Finding Solace and Strength in Hard Times

What if your faith could turn the darkest trials into moments of divine comfort and hope? Join us for an inspiring conversation with a seasoned pastor and global worker, who shares over 30 years of experience in church leadership and missions, especially in Ukraine. In this episode, we explore the heart-wrenching challenges faced by his family, including the difficult decision to evacuate from Odessa amidst escalating conflict. Drawing wisdom from the Apostle Paul's letters to the Corinthians, we delve into the power of enduring faith and resilience, illustrating how God's promises provide solace even in the most trying times.

Listen as our guest recounts the emotional turmoil of leaving Ukraine, the intense moments of packing up, and the heartbreaking farewell to their church community. Balancing the calling to continue missionary work with the need to protect their children, our guest grapples with profound questions of faith and the search for God's presence amid suffering. Through personal anecdotes and scripture reflections, we aim to offer comfort and understanding to those facing their own crises, emphasizing God's compassionate and unwavering support.

Lastly, we discuss the transformative power of sharing comfort through trials. Inspired by the Apostle Paul's experiences, we emphasize the importance of empathy, compassion, and intentional listening within our faith communities. By fostering mutual encouragement and transparency, we can minister love and hope to one another. Reflecting on Bible passages, we remind ourselves of God's omnipresence and His divine plans for us, encouraging listeners to embody God's love in everyday encounters. Join us in discovering how trials can be redeemed for good, fostering a deeper connection with God and each other.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

So I've been in church leadership or, you know, as a pastor or a global worker, for over 30 years. I'm old and I felt God speak to me to serve him globally when I was a child in church. So, walking alongside of Jeremy and with the help of our kids, we are just really grateful for the opportunities he's given us. We started serving abroad, in Kiev, Ukraine, and then almost immediately moved to Odessa, which is down on the Black Sea, and we ultimately left there over two years ago after the war that has been going on for 10 years. I mean, we've only heard a lot about it in the last couple of years, but this is a 10-year-old war. When that escalated to the point that we could no longer live in Ukraine, we made the difficult decision to evacuate. So some of you who know us, who are connected with us on Facebook, know the last couple of years have been a challenging season for our family and I shared that not to complain and I'll touch on that a little bit more, but I want to share that story to lay the foundation for the message God has placed on my heart. So, despite this challenging season that we've walked through over and over again, God has reminded us that he has and he will continue to redeem it. All the pain, the frustration, the loss, nothing is wasted. He'll turn that around for good in our lives, Even though we can't believe that he still will do it. He's even given us a little glimpse into what's ahead and given us a little hope, and that's always good when you're grieving or you're on a journey that's taken you to places that are really difficult to walk through. So if you want to open your Bibles this morning, or your Bible app, or it'll actually the scripture will be up here on the PowerPoint.

Speaker 1: 1:50

I'm going to look at 2 Corinthians and I want to begin, before I read, to just share a little bit of background information. So we're going to look at a section, a small section, from one of the letters written by the Apostle Paul to the church at Corinth. It's important to know, before we read this, the context in which this was written. These Corinthian letters were not simply written by just some guy that lived at the same time as Jesus and followed him. They were written by Paul, an individual who had special authority over the congregation. They were written to the Corinthian church because of his personal relationship with the church community. I don't know if you know this, but Paul started the church in Corinth. This was like your pastor starting this church. He had a long relationship with this group of people so he could speak intimately to them and into their pain. So he could speak intimately to them and into their pain.

Speaker 1: 2:48

The second thing that's noteworthy is that Corinth was a site where there was a lot of complex history that had gone on Conflict, war, rebuilding over and over and over again. The crowd that Paul was writing to was one made of the strong, the brave and the resilient. Therefore, what we know about these letters, including the passage that we'll look at more closely it was written very personally, from a man with a heart for his church, to a group of people that had a past filled with hardship. So this isn't just some trite letter that he was writing that he thought, ah, this sounds good. Today I'm going to send in a postcard and say these things. So, with this in mind, let's read our passage, understanding that these words are not a part of some dusty old letter, but they were written and preserved also to speak to us today, because we're not too much different than the churches of that time, because we're all made of humans. So, starting right at the first chapter and verse of 2 Corinthians, you'll see Paul's greeting to the church.

