Hardship and attitude

I had some correspondence last week with my friend who works in the White House. We used to converse often, but for some reason we have lost touch in the last year or maybe longer. Out of the blue I thought of him the other day and decided to write him a quick note. I asked how things were going and how he and the President and all of the president’s team were holding up in these tough days at the White House. I asked if everyone’s faith in the Lord remained strong.

I know for a fact that this President and his advisors had high hopes when he initially took office. My friend is a close advisor to the President and others and through my occasional private correspondence with him throughout most of their tenure I have been privy first hand to many of their hopes and dreams for making this a better country. Most of those hopes and dreams have not materialized and it has been a difficult tour of duty to say the least. Our great country is inundated with seemingly impossible to solve serious problems and yet it is completely polarized and severely divided on virtually every issue and its leadership literally hates one another. I cannot imagine trying to run a company under the same conditions especially if the company was facing comparable nightmarish problems.

My friend told me that he, “as always”, was in the hands of the Lord and so was the President. He went on to say that they were holding up in the storm. I mentioned that I had become totally disgusted with everything, particularly the liberal media, the ugliness of politicians and politics, and of the never-ending hate spewing from both sides. I told him that to tell the truth I have quit watching the news altogether and have completely lost all interest in politics. I feel that it is essentially hopeless and I have come to the conclusion that I can do nothing about it anyway and have essentially given up.

He replied: “The one thing I’d caution you against is cynicism, or indifference, or a collapse in spirit. If Wilberforce or Lincoln or Martin Luther King, Jr. or the Soviet dissidents had succumbed to those things — and they faced far greater odds and opposition and hardships than we do — great things would not have come to pass. Staying strong and faithful through the journey is what we are all called to do.”

I happened to watch the movie “Amazing Grace” this weekend and Wilberforce certainly was a good example of staying “strong and faithful through the journey to what he was “called to do” even when faced with terrible opposition from friends and foes alike. After fighting through the worst of the worst hardships literally for years, he was in the end successful in getting the slave trade in the entire British empire abolished and in his latter years took up other causes and went on to fight for prisoner’s rights, better education and other worthy causes before the Lord took him home.

The Bible teaches that as we approach these last days that our society will become more and more evil and no doubt many will lose heart along the way. We should take my friend’s advice and remain faithful and strong throughout this journey. We should not yield to “cynicism, or indifference, or collapse of spirit”, rather keep the faith and fight for what is righteous and true as good soldiers as our Lord Jesus expects and commands us do for as long as He allows us to take another breath.

I’m glad I wrote my friend the other day, because he is very right and I was very wrong. I suppose I will re-engage and just grin and bear it; (maybe it is more realistic to state, “Grit my teeth”, bear it). Seriously I think we should all step back now and then and reflect on this life and realize that everything is occurring according to God’s schedule and according to His plan. The Bible tells us that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. It is through Him and His grace that we can find the patience and strength to fight for the righteous things and the kingdom of God. We should take the advice of the anonymous writer who advised, “If you are tired, rest if you must, but don’t you quit” and I would add, “Keep your eyes on Jesus the entire time”.

2 Tim. 2:1
You therefore my son be
strong in the grace that is in
Christ Jesus
You therefore must endure
hardship as a good soldier of Jesus
Christ.
No one engaged in warfare
entangles himself with the affairs of
this life, that he may please him who
enlisted him as a soldier.