True Grit — Adam’s Angle

Have you ever thought about giving up on the Christian life?

No more reading your Bible. No more church. No more accusations of being a killjoy for telling people they need a Savior to deliver them from the fires of hell.

Of course, you’d never give up your salvation in Christ. But let’s face it: living a life devoted to Him can be heartbreaking at times and exhausting at others. Life might be better if you got a timeshare, took up a hobby and put your fanaticism on the back burner.

Or so you might be tempted to think.

But the truth is that believers shouldn’t abandon their hard work or their bold witness for Christ even when things get frustrating, difficult or exhausting. Endurance in doing God’s work leads to reward, but checking out of your calling leads to regret.

You Are Blessed — But Don’t Know It!

It’s not easy being the sidekick of a major prophet. Just ask Baruch the scribe.

Baruch’s name means “blessed” — but he sure wasn’t feeling blessed. He was the assistant of the prophet Jeremiah. Among other things, Jeremiah did time in jail, sat in mud at the bottom of a cistern, and wrote a book of the Bible that has the cheery title “Lamentations.” It’s no wonder he earned the nickname “the weeping prophet.”

And Baruch was his right-hand man. Ministry wasn’t easy for this melancholy pair because they had a message that the Israelites didn’t want to hear: Jerusalem was going to be overthrown by the Babylonians.

An unpopular message and a hostile crowd combined to make the perfect storm for stress. Baruch was losing heart. He said, “Woe to me! The Lord has added sorrow to my pain; I am worn out with groaning and find no rest” (Jeremiah 45:3).

Two things are worth noting here. First, Baruch had his focus on himself. Second, he blamed God for his distress. We can probably relate to him on both accounts.

When we face difficulties we often get disappointed with God. Our assumption is that, because God loves us, He must be working for our comfort and for our agenda all the time. It’s all about us.

And if things don’t go our way, we think that God has the universe out of whack. We get bitter and justify relegating Him to the back burner of our lives. We become convinced we can do better on our own.

A Grander Blessing

Fortunately, before Baruch jumped ship, God gave him the bigger perspective:

“This is what the LORD says: I will overthrow what I have built and uproot what I have planted, throughout the land. Should you then seek great things for yourself? Seek them not. For I will bring disaster on all people, declares the LORD, but wherever you go I will let you escape with your life” (Jeremiah 45:4-5).

God understood what Baruch was thinking. And God wanted him to know that his plans to seek great things on his own would be futile in light of the pending destruction of Jerusalem. He would gain nothing and lose everything by ditching God in favor of seeking his own welfare.

On the flip side, God promised a blessing to Baruch that would have been great against the backdrop of the Babylonian invasion: he would be given his life wherever he went. That’s not too shabby of a prize.

Understanding the Season

God understood the dire season that the world was in back then. He knew that Baruch’s investment in the world would turn out to be nothing but rubble. And, so, He encouraged him to endure the difficulties he was facing as he served God. There would be a payoff in the end.

The same thing can be applied to us today. Like Jeremiah and Baruch we have an unpopular message to share with the world. We often face hardship or heartbreak because of it. And we can get tempted to forget about God and to embrace the world. But that would spell disaster for us.

The things of this earth are passing away and hold no future hope for us. We need to realize that although the work and message of God come hand in hand with persecution, our only future hope rests with Him.

— Adam Pivec
06/07/2009