Speaker 1: 3:47

But I'm going to jump in at verse 3 and read through 11, and that's what we'll focus on this morning. So, starting at 3. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Father of the compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any. How many of you are noticing the word comfort? How many of you are noticing the word comfort? If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm because we know that just as you shared in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. Verse 8. We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we'd received a sentence of death, but this happened. That we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us.

Speaker 1: 5:09

You know, everyone has a story, and I could stand up here and share the Instagram version the highlights reel of my story that only good things happen in my life. I was raised in a Christian home. I was the first one in my family to graduate from college. I met a really great guy who's been a great husband for over 20 years, and then we had three beautiful children. I could share all those sunny mountaintop details with you, and that's all you see on Instagram. Right, those are easy to share. But my story is also made up of valleys. There's the mountaintops and then the valleys, like childhood trauma, struggling to work my way through college and graduate studies, the 10 years of loneliness that I walked through before I met my husband at 30, and then the child we lost, and then the bumps and bruises that just happen in life. All of us have highs and lows in our life and let's not make the mistake of comparing that, because each one of us walks a unique path.

Speaker 1: 6:21

We just read in 2 Corinthians 1 a summary of some events that make up Paul's story. In these passages we see him initially bursting with gratitude and joy in his relationship with God, but he also shares that he suffered trials and endured pain. This entire passage is one that's incredibly beautiful, showing that there is available to us incredible joy even in the midst of hard times. How many of you have a hard time with that concept that joy and pain can coexist in the same moment, Like I? You know I dramatize everything. It's like this is the worst day ever. I wish I was more mature, but I'm just being honest with you. Ever I wish I was more mature, but I'm just being honest with you. Or this is the best day ever. Like I still struggle with that at my age and for as long as I've walked with God. It's something I think that we all do. This entire passage is balanced with these two concepts that there is available to us joy in the midst of pain. This passage also shows the reason why God allows his people to endure suffering and trials, and it also answers some really tough questions in the process.

Speaker 1: 7:33

From this passage, where Paul refers to trials and suffering while living for Christ, I want to draw out some basic points that apply to pain and loss, as I've sat down and listened to people and counseled people and gone through seasons of difficulty myself. I hear several questions that are pretty consistent and I'm going to address three of them this morning that the passage talks about. Number one where is God? Where is God? Why me? And what now? These were the questions that we had as we were getting ready to leave Ukraine. This is the chapter entitled Leaving Ukraine Unexpectedly in Our Lives.

Speaker 1: 8:11

Our decision to leave Ukraine was not an easy one. On one hand, if we left prematurely and were skittish, all of the reputation we tried to build with the church there and people there that we trust God would just be for naught. It would amount to nothing. But if we stayed too long, our children would suffer big T trauma, and how many of you know that God loves Ukrainians and he also loves missionary kids. So we did not want to do that to our children. We had a passport that gave us an option. So it was a very difficult decision. We were stressed. We sought God. We begged God to tell us what to do. Like, can you just speak to me for the one time in my life, Maybe you can speak to me audibly. What should we do? This is before the war escalated. Lord, we need to hear from you, Just beg to hear from him.

Speaker 1: 9:05

When the embassy announced that they were letting their non-essential personnel go, and then essential personnel's families go, we began to frantically pack only our most treasured items to fly back to the United States. We closed down our church property. We were just ready to launch our hard plant. We were meeting in a small group and had things going on, but we were going to announce and promote and so on. We closed that down, made temporary arrangements for our personal items and paid our rent ahead of time and packed like crazy for less than a week. We made the decision to leave Monday.

Speaker 1: 9:46

We flew out Friday, I cried and I packed and I cried and I slept and I cried and I ate and I cried. As a matter of fact, there's an ironic picture of me. You can't see it from here, but it says keep calm, let Wendy handle it. One of the times I was just like ah, you know, like crying and packing. Jeremy, my husband said look at your shirt. So I guess that's not true. I can't handle it. But a couple days later we found ourselves in shock and on a plane, knowing deep in our hearts that we very possibly would never be returning.

