My wife and I hung up a few minutes ago from video chatting our niece and nephew in Idaho. We laughed at two of their four young children floating in and out of the picture. Our nephew is 29 years old and, excluding his moustache, was sporting a bald head and a cleanly shaven face for the first time ever. He’s showcased a masterfully groomed beard for many years, but recently things have changed. Not long ago he received the news that he has stage four cancer and is now engaged in treatment that took his hair. He gently tugged on one end of his moustache and announced he was hanging onto it as long as possible. Smiling, I told him I hadn’t even noticed the change.
What had not changed, however, was his characteristic cheerful smile and sunny attitude. Both of them were effusive with their thankfulness for what God was doing in their lives through the diagnosis and for the love they were experiencing from their Christian family. In a conversation presumably focused on his health, his update was frontloaded with the positive effect it was having on their community. He recounted the evidence of God’s goodness in their overwhelming response to a benefit auction. God’s grace was on display when estranged friends from different local churches were eating and laughing together. He eagerly told us about the opportunity it gave him to present a gospel message to a large group that included unbelievers.
How is optimism like this possible? Only in Christ. This is the reality of Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say rejoice.” It’s the “always” part of the rejoice command.
During the conversation I read the following Scripture.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1 Pet. 1:3–9)
I noted that a “living hope” is one that is eternal (“imperishable, undefiled and unfading”). It is not a one-time, temporary hope and is one that’s waiting for all Christians (“kept in heaven for you”). We acknowledged that at this time, this was their “various trial.”
This world is full of pain and disappointment. If you wanted, you could probably reel off 25 things in your life that fit that category without missing a beat, but God changes the Christian’s “wants.” It is neither necessary nor helpful to focus on those complaints. What is worth remembering is that the various trials you are currently experiencing are temporary. Or, in biblical language, they will only last “a little while.”
I don’t know the details of your struggle, but I know that if you trust in what Jesus accomplished for you in His death and resurrection, then your various trials are purifying your faith and will end with a joy that is “inexpressible.” When you’re in the middle of it, hardships seem pointless and endless, but God’s promise is exactly the opposite. They have both a purpose and an end. Pray that God would help you to view your various trials in an eternal context. As the familiar song goes, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Cor. 4:17–18)