"Good Trouble"

Preached by Rev. Ed Brouwer at The Gathering Place
Pulpit Series Volume 17 Issue 4 02/11/2007

It is good for me to have been in trouble. Psalm 119:71

The writer is looking back over his past, his yesterdays. It certainly hasn’t been a picnic - it hasn’t all been through green pastures and beside still waters. Oh no there were dark canyons and rough mountains. More than one storm, cold winds and rain, lots of rain.

The few treasures he had clung on to, were ripped from his hands. His face had been moistened by hot and blinding tears. But as he looks back on those stressful days he is aware of the fact that they didn’t end as disastrously as he thought they would’ve when he was passing through them. In fact, he sees with amazement, that those bad days brought no lasting harm at all. The very trouble, he thought was going to be his undoing has been the making of him.

His losses became gains, his troubles converted into capital. It is good for me to have been in trouble, he humbly cries. We are a lot like the writer in that we have had our troubles.
We, too, have been through trying conflicts... some of us still carry the scars. At times our eyes too, were blinded by tears. We’re not exactly sure what type of trouble he faced, but we are sure his life had not been without its tragic experiences.

Neither has yours or mine. It hasn’t been all sunshine, but thank God it hasn’t all been dark shadows.

Have you ever had your bright skies suddenly grow dark.

Have you discovered the light at the end of the tunnel to be the train.

We may sail for many days on smooth seas. Then suddenly without warning the storm is on us.

My dad was an avid sailor, and he can attest to this fact …

Smooth seas never make a successful sailor.

None of us have been dealt the same hand, some seem to have it much easier than others. But to all of us, sooner or later, comes the joker - gray days of bewilderment and trouble.

James states that all of us will have trials. Considering this, we better know how to deal with these seemingly unavoidable calamities.

From what I’ve discovered there are 3 attitudes toward our troubles:
Attitude of surrender. Those who give up at the very first wound they receive. Those who merrily walk along until some cruel fate trips them up and they fall flat. Instead of getting back up, they lie there whining and boo whoing. They become spiritual invalids.

I’ve watched people become so engrossed in their pain due to family troubles, they forget that the rest of the family is suffering too. They end up alone, shutting themselves up with their sorrow, surrendering unconditionally to the misery of their life.

The same tragic blunder was made by Miss Havisham in Great Expectations (Charles Dickens). She was to be married... The guests were gathered. The wedding feast was being prepared. The wedding cake was on the table. The bride was decked in her bridal costume. But the bridegroom never came. Therefore her watch and every clock in the house was stopped at 20 to 9 the hour of her humiliation, the hour of her first great sorrow.

All sunlight was shut out of her home. She lived in the dark except for the light of candles. Her wedding cake stood on the table till the cobwebs wrapped around it, eventually becoming the home of spiders and mice. Her once white wedding gown hung in yellow decay about her shrunken figure. For her all life had stopped at the hour of her tragic disappointment, 20 to 9. She, met her sorrow with unconditional surrender.

Secondly, we allow our troubles to make us hard / cynical. Just another way of surrender. These people become rocklike in their nature. Great loss when you lose the ability to sorrow in a healthy manner.

Unhealthy sorrow only servers to embitter.

Healthy sorrow tenderizes us, allowing us to be sympathetic.

There is a great loss when we allow our suffering to make us hard hearted, bitter and cruel.

Lastly there is the group that refuses to surrender to sorrow.
Refusing to quit, refusing to becoming calloused and hard, they instead, make profit out of calamities and change losses into gain. It is in this group you find great worth. People with this attitude are those who have been to school in Gethsemane, their very want has become wealth.

Capitalizing on our calamities is one of the finest of all fine arts.

How valuable it is to learn the art of changing our crosses into crowns. The Apostle Paul had a burning passion to preach the gospel in Rome. But, he was thrown into jail, where he remained for a long time. It looked as if his dream had come to nothing. However, after some time we find him writing a letter from a prison cell in Rome. In this letter we read this….I would have you know that the things which happened to me have fallen out rather to the furtherance of the gospel. Philippians 1:12

That is, the very things that seemed to block his progress became the vehicle for him to see his dreams fulfilled.

So often did Paul find his losses changed to gain that, he reached this conclusion: We know that all things work together for good to them that love God. Romans 8:28

In order for us to capitalize on our troubles we must recognize that not every sorrow is in accordance with the will of God. Many things we suffer are simply our own doing.

Why doesn’t God prevent them? Simply because he can’t.

Face it - if you’re bent on doing wrong God cannot prevent it.

Because we so often fail to recognize this, we blame God for our suffering. We may have been hurt by some member of the Church, or by some minister of the gospel. But think about how much those actions hurt God, you really can’t blame God for wrongs that hurt Him more than they hurt us!

It would also do us good to understand that while God cannot prevent much of the evil we suffer, if we remain true, He will bring us through with honor. He will if we allow Him, make us the richer for our losses.

You meant it for evil, said Joseph, speaking of the awful wrong he had suffered; but God meant it to good. Genesis 50:20

Think about it, Our own rebellion is often what defeats us. In Joseph’s case he refused to rebel. His path of pain actually became a roadway to spiritual growth and wealth. I believe this same result can be yours and mine, if, in spite of our trouble filled pathway, we walk it in fellowship with Christ. What a wonderful Savior we have! What an awesome gospel we have responded to!

There is absolutely nothing that will destroy us as long as we live in the circle of His will.

With the storms of life beating on our faces, disease preying on our bodies, the thief ripping treasures from our fingers, we can still be undismayed. We can shout with Paul, We know that all things work together for good to them that love God.

I know there are times when we can’t possibly understand how this can be true. But if in spite of our difficulties we hold fast in faith, then one day we too, shall be able to sing, It is good for me to have been in trouble.

See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction Isaiah 48:10