Speaker 1: 10:27

Two and a half weeks later, five exhausted people who'd landed in Chicago and tried desperately to make sense of everything heard that bombs were beginning to fall. Violence against Ukrainians escalated and chaos ensued. We are totally devastated. We're absolutely heartbroken. Our children were hurting. Our hearts were hurting. We were all angry. We're angry for Ukrainians. We are angry for the loss that our family now knew we would be having. We floundered for a family as a very long time. We were devastated. We were in disbelief. We had questions. God, where are you in this war in Ukraine? Where are you in our family situation? God? Why Ukraine? Why us God? What now for Ukrainians? What are we supposed to do? We can't go back to Ukraine.

Speaker 1: 11:21

My point in sharing this is that each one of us has or will face a crisis or pain that greatly impacts our lives Abuse or neglect in childhood, trauma suffered at the hands of someone who is supposed to protect you, heartbreak in the context of marriage Even the best people in the world can do awful things to each other the death of a loved one, or maybe losing a career or everything that you call home. Regardless of our circumstances, we ask these three questions when is God? Why me? And what now? As I meditated over this passage and studied in preparation for this message, I saw these three questions addressed directly in our passage today.

Speaker 1: 12:01

So let's begin with one of the toughest questions we face as Christians when is God in all this pain? Often asked out of a place of extreme pain or grief, and often with a sense of betrayal or anger, we wonder does God even exist? If God is good and kind, why would he allow this? Did he lose track of me? Is he on vacation? Does he even care? Do you know that? Even Christ dying on the cross asked Father, why have you forsaken me? So those questions you have are all right. If God can hear it from his own essence in his son, he can hear it from us. It'll be just fine.

Speaker 1: 12:44

One of the things that I appreciate most about my relationship with God is that he's a good father, a perfect father. He doesn't get offended by me, he's not irritated with me. So let's begin at verse 3 in chapter 1. Praise be to God and the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort. Interestingly, we see Paul first model an attitude of praise for who God is. He's not only our heavenly spiritual father, but also a compassionate father, the originator of compassion. Remember he created everything, including our emotions of compassion. Remember he created everything, including our emotions. Like a father relates to his children, God holds the position of a parent who produces consolation and mercy in his relationships with his children. Compassion and mercy are the very characteristics of God. It's the very characteristics of what a father provides, A good parent, it's a protective care of God.

Speaker 1: 13:42

Psalm 86, 15 says but you, Lord, are compassionate and gracious. You are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. Paul here lays a foundation of praise and affirmation that God is merciful and compassionate and then says in verse 4, that is this very same God that verse 4, comforts us in all of our troubles. The word comfort, in one form or another, we've already noticed has occurred many times and if you have a different translation, they may have translated it as consolidation or, I'm sorry, consolation and other words like that, or, I'm sorry, consolation and other words like that, but it occurs 10 times in this passage. So Paul, a true man of faith, chooses to praise God, focusing on his mercies and comfort, before he begins to speak out of the suffering in the verses that follow. God is close, he is personal and he provides comfort to his children.

Speaker 1: 14:42

So where is God? He's here. He's with us in our troubles. Psalm 56.8 says you keep track of all my sorrows. You've collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book. He's with us in the sunshine and in the rain, in our greatest joy, in our deepest pain, and not only sometimes. Verse four says he comforts us in all of our troubles, the big ones and the small ones. Where is God? There's an illustration I've used in the past. I can't remember if it was here or not, but if you consider that God is the sun and we're somewhere on the earth, just because we're down here in the midnight hour or we have a storm preventing us from seeing the sun, doesn't mean the sun ceases to exist. God is with us at all times. Even when we don't feel the heat of the sun, when we don't feel or see the brightness of the sun, he is still there. It's just impossible for us to sense that because we are not God. So he's with us always. We need to remember in those times 2 Corinthians 5, 7, that we walk by faith oftentimes and not by sight. The sun is there when we cannot see it. He is with us when we cannot see him or fully sense him. So where is God he's present?

Speaker 1: 16:07

Another question we ask in hardship is why me? Reading on in verse four, after stating that God is present, Paul explains why God is present in our troubles and offers comfort. Verse four says so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. God is present in our troubles. This is a key to the whole message here. Right here God is present in our troubles so that we can comfort others. We go through what we go through so that later on we can be a comfort to someone else.

Speaker 1: 16:38

In God's sovereignty, he takes notice of the pain we're in, but not without giving us comfort, so that we can also comfort others. Is he big enough to prohibit pain? Yes. Is he powerful enough to miraculously heal our hearts? Yes. But we live in a fallen world, imperfect, where hardship and pain touch everyone's lives, regardless of age, income status, gender, race or financial position. It doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, if you're black or white. None of it matters. Pain touches all of us.

