Something about this Church has always felt like a second home to me, a safe space.   The familiar sight of these bright red carpets, and the way the back door closes slowly and makes a quiet squeaking sound.  The way my children’s faces light up running towards the building knowing their Buzzy is right behind the office doors. This building holds many milestones for me, it was in the church that I met Jesus in a Sunday school classroom downstairs. It was in this building I was given the opportunity to teach my first Sunday school class, I was baptized, received pre-marriage classes, had both my children dedicated, and am now standing here today sharing this message with all of you. But while there are many wonderful and joyful milestones here, it was also in this building that I uttered the words I never thought I would hear my self say, “I am overwhelming sad.”

This past summer I began to fight an internal battle on my own. It was on a beautifully warm and sunshiny afternoon in late August that I stood washing the dishes looking out the back window at my sweet husband playing with our two children on the swings, the tears began to fall without warning, as I turned off the sink and walked over to tend to the stove that was singling that dinner was almost done, I reached in to grab a pan (forgetting to put on my oven Mitts), as dinner dropped to the floor, so did I. The worlds that came out of my mouth were not worlds I had ever believed I would utter “God, I cannot do this anymore, I don’t want to do this anymore.” I surprised myself when I finally admitted what I had been fighting for almost 5 years now, I was worn out, burnt out, and overwhelming sad. I described it once as the feeling when you step outside on a hot and humid summer day, that heavy feeling from the heat that covers your entire body and almost leaves you breathless, that’s how the sadness felt. But through this sadness, and this season of trial I was able to discover the gift of perseverance, the gift that I believe God longs for all of us to find. We are all running a great race in this life, and the best news is that we are not running this race alone.  This morning, I am going to encourage you to not only preserve in your race, but to also look for opportunities to encourage those around you to keep running their races.

Run with PERSERVERANCE

(John 16:33 heart verse through my trials)

We are all running a lifelong race together, constantly walking through different seasons, some sprinting through seasons full of joy, while others may feel like we are pulling ourselves through low valleys, dark and rocky, sometimes too difficult to see if there is any way out. One verse that has become so present in my life and have begun to cling tightly to through this current valley season is John 16:33,

“In this life you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world.”

I think many times we believe that when we give our lives to God that we will be filled with this great happiness, and that our lives will be free from all hardship, but Jesus Himself tells us that in this life to expect trials, to be prepared for valley season, no matter what that might look like, and though, to be honest with you I am still walking through this season, some days fighting for the joy that God has promised us, but, daily I must make the choice to  continue to focus my gaze on the one who has gone before me. In Hebrews 12 verse 2 we read

“let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

When we choose to run our race, even when it feels hard and draining, we are actually building up our spiritual strength. It is in those hard seasons that we are able to build our faith muscles and learn to keep going no matter what may come our way. Bianca Olthoff, a well-known author speaker and pastor said in her book ‘Grit don’t quit’,

“Yes, we will fall, but we aren’t created to live lying down. We need to get back up and prove to the world and ourselves: if we aren’t dead, God’s not done.”

In order to do that I believe we need to relearn where our eyes are focused. How can we learn to refocus our gaze? One tool I found extremely helpful were prayer walks, which is as simple as it sounds, get out go for a walk and talk with God. Getting out into the world, whether it was in silence, or listening to music, I was able to pray and connect with God even when I felt like I had nothing to say. Taking the time to just be with God, regardless of what you have to say (or even if it is spent in silence), being intentional about the time we spend with our heavenly father is a great way to retrain that faith muscle to look to Jesus instead of looking at our current circumstances.  Another tool I found helpful was just being in the word (while some days I found it draining to simply pick up my bible), I found that on the days when I was able to even just read a verse or two it helped refocus where I was looking instead of focusing on myself.  So, whether it’s picking up your bible or listening to someone read it to you on an app, we can place His words in our hearts and minds. Through scripture repetition or memorization, placing scripture on sticky notes throughout your house or setting a reminder on your phone, we will be able to hopefully sink it deep enough in our hearts that when we find ourselves lost in a valley, we can recount those words. Around this time last year our women’s bible study group was challenged to repeat the Lord’s prayer at 9am, noon and 3pm, and now, while walking through this season because of the memorization and repetition of this prayer, I am able to recite the Lord’s prayer when I am not sure what else to say. We also have the blessing of knowing that we have a Saviour who came to live here on earth and experienced life and all of its many trials, He has run the race before us so that we can have Him as our focal point. When we chose to fix our eyes on Jesus, through life’s difficult trials we are able to walk through them with Joy.

