When my husband and I first entered full-time ministry, I was certain I knew how life would play out. But after five short years, we had packed our bags to leave, now certain we were unfit for the calling. Ministry has a funny way of turning our ‘certainties’ on their heads.

Unforeseen developments (like a global pandemic) can strip a leader of confidence. Criticism of how they handle a crisis can cause a leader to question their ability. Equating favorable outcomes with a confirmation of calling has the potential to teeter leaders not just close to the edge of losing the joy of salvation, but send them over the brink with no idea how to get back.

I wish I could tell you that ministry gets easier, but I can’t. In many ways, the older, more experienced, and more educated I become, the more I see the folly of my youthful certainties. Now, twenty years later (and by the grace of God still serving Him in ministry), the only certainties I bank on are: God is good. Every word in the Bible is true. Every person will face trials. God is good. That last one deserved repeating.

It’s in the difficult moments of uncertainty that the testing of my faith produces steadfastness, and I must let steadfastness complete its work in me because the trial ultimately leads me to hope (James 1:3-4). Romans 5:3-4 is clear, if I want hope, I must understand it comes from character. Character is produced by perseverance, and perseverance is birthed from suffering. Every leader must decide if it is worth fighting through suffering to find their hope and joy in the Lord.

The trials will come. They may come in the form of a virus sweeping the nation or they may come in some other format, but no matter how dark or difficult they present, joy comes in the morning. Psalm 30 is a beautiful reminder that joy comes as you praise God in the trial, for He has saved you from eternal harm. Joy comes as you realize that God claims an ultimate victory for His people. You cry for help, and he heals you, rebuilding the broken places in your soul. God lifts you from the depths of despair and restores you to life, putting songs of praise on your lips. His anger is but for a moment. His favor is for a lifetime.

Weeping may visit during the darkness of night, but joy comes with the sunrise. God makes you strong when you plead for mercy, and He turns your mourning into dancing. You might not dance today, and you might not dance tomorrow, but you will dance again. You will dance clothed with gladness, and as the dawn breaks, your praise and your thanks will rise as a fragrant offering to the Lord.

Morning by morning God must be your delight. If not, lesser substitutes will attempt to fill the void. These lesser pleasures will fail to deliver the satisfaction they promise. They will leave you wanting. True satisfaction and true joy are not found in pleasing circumstances. They are found in the raw moments that—if you let them—will produce perseverance, character and hope; and hope will not disappoint.

The weeping may come, but so will the joy.

“Chasing Holiness” by Stacey Weeks
We all chase something. It might be a degree or career, a husband and family, the approval of man, or a perception of social success. We long to pursue the things that matter, we long to chase the Lord, but we are weary. What would happen if we redirected our energy toward developing the character traits and disciplines that Christ calls us to pursue? What if we sought ways to increase our endurance and strengthen our faith? What if we stopped aimlessly running and instead chased the disciplines that would earn the prize that mattered?
Read more about “Chasing Holiness”

Access the free download study guides on her website using these links.
Free Short Studies
The Blessed Woman: a free 8-day study on Jeremiah 17:5-10

Life was very full, but very satisfying. Caring for my husband in declining health, watching over another relative in long term care, involvement in a few ministries at church, working part-time for a parachurch ministry, mothering, grandmothering, etc etc. But also, taking time in the Scriptures and with my Lord, eating and sleeping well, exercising a bit…

Then unexpectedly came emergency quadruple bypass heart surgery! Some serious complications followed that took many days to overcome. I sincerely wanted to go and be with my Lord! But it was not to be. Finally, weak as a newly-hatched bird, I went home

That was four months ago, and my recovery is going very well. But we’ve been forced into the decision to place my husband of fifty years in permanent long term care – a difficult decision I still waver over.

In the midst of these months a daughter’s marriage fell apart, and their four children are really hurting.

A foundation stone of my life has been that NO MATTER WHAT, God will give us the grace to get through. I’ve seen it in a friend’s life, as she watched her husband suffer with Huntington’s Chorea for many years. I read about it in Gracia Burnham’s book, “In the Presence of My Enemies”, the story of their capture by terrorists in 2001. Over and over again the Apostle Paul tells of unending hardships, yet carries on in the grace and peace of God. His grace is, and will be, enough for me too.

Still, what do you do when life is hard? We all face it somewhere in our journey.