Speaker 1: 17:15

Matthew 5.45 reminds us that on both good and evil, the sun rises and sets and the rain falls. Bad things happen to great people, Bad things happen to bad people. Good things happen to bad people. Good things happen to good people. Galatians 3, 13 through 14 explains how God sent his son Jesus to reconcile us to himself. He allowed for his son, his own son, the essence of who he was, to die a painful death to pay the penalty of our sins so that we could be in close personal relationship with him. God himself has experienced painful loss and grief and is able to comfort us in our pain. He watched his son die. He was powerful enough to stop the thing. That's grief, that's tough, and the same is true for each of us. We go through suffering and are therefore able to comfort others in their time of need.

Speaker 1: 18:09

Let's read on in verse 5. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. We share in Christ's sufferings. Our church culture has for years been guilty of minimizing and sometimes completely erasing the suffering of Christ on the cross. And I get it. Nobody likes pain. Nobody wants to talk about gory things without the context, you know, of understanding those ancient cultures. It's barbaric, it's disturbing, I get it, but we all prefer happiness. Yet there's suffering. The truth of the matter is this Without Christ's death, there would be no resurrection. Without pain, there's no victory, there's no healing, no Resurrection Sunday without a Good Friday. The pain had to happen for us to see the victory. Life is made up of positives and negatives. Suffering is a part of our human condition.

Speaker 1: 19:08

But the interesting thing about verse 5 is that Paul represents a balance of pain and comfort. It's not only that we share in his sufferings, but also that Christ is the source of comfort. Christ suffered. He was persecuted, unloved, hated, suffered death on the cross. Not only physically did he suffer, but emotionally Think about this. He was hurt by how people treated his father, God. He was deeply disturbed by how people treated each other, how the Pharisees and Sadducees were running the church. There was lots of things that disturbed his soul and hurt who he was.

Speaker 1: 19:43

Paul goes on to explain, using his own situation as an example, in verse 6, that if we are distressed, it's for your referring to brothers and sisters in the church. It is for your comfort and salvation. If we're comforted, it's for your comfort which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. It's sometimes about perspective. Perspective serves to change how we view the unchanging situation around us. Perspective serves to change how we view the unchanging situation around us. We can't control all those things that are not in our control, but we can control our perspective, and I'm not saying it's easy, but it is something we can do and work on.

Speaker 1: 20:35

With the comfort the apostle received, he had the ability to offer comfort to others, and the same is true for us. With the comfort we've received, we have the ability to comfort others, and sometimes even in the midst of our own pain. His words, in a sense, should be taken to heart so that we're encouraged to share with one another, to serve one another, out of a place of knowing, out of a place of compassion. The purpose of our distress can be used for another's comfort, even another's salvation. When we can fully integrate the truth that when we suffer, it gives us an opportunity to help others who are suffering, we're then able to provide comfort to someone else who's suffering. And I'm not saying that two days after you lose a loved one that you should go out and try to minister to people. I'm saying you go through your grief cycle, you revisit it. It's messy, it never goes in order, and then, when God has healed up that wound, you're then able to comfort other people.

Speaker 1: 21:37

Paul says here if we're afflicted, it's for your comfort and salvation. What an encouraging attitude. His point was if I must suffer, at least I can help others later. This is a model for us to follow in our own lives, intentionally listening to others in pain with empathy, caring and kindness. How many of you get irritated when someone goes on and on about the thing they're going through? I cannot be the only one. I mean, I'm a pastor, I shouldn't be right. But that's when we need to draw on the Holy Spirit and Christ's love in us to be able to continue to listen and allow someone their process. So verse 7 says and our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our suffering, so you also share in our comfort.

Speaker 1: 22:24

Paul knew there were faithful people in Corinth who were suffering, but he had hope for them because he knew of God's comfort. He had God's comfort. So when we ask ourselves why me? He answers so that you can minister my love to others who are hurting. If we change our perspective, to leave Ukraine trying to recover, trying to get our kids into American school, all that was the fact that other people had to evacuate, had hardship on the field and they wound up back serving again. So we knew somewhere down the road there's hope for us to follow.

