Handing Off Hardship

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. — 2Corinthians 1:8-9

Encountering hardship is never a matter of “if,” but when. Everyone of us is forced to endure circumstances that are unbearable. And so often, the most terrible of times only seem to get worse. It would be one thing if we could handle each of our challenges one by one. But for some strange reason, bad news tends to pile up at the same time. Bills come due, health falls off, close friends turn into enemies, and your self-confidence wanes all simultaneously.

What do we normally do in such times? For some of us, we just hunker down, batten the hatches and wait for the storm to pass. We don’t share our pain with anyone else–after all we’re private people and why would we want to bring anyone down? For others, hardship becomes an excuse to surrender ourselves to self-destructive behavior. We never think it through, but unconsciously we seem to say, “Everything is going to hell, what does it matter if I do to?” So we dive into alcohol, drugs, illicit sex, or any host of self-defeating practices. Still others try to beat back hardships. We take the attitude that we will conquer whatever comes our way–that somehow in the strength God has given us we can overcome it all.

Paul was well acquainted with hardship. He also had a way of dealing with hardship from which we can take a lesson. First, Paul never tried to handle his hardship on his own. He says, “We do not want you to be uninformed.” Being the lone cowboy might work for John Wayne or Clint Eastwood, but it doesn’t work for a Christian. Paul often asked those around him to pray for him. He believed that we need to share each other’s burdens, and that included sharing his own.

Second, Paul recognized the depth of his hardship saying that it was “far beyond our ability to endure.” Acknowledging our powerlessness over our circumstances frees us from the struggle that ultimately happens when we try to control them. It is enough that we have to deal with the problems that we do. When we try to control those things that are outside our power, we become our own obstacles to getting through our situations. When we see that we clearly have no influence on the hardship, we can focus on navigating the circumstance instead of changing it. A man careening down white-water rapids rarely spends much trying to change the course of the river. Instead, his focus is on the dips, drops, and rocks. His goal isn’t to modify his circumstances, its to navigate through them.

Finally, Paul is convinced there is a purpose to every one of his hardships. “But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.” It is only when we are in the midst of circumstances that are beyond control that we are driven to the one who has everything under control. Paul’s confidence comes not only in knowing God was present in his problems, but also in the fact that Paul’s life purpose was so in line with God’s ultimate purpose that God Himself could be counted on to pull him through it. If God was strong enough and determined enough to accomplish His purpose that He defeated death itself, then God could–and would–surely overcome anything Paul faced.

In the end, Paul never tried to handle his hardships. Instead, he handed them off. Do you?