefits of Abiding in Christ
The Apostle John as a young disciple of Jesus experienced close-hand Jesus’s great love for His Father in Heaven and for all mankind.  John’s Gospel includes Jesus’s most thorough teaching on burden-bearing obedience to God as an expression of our love for Him (John 15: 9-13).  In his first letter, John explains in warm, personal terms the blessed result of saving faith in Christ:  For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome (1 John 5: 3).

The aged Apostle John who penned these words had learned the answer to the apparent contradiction of how a person could find blessedness in burden bearing.  John’s answer, in a word, is “love.”   John wrote in 1 John 4: 19, We love, because He first loved us.  He wrote in 1 John 3: 1, See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. 

How do Christ-followers respond to such great love?  By offering their willing obedience.  Jesus described obedience as “abiding in Him” like branches connected to the True Vine (John 15).  Just as the branches of a grapevine produce fruit from nutrients supplied by the vine, so our abiding in Christ produces in us the fruit of righteousness—i.e. expressed qualities of right-living that please God.  These qualities of love, joy, peace, patience, etc. (Galatians 5: 22-23) are formed in us as we yield to the work of God’s Holy Spirit in our lives.  He is our Helper, Teacher, and Counselor (John 15: 26; 16: 13-15).  As we abide in our Savior, love our Father in Heaven as Jesus loves Him, and rely on God’s Spirit to empower us, God’s love in us becomes blessedness in the midst of the burdensome. 

Remembering the words of the boy carrying his little brother, I can say, “Jesus’s commandments are not burdensome (1 John 5: 3), He’s my Brother.  He’s shown His love for me by dying on His cross, then rising from the dead and sending His Holy Spirit.  Thanks to His Spirit, my Helper, Teacher, and Counselor, I can find His yoke easy and His burden light (Matthew 11: 30).”

How About You?
Maybe you are now carrying heavy physical or emotional burdens.  If we are honest, we have to admit that we all bear burdens of one sort or another.  Some of us bear burdens of our own making by our wrong choices.  Christ-followers remember Jesus’s promise that in the world you will have troubles (John 16: 33a).  Many Christ-followers experience God’s loving nearness most when the burdens are greatest.  In those times, we realize the remainder of Jesus’s promise:  …be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.   Have you experienced peace, relief, and even blessedness during times of heavy burden bearing when you surrendered to Jesus’s yoke?