Speaker 1: 23:13

In the verses that follow, Paul further models healthy relationships and gives some insight into answering the question what am I supposed to do now? Verses 8 to 10 speak to this. Just as a note, we first see Paul's honesty, although expressed fully here, beginning back in verse 4. We're going to follow 8, but he expresses that first in verse 4. In verse 8, the word translated as troubles and sometimes affliction in other versions has to do with being under pressure or in a narrow place where escape seems impossible. Think about these. You know, ancient prisons.

Speaker 1: 23:51

Paul and other faithful Christians in his time were pressed into a narrow place, literally, physically, but he was saying emotionally. This is how they felt. They were restricted, persecuted, under pressure. For them it seemed like there was no way out, like being locked up in a small, dark place. For most of them the pressure continued until they died. And now here in verses 8 and 9, we see appropriate transparency on the part of Paul about his troubles. He makes a point of saying, as the message puts it we don't want you in the dark, we want you to know what happened to us, Without listing the gory details. Here's the key without finger pointing, without airing our dirty laundry, without naming names, without having to tell every little minutiae of what happened to me. He shared, he said what was going on. They were under incredible pressure, so bad they didn't think that they could endure it, and to them it felt like life was over, and they were simply. He said what was going on. They were under incredible pressure, so bad they didn't think that they could endure it, and to them it felt like life was over and they were simply waiting to die.

Speaker 1: 24:49

Here Paul models God, honoring transparency, appropriate transparency that points back eventually, to God and his compassion and faithfulness in trials. And this is when we share our testimony. Our story is. Maybe we need to share that, after it's done, being written when God brings us healing and victory. There was purpose in his trials.

Speaker 1: 25:11

The rest of verse 9 and following says but this happened, that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God, who raises the dead. So what now we ask ourselves when we suffer loss. Paul gives us two important reminders. Remember my t-shirt? We must not rely on ourselves. We are not reliable. How many of you in here are always reliable? Secondly, we must rely on God, and not just any higher power from any number of religious systems. But here, as you read this verse, it says that we need to rely on the God who raises the dead, the God who does the impossible, because other gods will fail us, but our God, who does the impossible, works on our behalf. So how do we know God's reliable? Verse 10 says he has delivered us already from death and he will deliver us again and continue to deliver us. So the God of the impossible can and will be our hope. We may wonder about the timeline, we may question his ways, but he's worthy to be trusted because he has time and time again proven himself to be trustworthy to us and others. This is why appropriate transparency, or sharing our story, is crucial in the body of Christ, in this community.

Speaker 1: 26:31

1 Thessalonians 5.11 says Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. And Galatians 6.2 says Bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Romans 12.15 says Weep with those's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Romans 12.15 says Weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. So we finish our passage this morning, finally, by not only understanding we need to walk in transparency, but also that prayer for one another plays a key role as we walk out our paths arm in arm with one another, as verse 11 concludes.

Speaker 1: 27:05

Are we praying for one another? Do we know we can rely on each other to be praying? Are we appropriately transparent so we can be humble and ask ourselves or ask each other for prayer? In Hebrews 4.16, we're encouraged to come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace and help in our time of need. Our relationship with God does not only serve to make us comfortable, able to be comforted, but also that we may be of comfort to others. He is merciful and he is trustworthy. It's our responsibility not only to help one another with words of comfort, but also with support and prayer.

Speaker 1: 27:49

Psalm 1017 says Lord, you know the hopes of the helpless. Surely you will listen to their cries and comfort them. What now? We may ask Embrace his perspective and plan. Isaiah 4610 tells us God knows all. He has always known the beginning from the end. He's not unaware of what you're facing today, or what you faced yesterday, or what you're going to face tomorrow.

Speaker 1: 28:14

Where is God? He's present. You may not see him, but he's present. Why me? He has purpose in my pain, to bless other people. And what now? We just need to embrace his plan, which is hard to do, Embrace his perspective, embrace his plan. Exodus 14, 14 says the Lord will fight for you. You need only be still. Ask God to wrap his arms around you in deep moments of grief. Ask God to show you the purpose and the pain you've had to endure and ask God to show you the people you meet that need a compassionate friend to listen and be his hands and feet, bringing God's love to anyone you run across in life. And remember 2 Corinthians 1.10 in the eye of the storm. On him we have set our hope.