Pretension Busters: Challenges

www.despair.com -- "Increasing success by lowering expectations"

(so much like the Old Adam and the Old Eve)

Arrogance cannot be avoided or true hope be present

unless the judgment of condemnation is feared in every work

--Martin Luther

(Heidelberg Disputation, Thesis 11)

Not only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance, character, and character, hope.

Romans 5:3-4

Back in a previous century when there was no vast array of communication methods to bring strange and unusual sights right into your home, you had to make an effort to have an unusual experience. So there was a mythical story about a 19th century Texas farmer going to the circus because he'd never seen an elephant. Driving his wagon load of produce on his way into town, what should he come across but the elephant he'd never seen. Of course, his horse had never seen one either, never wanted to see one again, and spooked, upsetting the wagon and destroying the produce. Protesting to be unconcerned with the consequences, the farmer declared: "I don't give a hang; for I have seen the elephant!"

Participants in the California Gold Rush popularized this expression. The anticipation of riches and the promise of exotic experiences lured multitudes to expend not only their life savings but often life itself to reach and explore the gold fields. When queried on whether or not it was worth it, they would often respond: "I don't care; for I have seen the elephant."

For many Christians afflictions, suffering and challenges are assumed to be transitory experiences; that is, they are experienced and then done with. Normal life resumes between various episodes of suffering or the occurrence of challenges. At the worst, life would be just one challenge after another; but, at best, the challenges would be few, far between, and always beneficial.

St. Paul--with Martin Luther following his lead--believed just the opposite: suffering was normal life. In fact, as St. Paul writes above, once you've been declared righteous by God and received the hope of his glory, you also have received eyes to see the reality of life: the only place we have to rejoice in this world is in the midst of our sufferings. Luther put it this way: the Christian life is a "passive" (as in the "passion of Christ) life; that is, it "suffers" the will of God to be done.

Suffering, endurance, character, hope--all these co-exist in the passive life of a Christian as the Christian "suffers" being done unto by the will of God. The word "character" here does not refer to adjectives like integrity, honesty, respectability, etc. No, it is instead the naming of a certain kind of person, specifically a soldier who has been to the front lines and met with the enemy--a battle-hardened veteran.

Having received the hope of the glory of God and formed by the crucible of living passively beneath God's will, the veterans of faith St. Paul and Luther could face the loss of all they had--even life itself--with an certainty beyond that of "seeing the elephant." They had the assurance of God's love given by the Holy Spirit.

And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Romans 5:5