Run with JOY

In verse 2 we read, that it was for the joy set before Him that Jesus endured the cross. What Jesus did for us was no walk in the park, He Himself experienced deep emotion, in fact the night before His crucifixion He felt such intense sorrow that He sweat blood, He was no stranger to trial. Earlier in His ministry Jesus went into the desert for 40 days to be tempted (You can read this story in Matthew 4:1-11) He did this all I believe in order that we may be able to call on Him and know that He can relate to what we are going through because of what He faced here on earth He was fully God, but also fully man, emotions and all. Verse 3 says

“Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

Jesus went through trials so that He would be our reminder to not give up, to keep running through it all.  The night before Jesus was crucified, He asked His father to take this cup away, but followed it with “not my will but yours be done” He knew what had to be done for us to have a relationship with God and so He persevered through it. Instead of looking at trials like a punishment, we can look at it like when we are learning to ride a bike, our Heavenly Father is encouraging us to get back up and try again, to keep going. We can live through trials lying down, or we can choose to get back up, over and over and keep running the race that God has set before us. In the book of James chapter 1 verses 2-4 James writes,

“My brothers and sisters, consider it nothing but joy when you fall into all sorts of trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

I love the way it is written in the message

“Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work, so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.”

Jesus endured it all so that we would not grow weary While we are walking through trials in life, and they will come, as James states that WHEN we face trials, not IF we face them, our faith will be tested. We can learn to walk through these trials with Joy when we choose to look to Jesus, for He himself kept His focus on His Father, to shift our gaze from our current suffering and remember that He is working all together for our good and His glory.  We can also be filled with Joy knowing that it is through our suffering that we are able to share our faith walk with those around us who may be struggling.

Run with ENCOURAGEMENT

God has given us a beautiful gift, the gift of others. Verse, one talks about being surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, speaking of the heroes of the faith that we can read about in Hebrews 11 or all throughout the Old Testament. It was through perseverance of faith that Daniel faced the lion’s den and endured it, knowing that God was keeping him safe.  Noah obeyed and persevered and built the boat following through with what God had told him to do.  Shadrak, Mishak and Abednigo persevered and continued to trust and follow God even though it was an unpopular and dangerous thing to do, they obeyed and faced the fiery furnace, and came out the other side leaving others to believe that the God they followed was real.  Moses persevered through the desert believing that God would see him through to the promised land. Job endured constant trials and loss of family, friends and his home, believing all the while that God had a plan. And it was with perseverance that Jesus endured the cross and all the pain that went along with it so that you and I would learn how to preserver through trials.  All these amazing heroes of the faith persevered before us. I believe this also includes the people that we get to do life with today, we are running this race with each other!  If this building and this church family is to be a family, a community, then we need to be real and raw and share what we are walking through, even when that looks ugly and dark. Life is not picture perfect, it doesn’t look like those highlight reels that you see all over social media, or the smiling faces that you see walking down the street replying “I’m fine” or “I’m good”, when asked how they are,  when deep down I’m sure many of us are internally  calling out for help, longing and wanting to be seen, too afraid to share our struggles. To be a community, is to ask for help when we fall. To have strong relationships that leave us feeling comfortable enough to be honest. It is about taking off the mask of perfection and allowing others to see that life is not about having it all together all the time.

And because of trials, and learning to be honest, we also can be that help for someone who is currently walking through a season that you may have already walked through. When we learn to pray for open eyes and open hearts to hurt around us, we can begin to be a helping hand, a listening ear, to share with others, to hold them when they need it.  Before we close, I want to share with you a story of someone in this congregation who responded to a nudge. One Mother’s Day a few years ago when my daughter was still quite little, I was walking through a rather difficult season of motherhood, and dealing with quite a bit of loneliness, the day before I received a small bouquet of flowers from a sweet woman who had no clue what I was feeling but sent them anyway. To this day I still have some of the flowers dried and the note in the back of my bible to serve as a reminder that God moves in simple but amazing ways when we choose to listen to His nudges. We have no clue what our simple acts of obedience might be doing in the lives of those around us.  So, I would encourage you today, or some time throughout your week to ask God to show you the people in your life who may need a word of encouragement, a helping hand, just be a reminder that they are not alone. Or to be brave and step out of your comfort zone and ask for help if you are walking through a valley season, remembering that you are not alone.  When we choose to live in community with one another, which God has called us to do, not only are we given the gift of each other, but we are also given the opportunity to persevere through our trials. What a beautiful gift it is to be able to run this race with perseverance knowing we are not running it alone.