The last several Monday posts have been pulled from our latest book, “Encouragement for Foolish Christians“; what follows is an excerpt from the closing chapter.

Writing this book took longer than I expected because it cut deep to my own reality.

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Hebrews 4:12

Each of the stories I explored are ones I’ve heard many times over the course of four decades, yet fictionalizing them in this context – in this season of life – allowed them to penetrate even to dividing soul and spirit.  More than once I found myself understanding these “heroes of the faith” in new ways, empathizing with their struggles, and resonating with their mistakes.

This book was not written after “getting through” my “foolish” seasons, as though I am an expert that sees clearly.  Rather, I have often felt foolish for writing this book at all, especially as I could write confidently about God’s goodness and power and shortly after utter hopeless prayers of lament into my pillow.  No, I have not yet arrived:

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:12-14

At the start of this “year of books” (this will be the 7th in as many months) God invited me to spend a month processing joy, and that led to “Rejecting Joy No Longer.”  Guess what I’ve done since then?  Rejected joy.  Just this morning God convicted me in my pursuit of what I want rather than His ways, which is the only source of true joy.  Just because I write a book does not mean I am an expert, or even have something profound to offer, and that was never my intent here.

Instead, this began as a conversation with a friend, where we resonated over hardships, and led to a desire to meet others like you where you are; other “foolish Christians” that too often feel unseen and unheard in their genuine pursuit after God.  I see and hear you without having to meet you, because we have seen that our journeys are ones taken throughout the history of God-followers:

What has been will be again,

    what has been done will be done again;

    there is nothing new under the sun.

Is there anything of which one can say,

    “Look! This is something new”?

It was here already, long ago;

    it was here before our time.
Ecclesiastes 1:9-10

God sees and hears you, and has not forsaken you.  Just as He was with Noah, Job, Abraham, Joseph, and Moses, He is with you, for “I the Lord do not change” (Malachi 3:6a) and “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)

Their stories can encourage us because God sustained them on their journeys far longer than they believed they could travel.  I have often felt like I’ve reached the end of myself, only to find later that I somehow kept going; in fact, I likely did reach the end of myself, but God…

Lost in a passage rife with wartime-verbiage is a counter-intuitive, counter-productive call:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Ephesians 6:10-17

In scenes of war, soldiers suit up to charge and defeat the enemy, but this is not the invitation of this passage.  The invitation is to stand.  “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then…”  Our bodies respond to threats with fight, flight, freeze, or fawn, and Ephesians 6 says, “When you face hardship, God has equipped you not to destroy it, flee from it, become immobile to it, or placate it, but to stand firm in who He is, who He’s created you to be, and what that means no matter the circumstances.”

The “heroes of the faith” in these pages faced temptation to respond in those other ways, yet somehow found themselves able to stand in spite of their doubts and missteps.  Their stories can remind us that if God does not call us to destroy, avoid, or soften the hardship, He will equip us to stand…

“…and after you have done everything, to stand.”  When you have reached the end of yourself and have no strength left to stand, your legs somehow remain firm, because we chose to “be strong in the LORD”, not simply ourselves, and put on His armor, not that of our own crafting or designed with human logic.  We continue to stand because we come to learn – then accept – that though our hardships look like here-and-now issues, “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”  We are being invited as humans into a supernatural, eternal space, a space only God truly grasps; He invites us, He equips us, and He remains with us.

He remains God and good no matter how long the journey – years, decades, a lifetime – because “with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:8-9)  He is patient with you, fellow “foolish Christian”, as you lament loss, question quarrels, and beg for breakthrough.  He has no intention of you perishing – though at times it seems to come close – because He longs for us to come to a true understanding of who He is, who He has created us to be, and what that means for our existence; and then, to repent of chasing that which is far inferior.

The journey only feels long because of how we view time and what we assume is the destination; God’s journey for us is precisely what and where it needs to be: “He has made everything beautiful in its time.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11a)