Here are some helps I’m learning, or re-learning, along the way.

GOD LOVES ME!!! He loves me each morning when I awaken. He loves me when I leave a group and wonder if I’ve mis-spoken somehow. He loves me when I’m alone and feeling grumpy.

For many years I taught little children that Jesus loves them. I comforted grieving seniors, sick folks, with the message that God’s love for them is so deep!

Now, I’m learning in a wonderful fresh way, that the Lord loves ME. I knew it before. I’m just being strengthened these days as I’m learning it more deeply.

And from that security of a dearly-loved child, my heart’s desire is to please Him more. Recent gleanings from Bible reading:

Grant me purity of heart, that I may honour you. (Psalm 86:11)

We didn’t preach with impure motives … we were not pretending to be your friends … we never sought praise from you. (1 Thessalonians 3)

Ouch! I do like words of praise coming my way. Am I striving to please people more than God? Lord, in these ‘extra days’ of life that you’ve given me, help me draw closer to You. Give me the desire and the power to choose the better over the good. Your love is better than other pleasures.

And lastly, I’m watching for the new.

Since coming home from hospital, a verse from Isaiah 43 is on a sticky note nearby. This is a wonderful chapter that includes beloved passages like, When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. It reviews the story of God’s powerful working on behalf of Israel.

Then comes the verse on my sticky note:

But forget all that — it is nothing compared to what am going to do. For I am about to do something new. See I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland. Isaiah 43:19

I’m watching for the new. Surely, because God is God, what has happened was for a purpose. I don’t want to miss it.

What do you do when life is hard? I’m still learning, still in process.

But so grateful I’m not alone in this journey!

At the time of this writing we have been saddened by the devastating fires in Australia, mourning the loss of 176 people killed in the plane crash over Tehran including 57 Canadians, threatened by the Corona virus affecting the lives of people around the world.

Winter storms, floods, volcanoes earthquakes and hurricanes continue to play havoc on our planet.

Listen to the news and the world is going to hell in a hand basket. Terrorism, nuclear weapons, social unrest, unethical leaders, unemployment, hopelessness, opioid epidemic, poverty. Hardly anyone thinks the world is getting better.

According to Max Roser, an economist at the University of Oxford and founder of our World in Data, there have been some significant advances in poverty, literacy, health, freedom, and education. He states that the world is an extraordinarily better place than in was a couple centuries ago. He continues to say: “In 1950 75 % of the world were still living in extreme poverty. Today it is less than 10%. Eight out of ten people can read and write. Infancy mortality rate is down by 40% since the 1800’s. While freedom is hard to measure, more than half of the global population lives in a democracy. Despite these statistics eight out of ten people see the world as worse off.”

The struggle from a Christian perspective as to how we view the world can be influenced as well by the media and the scriptures.

The following current statistics as stated by Open Doors reports that 1 in 12 churches suffer persecution for following Jesus. Every month an average of 66 churches in the world are either destroyed or burned. Every day 6 women are raped. Every month 2400 people leave home because of their faith.

Like Job in the Bible we wonder where it is all going to end. Thirty eight of the forty two chapters record the dialogue between Job, his friends and God. Here Job questions God and his friends have the audacity to lecture Job as to who God is.

In Chapter thirty eight God finally breaks His silence and out of the eye of the violent storm he tells Job to pull himself together.

Have you ever traveled to where snow is made and seen the vault where hail is stockpiled? Did you command the eagle’s flight, and teach her to build her nest in the heights?” In chapter forty-one God lets Job know ,“ I’m in charge of all this, I run the universe!”

I will put together my church, Jesus said, a church so expansive with energy that not even the gates of hell will be able to keep it out. (Matt 16:18 Msg)

He will settle things fair between nations and turn their swords into shovels, their spears into hoes. Nations will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. (Isaiah 2:4 Msg)

He shall have dominion from sea to sea. (Ps 72:8 NKJ)

The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. (Habakkuk 2:14 NKJ)

Look God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women. They’re his people he’s their God…tears gone, crying gone, pain gone…look I am making everything new. Yes, I’m on my way! I’ll be there soon! I’m bringing my payroll with me. I’ll pay all people in full for their life’s work. I’m A to Z, the First and the Final, Beginning and Conclusion. (Rev: 21:3-5,22:12-13 Msg)

What is my level of influence as to how one sees the world? How Bad is it?

