Author name: Tom Stuart

Adversity – don’t be surprised!

Overcoming, Uncategorized /

“For a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.” 1 Corinthians 16:9 (ESV)

Adversity is a fact of life, even in the best of times. I love this verse penned by the Apostle Paul when he was in Ephesus, because it encourages us to keep things in perspective. Just when things seem perfect the phone rings, it starts to rain, something breaks, someone is disgruntled or you have a health scare. Open doors of blessing are often accompanied by adversity. But in spite of the opposition Paul ran into there in Ephesus, he was unshaken in his resolve, made the most of his opportunity, actually stayed there two years and planted arguably the greatest church in all of his journeys.

The Apostle Peter who had the amazing opportunity of living with and observing Jesus’ handling of adversity wrote “since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had and be ready to suffer.” (1 Peter 4:1) Dealing successfully with adversity, especially when it seems to come at the most inopportune times, requires having an attitude or mindset that is always prepared to overcome it. Jesus himself said “in this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33 NIV)

That kind of overcoming attitude is absolutely essential if we are going to navigate the winds and waves of life. And no where have I learned that more graphically than as a neophyte sailor. Less than a month ago I was in the Caribbean on a sailboat. My cousin and I rented a thirty-two foot boat for eight days and set off for the bucket list adventure that even Jack Sparrow would envy. Our dream was to spend sun-kissed days sailing and snorkeling while exploring the history rich British Virgin Islands. Columbus discovered them on his second voyage in 1493 and they are where all the infamous pirates roamed and raided ships for centuries in the Sir Francis Drake Channel.

It did not take me long to realize however, that even though I was on vacation I had better not lay aside my overcoming attitude because being in paradise does not necessarily guarantee paradise being in you. Navigating a sailboat in unfamiliar waters, six foot rollers and steady 15-20 knot winds has a way of bringing that reality home very quickly, especially for an inland water sailor. In spite of wide open seas there are still pirates of adversity lurking there to despoil even the most virtuous sailor of his dream vacation.

One stark realization was that spring break makes March the busiest month of the year for sailing in the BVI. There were sailboats, catamarans and huge yachts of all sizes and shapes everywhere and that made for stiff competition in claiming a mooring ball to anchor at night, no matter which island cove you choose as your destination. Unfortunately it made everyday a race to the next island anchorage, because if your boat had not tied up to the rope floating from a mooring ball by 11 am you were out of luck.

The first day, with a late start from the marina we arrived at Norman Island, where Robert Lewis Stevenson, cast his novel Treasure Island, at five o’clock. God had mercy on us and heard our prayers and we found one mooring ball unclaimed, it was literally a miracle. The next day we did a short sail to another side of the island and claimed a ball by 10 am in a beautiful setting right near a reef for snorkeling. Praise God.

The third day was a different story. We had mapped out a long sail, half-way up the channel to a picturesque spot on Cooper Island. Leaving at day break we hoped to arrive by eleven, sailing conditions were favorable and we reached the Island as planned. But by then the weather had taken a turn for the worse with dark cloudy skies, pouring rain and 20 knot winds blowing off shore. We immediately began the hunt among all the anchored boats for a mooring ball. We were waved off the first two mooring balls we found by someone on shore shouting that they were reserved.

After a somewhat frantic search we finally found one ball unoccupied. As I approached it my one man crew was on the bow with a six foot aluminum pole ready to hook the rope. Somehow the pole got wrenched from his hand and started floating away. With no pole we could not secure a ball. He made his way back to the stern where I was and we decided he would have to take the dinghy to chase it down. In the rain, wind and panic of the moment the dinghy rope got caught in the prop of the dinghy outboard. Before long the dinghy was floating away with him in it, the pole was floating away with our chance for a mooring and my hope was floating away as I sought to keep the sailboat from running aground or hitting another boat.

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Take no thought for tomorrow

Overcoming, Relationship with God /

Recently I was having one of those sleepless nights that everyone can identify with, when I was obsessing about some challenges I was facing in the week ahead. Thankfully it is an infrequent occurrence. But no matter how hard I tried or fervently I prayed I could not lay my nagging concerns to rest so I could finally get some rest. I was so frustrated that I was even resenting the moonlight shining through my bedroom window, viewing it as a source of irritation and contributing factor to my insomnia.

But then as a passing cloud shaded the full moon’s light I caught a glimpse of the starry sky. I really cannot explain it, but at that moment, resonating out of the vastness of the universe and the knowledge that the one who created it also created and cared for me, were the words “take no thought for tomorrow.” It was not something dramatic like an audible voice or startling revelation or some angelic appearance or intervention. It was more like the sense and satisfaction a person has when they solve a math problem or discover an important fact they have been looking for. It just settles things and arms a person with the truth that allows them to move on.

When that phrase ‘take no thought for tomorrow” came to me it was like, “Oh yeah, I can do that. If the creator of the universe is telling me to take no thought, then why waste time taking thought.” And right then and there I decided to stop thinking and worrying about the morrow, laid all my anxious thoughts aside and within minutes was asleep.

