Perplexed Without Despair

Philippians 1:12

Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel.

What is the aim of your life?

Are you able to find purpose and meaning in what happens to you, or do you believe your life is merely coincidence and happenstance?

Someone who is simply drifting through life, without direction or destination, when met with “the troubles on every side”, which are a normal occurrence for everyone, will find themselves in constant anxiety. Without understanding why these things are happening, they lie in their bed at night, wondering when the cruel hand of fate will strike them next. They are unable to obtain peace, settling instead for temporary pleasures anytime they can obtain them, because they view themselves as a random occurrence at the mercy of chance.

This is not how a Christian is to live their life.

If we are to say that we are “troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.” We must answer the question as to what we are aiming at when we leave our homes each day.

On The Rock

“Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

In a time where there is “my truth and your truth”, where people are told to “follow their hearts” and to “live their best life”, we also see the highest rate of suicide and depression ever recorded in the United States.

It seems that our hearts are not an accurate compass when it comes to determining the course of our lives. Scripture confirms this when it says, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?”

Though we are told that happiness and fulfillment are the result of “knowing ourselves” and there are various programs and seminars which are sold to us in order that we accomplish that, we find that when we come to the end of ourselves, nothing is revealed except further questions, for if every answer is acceptable, none becomes sufficient. The man who spends his life searching for purpose within his own heart is like a man adrift at sea, with nothing to cling to and with no reference point in which to orient himself.

While this man may find temporary enjoyment in the things that pass by him, there will always be an underlying sense that those things can just as easily and quickly be replaced with ones that will terrify and dismay. Even in his enjoyment of pleasure, he is constantly looking over his shoulder, waiting for it all to come crashing down around him. He finds himself unable to enjoy the present moment, constantly looking forward into the future, terrified at what may be lurking just up the road. When a man builds his house on the shifting sands of self-reliance, he can be sure that he will have no security.

The problem lies in the question of wisdom.

Wisdom: What It Is And How To Get It

Wisdom is the ability to see reality as a unified whole. It is to see the events of the present moment as an unfolding of an ultimately larger reality, and then, seeing them for what they are, being able to appropriate them into their proper category.

From within our limited position, such wisdom is inaccessible. 

We can not see the future, nor can we rise above our limited perspective to see how the events we experience relate to the system as a whole.

Wisdom is only obtainable by someone who is outside the system. In order to have wisdom, one would have to view the past, present, and future, all at the same time. To appropriate wisdom, they would need to have a pure heart, one without selfish ambition or delusion, which so often blinds us, causing us to see things, not how they are, but how we would like them to be.

No, wisdom is not something you can obtain. No matter how earnestly you search or how much money you spend. Wisdom is something that must be given to you by the One who has the capability to account for it.

We are told that “God alone understands the way to wisdom; he knows where it can be found, for he looks throughout the whole earth and sees everything under the heavens. He decided how hard the winds should blow and how much rain should fall. He made the laws for the rain and laid out a path for the lightning.”

So we see, in God, someone who has both the perspective required to see wisdom, shown by His ability to “see everything under the heavens,” and the ability to hold it in His hand and consider it, shown by the perfection of the system He established.

Therefore, if wisdom is what we seek, we must go to God and Him alone to obtain it.

The good news is this: He finds joy in giving it out.

Obtaining Wisdom

We are told, “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.” Further, He has already, before even being asked, handed it to you for “this is what he says to all humanity: ‘The fear of the Lord is true wisdom; to forsake evil is real understanding.’”

So we see now why Jesus said that the one who “listens to His words and puts them into practice” is like a wise man, who, having obtained wisdom, walks in a wise manner, building his house on a solid foundation rather than on shifting sand.

Who is Jesus but that same one who is able to “see everything under the heavens” and that one who “makes the laws for the rain?” For “in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

Further, “He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

We have found, in Jesus, therefore, the answer to our problem of wisdom. The responsibility of a life lived with aim and purpose is carried out on our part then by simply listening to and doing the things He tells us.

Perplexed Without Despair

If we are to say, like Paul, “these things which have happened to me actually serve to further the Gospel” and thus find joy and fulfillment, even in our infirmities, we must view those things which happen through the lens of The Gospel rather than through our emotions and reasoning. Not that we must abandon reason, but that we must reason correctly… Understanding that we are not the center of the universe, but rather playing a part in the whole.

For though God is our loving Father, who provides and cares for us on an individual level, we are not only children. We, as believers, are members of a body. We, as humans, are members of a collective. 

Though it is never wrong for us to come in prayer to God and ask for provision concerning our individual needs and desires, we will find ourselves in despair if we think that God’s only chief concern is to curate a life for you in which you never experience discomfort or tragedy. 

For Paul said, “It has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.” So we see that it was Paul's discomfort and pain which God chose to use in that moment to accomplish a purpose far greater than that of Paul’s individual concerns.

Further, we know that “it pleased God to crush Jesus.” That solution, by which all other solutions became relevant, in that, without the work of Jesus on the cross, all other sustenance from God would ultimately be unfruitful to us, was accomplished at the expense of a man’s suffering.

We know, also, that if we are to share in Jesus’s glory, we must also share in His suffering. That our positions as heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ are predicated on this fact. We also know that if we are going to follow Jesus, “we will face persecution”, for if they hated Him, they will hate us also.

So we see that sometimes it is the will of God that we suffer, in order to accomplish a greater purpose than that of our comfort, and that it is always the will of those who are a part of this world that we should be persecuted and caused suffering, being that they are indwelled with the same spirit which caused the crowd to cry out “crucify Him!”

If we are to find joy and fulfillment in such a predicament, it will require from us a perspective and understanding that goes beyond our selfish desires and sees ourselves as part of a larger system.

Then, when the rain comes, and the wind blows, our house will remain standing for it will be built on the solid rock, which is the revelation revealed to us by The Word of God. Then, when the storm has died down and the sun emerges from behind the clouds, we will emerge from our shelters, and we will marvel at the fact that, come what may, we have found a method of standing. All the while, considering it joy, when we face trials of many kinds, knowing that each time we pass through the storm and come out the other side, our faith grows from seeing that it has been placed in that which is proper. 

Let this be so for us so that, as we go through life, we are not like those who drift aimlessly, constantly in fear, but instead grow in maturity, day by day, until we are fully mature. Then we can be like Paul, who, even when wrongly imprisoned, can boast in our chains, seeing that even our discomfort is something that God uses to accomplish His good and perfect will.