With my backpack slung over my left shoulder and a big red suitcase in my right hand, I jostled through the crowds toward the Air Canada kiosk at the Phoenix International Airport. After checking in, then walking through security and past Starbucks, suddenly everything felt ridiculously familiar. When I saw the sign for Gate B28, flashbacks and unsettling images flew through my brain. Vividly I recalled walking this exact route three years ago. That nightmare trip of undefined proportions.

Once I found my chair in the departure lounge, all I wanted to do was settle in with my good book and cup of tea. But I couldn’t relax. My mind had been heightened with the pain and anxiety I’d felt the last time I sat here. I’d been in Phoenix visiting with my dearest friends Bob and Fran when the intense grief from my second husband’s death escalated to the point where I hit a wall. I knew I was in trouble that morning when I tried to get out of bed and ended up on my hands and knees crawling to the bathroom. My body was in extreme distress. I had no strength, I couldn’t stop crying and my heart beat like a drummer within my chest. Something was frighteningly wrong and I needed to get back home to Canada. To the Emergency ward. Once back home I was diagnosed with PTSD and the next few months were a journey through hell.

Now three years later I was overcome with gratitude for my healing and filled with unexplainable joy. Thank you Lord that you are a restorer. It is true that “everything in life is temporary” and that you heal, renew and re-energize. God I’ve been through the darkest valley of death but you were there beside me. In my agony I cried out and you comforted. In my despair you brought hope. In my tears of sadness, you reaped new joy.

Then I settled in on the story of Elijah after he’d sat under a broom tree and told God:

I’m going to die anyway, it might as well be now” (1 Kings 19:5).

After Elijah slept, ate and recovered his energy, he ran to meet with God on Mount Horeb. God listened as Elijah poured out his disappointment and despair, but then God told Elijah:

Go back the way you came.” (1 Kings 19:15).

The first time I studied this story I thought God’s words were a little harsh. But now I get it, because along with Elijah I’m living out the rest of the story.

God didn’t say:

Elijah, I know that was hard, and you’ve done your part and now you can go home and rest, and enjoy life.”

We all go through really tough stuff. Yes, we have to cry out to him with our pain and disappointments. We must take the time to let God heal and restore us. And then use what we’ve learned use it to better, grow stronger and go back and do it again. With more resilience, Holy Spirit power and an enlarged capacity for mercy and kindness.

That’s what God did for me. Three years later I went back to Phoenix and this time to be the keynote speaker at an outstanding conference. I was filled with new energy and joy proclaiming the excellence of Him who called us out of darkness into His glorious light. God uses the soil of darkness and pain to grow us into His most excellent leaders.

What painful path is God calling you to go and “do it again?”

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” – Jeremiah 1:5

These words bring me to the life of Mary the mother of Jesus laying her life in the master’s hands. God saw humility, obedience and purity in Mary. Her obedience and total dependence on His promises are qualities that stand out in her.
Her purity was also another contributing factor. She was pure enough for God’s thoughts to dwell in her mind.

She trusted God even to the extent of putting her reputation on the line in order to fulfill His promises.

GIVE IT UP FOR GOD

Mary didn’t know that the angel would be sent to her. She never knew what take place at the time she was planning to get married to Joseph.
She had to give up her plans in order to fit into God’s great plan.

When God calls us into His service, we must embrace the call.

When the situation is fully explained to Mary, she makes herself available to God,

And Mary said, Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.” – Luke 1:38

Mary recognized her own worth although she occupied a humble position in society. God honored her and from then on all generations would call her blessed. Her understanding of herself was affirmed by her cousin Elizabeth’s exclamation,

Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” – Luke 1:42

Our plans will never change what God wants to do in our lives. He will make a way where there seems to be no way.

In the midst of situations that we don’t understand, God comes in to give clarity as it was for Joseph,

And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save people from their sins.” – Matthew 1:19-21

Any time God interrupts your plans, it’s only because He has a better idea. He knows and examines our hearts.

The way we respond to situations determines the end of the matter. Mary knew God was first in her life and she accepted God’s will before consulting with Joseph. She knew that her life and plans were in God’s hands.

God may well be working out His purpose even in the seemingly insignificant acts of our lives. Let us be vigilant for opportunities God brings our way for He’s in the business of restoring us to the purpose with which He created us for.