As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
Mark Twain never wrote, and almost certainly never said, “Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt.” But, Twaininess aside, there’s an underlying truth. When confronted with a severely negative turn of events, it’s human nature to reject it. “No way! … this is not happening!”
“God has not promised me a comfortable life. He’s promised me himself.” - Paul David Tripp
“ ‘No evil will befall him’ (v. 10)–he won’t even dash his foot against a stone because God’s angels are protecting him (v. 11-12)! Has that been your experience?” - P&D
“Because the water was bitter, everything was viewed through the spectacles of bitterness…. Pessimism is where one takes the worst perspective on a situation and then from that perspective extrapolates out their entire disposition, their worldview, and even their understanding of God. For Israel, bitterness not only defines the water or the region, it defines them.” - Ref21
We humans have a hard time dealing with uncertainty. When too much change is happening too fast, the temptations to choose certainty over truth and comfort over honest struggle are greatly intensified.
We want it all to make sense. We want it to be simple. We want someone or some group to be clearly to blame—maybe because that’s easier than seeing the difficulty as a mess too complex to understand. A villain provides certainty and feels like a measure of control.
If you’ve been reading the economic news, you’ve been seeing the same things I have. Much of the forecasting is dire, and the numbers right now are beyond disturbing.1 There’s a wide range of predictions, and even the best-case scenarios aren’t fun to think about.
Like many of you, I’m more afraid of poverty than I am of COVID-19. This could be temporary. Nobody close to me has developed the disease. People close to me have lost their jobs.
“If physical safety and protection in this life are God’s promises to us, we would have to admit that God has not fulfilled His promises in a way that is clear to all of us. Honestly, if God fulfills His promises in the way that many religious teachers are claiming that He fulfills His promises, I’m not sure what we mean by promises anymore.” - The Cripplegate
“When all you see is disappointment, ruined plans, and heartache, ask God to focus your mind on what you cannot see. Remember, the cross on Friday must have seemed like the end of the world; the disciples couldn’t see its horrific necessity until Sunday.” - TGC
Perhaps it isn’t commonly known that Charles Spurgeon suffered from depression. In his book, Spurgeon on the Christian Life, Michael Reeves notes that today he would most certainly be diagnosed as clinically depressed.
At age twenty-two he was the pastor of a large church and the father of twin babies. While he was preaching to thousands of people, some pranksters began yelling “fire.” They created a stampede killing seven people and severely injuring twenty-eight others. Reeves cites his wife Susannah,
“Laughing at the Days to Come is a book about embracing and enduring life’s trials with divine joy. It is about gaining the kind of vision of that Proverbs 31 woman who can look into an unknown future and a long path of suffering and still rejoice. I think it’s fair to say that it’s written primarily for women, but there is no reason a man can’t read it and benefit just as much.” - Challies
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