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Turning weakness into strength

2 Comments / Growth & Development, Overcoming /

The Greek word which is translated weakness in this verse is astheneia. It is defined as an ailment of mind or body that deprives someone of enjoying or accomplishing what they would like to do. That is why weaknesses in our lives are so despised. They are joy robbers and frustrate us in our pursuit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Weaknesses in our lives have a dichotomous effect upon us. In whatever form they may take, they cause us to run the emotional gamut from being difficult to acknowledge to being an object of obsession and regret. We treat them like someone who is a nuisance. We start off trying to ignore or deny the fact we know them, and when confronted by them in a face to face encounter, we conjure up any excuse possible that will enable us to slip away from them in hopes of focusing our attention on more pleasant things. But the lingering effect of the unpleasantness of our encounter with them is not as easy to shake off and readily dismiss. Like being in a magnetic force field we are drawn into replaying the exposure of our weakness again and again. We hate the fact they have such a debilitating effect upon us. We desperately want to move beyond them and break free from their gravitational pull.
Much is being made today, both in the business world and in the church about identifying, developing and working out of one’s strengths. It could go without saying, but both intuitively and objectively, the idea of maximizing our strengths does promise the best return for our labors. Many a case has been made for the extrinsic as well as intrinsic benefit and fruitfulness from utilizing our talents and strengths. And that is true as far as our labors go.
But there is another level of accomplishment that is both counterintuitive and much more subjective, and that has to do with maximizing our weaknesses. In the natural we do not associate weakness with power or perfection. Quite the opposite. But Jesus’ advice to Paul, who was experiencing the perplexity of a weakness he could not overcome, is life giving advice to us as well. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9a)

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The Prayer of Faith

1 Comment / Overcoming, Prayer /

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. James 5:16 (KJ 2000 Bible)

James refers to this type of prayer as a “prayer of faith. (vs. 15) In just a few verses he gives us a primer on prayer that may be one of the best explanations of effective praying in the entire Bible. Specifically in this one verse he provides insight into the three primary ingredients for praying a prayer of faith

James, the author of this book by the same name, is uniquely qualified to do so because, as most scholars agree, he was the brother of the Lord Jesus Christ and the lead elder in the early Jerusalem church. (Matthew 13:55 & Acts 15:13) He was also highly esteemed by the two leading apostles of the day, Peter and Paul (Acts 12:17 & Galatians 2:9). And so if anyone had firsthand knowledge about the prayer of faith it was James.

Bottom line, the measure of an effective prayer is ultimately whether or not it gets an answer. What would be the point of asking someone for something if there is no expectation or hope of getting an affirmative reply? And that is where faith comes in. Prayer by its very nature is undertaken from a place of faith, trusting that there is a God who is greater than us and who hears and answers our requests. Prayer is a faith proposition from beginning to end. “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

Prayer is based on a trust in someone who is not seen, initiating something from a realm that is unseen and causing it to make its appearance in a realm that is seen. Faith then truly is “fixing our eyes, not on what is seen, but on what is unseen . . . for the things which are unseen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18)

James is underscoring this when he writes “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” (vs. 16b) There are three defining characteristics of the prayer of faith in this verse and they specify that it must be:

1. PURE HEARTED – Faith in God hearing us is rooted in two things. 1) First it requires having a heart that is pure in righteousness because it has been cleansed by the blood of Jesus through repentance and forgiveness of sins. James makes this clear in these verses as he encourages “confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” (vs. 15-16)

2) Secondly it requires having a heart that is pure in its motives because a person’s will has been fully yielded to the will of God. The Greek word in this verse from which the phrase “righteous person” is translated is “dikaios” which specifically refers to a righteous person who is just or impartial. It is a term that conveys a righteousness both in spirit and in motive. It is a noun that could be used to describe a judge who is unbiased or unprejudiced in making a ruling on a case. Whenever a person prays from a place of having fully relinquished their own desires, that prayer is a prayer they can be confident God will answer.

2. PASSION FUELED – James tells us that the prayer of faith is “fervent.” He describes this type of prayer using a Greek word “energeo” from which we get our English words energy and energized. Energeo, depending on the English version of this verse, is translated as “effectual fervent” prayer and means to be fully engaged in, to be mighty in or working at. It conveys a no holds barred, passionate level of commitment to prayer. Working to move a big obstacle and overcome inertia requires a steady all-out effort and determination to persist no matter what the cost.

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Bridge over the River Why

Overcoming, Prayer, Relationship with God /

Little kids ask why and big kids ask why too. Typically little kids ask why for two reasons. They are either genuinely inquisitive because they have a hunger to learn or they are deceptively inquisitive because they don’t like what they are hearing. With the latter, they are looking for a good reason, or convincing argument as to why they should or shouldn’t do something. Their parents hesitate to answer because they may not want to discuss it, may not have the time to explain it or engage in a conversation about it. Parents know when their children’s why question is simply a ploy to delay obedience and slow down what they consider an inevitable process. It’s time to go, the car is running, we have an appointment to keep and your reluctance to cooperate, and put your shoes and jacket on, is holding us up. No discussion, except maybe an insistent “because” and the kid with an unzipped jacket and untied shoes is tucked under the arm and carried out the door.

It is much more complicated for big kids. Although some why questioning may still be foot dragging, big kids begin to wrestle with bigger issues that carry bigger consequences and beg for new levels of understanding. But what happens when the answer to a critical why question is not forthcoming?

That juncture in a person’s life, when cosmic whys no longer have answers that flow from an ordered universe is part of the rite of passage into adulthood. Having jettisoned beyond the orbit of parental influence into the vastness of space a person has to face for the first time the realization of truly being on their own. It is a lonely and confusing time, having slipped the protective bounds of predictable and reasoned explanations from parents, teachers, pastors and other wise counselors. The silence is unfamiliar, it is haunting and it only deepens in stark contrast to sporadic cries for understanding.

My first encounter with cosmic silence was near the end of my freshman year in college. Late one night, under a starry sky, I found myself alone in the middle of the football practice field, pacing and staring heavenward, tormented by unanswered whys. Why are humans on this planet? If there is a God why isn’t He more concerned about the mess we are in down here? Is there any rhyme or reason to my life? Why am I here? It was a defining moment for me, although no answers came. And yes the silence was deafening and frustrating. I can still remember walking back to the dorm with an eerie sense of peace and feeling embraced by the warmth of the light in the lobby as I came through the front door. That’s all I remember. No revelations. No understanding. Not a clue.

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