A Force To Be Reckoned With
A Force To Be Reckoned With
229. On Suffering and Hard Things
What if the struggle you're avoiding is the very thing meant to make you stronger?
Across the pages of the Bible, scripture doesn’t shy away from suffering. Instead, it calls us to embrace it, learn from it, and find joy in the middle of it. Because maybe pain isn’t punishment—it’s preparation.
Jesus didn’t promise a trouble-free life. He promised victory through the struggle. And when He said, “Take up your cross and follow me,” he wasn’t inviting us to a life of ease. He was inviting us to a life of purpose.
So, what if your current hardship isn’t something to escape, but something to lean into? Something meant to build resilience, character, and faith?
Let’s talk about finding meaning in the mess and purpose in the pain.
Episode Highlights:
- Biblical understanding of suffering.
- Sanctification through suffering.
- God doesn’t call us to be comfortable.
- God designed us for community.
Links Mentioned in Episode/Find More on A Force to Be Reckoned With:
- Jointheforce.us
- Follow Bethany on Instagram @bethanyadkins
- Follow Corey on Instagram @mrcoreyadkins
- Find us on Youtube!
- Email Bethany at bethany@adkinsmedia.co
- Books of the Bible referenced: John, Romans, Hebrews, James, & 1 Peter
This show has been produced by Adkins Media Co.
We are at war and it's not against our neighbors, spouses, children, politicians or whatever else we feel like we're battling against.
Speaker 2:So the questions are who's the fight against, and are we winning or losing? We're the Adkins, and we are a force to be reckoned with, are you? Ready to join the force. All right, we're starting an episode. Cory is leading this one this could be scary it could be scary came out of my brain.
Speaker 1:So, before we get started with this, we just I have a message, we have maybe a warning we need to issue Warning. Some things that are about to be said may be offensive. The views and opinions are held by the host. If something offends you, maybe consider not being so soft.
Speaker 2:That's crazy. But, so yeah, and he is telling the truth, and they might even offend me. No, I'm just kidding it might, who knows? Yeah, well, here's the thing we're talking about.
Speaker 2:We're talking about a, an important topic, but also I want to do my own disclaimer, because this topic is a biblical topic, but we're speaking from like we're doing our best to we're not pastors and we're not theologians, and so, before we say anything like the bible talks about how, when you are like preaching the word and teaching the word, you will be held accountable for false teaching. And we're not trying to teach, we're sharing. We're encouraging you to listen to this and also do your own research. And we, at the end of all of this stuff, when we're talking about God and the word of God and Christianity, at the end of the day, we're just two married people trying to do our best and live the best Christian life, and we're constantly learning and growing and being open to just like doing better, and you guys should do the same, yeah.
Speaker 1:So like we're open if something that I says is off, that I, that we say is off base.
Speaker 2:But I feel like the general it's like these are the conversations we have with our friends and with our pastor, and we have dialogue and we're like learn, like if you, if you were in the room with us, we would be talking about this stuff and sharing our thoughts and perspectives and there would be a dialogue, and that in itself is a really important point. We don't have that anymore. It's like people are afraid to share their thoughts and opinions one and also other people. When they have thoughts and opinions, they're not receptive to listening to other people who have different viewpoints.
Speaker 1:And it shouldn't be either way, like I don't go through anything or like I haven't had this. My viewpoints changed on things and I'm just telling you this is absolute. You know what I mean. Like I often, when I talk about topics, even when I like, do like presentations or teaching certain concepts, like at work or in some of the trainings that I do, sometimes like those things are for me too, like as I'm going through them. It like helps me and it reminds me you know what I mean?
Speaker 2:yeah, so this is like a reminder and encouragement this was something that like um this is controversial?
Speaker 1:no, it's not. No, we're probably making it sound more controversial than it is, but like I feel like this is something that even over the past year or two, like reflecting back, that I needed to hear. So, it was something that just became I don't know like passionate in me recently to think about and thoughts that I've had that were for me and a reminder for me.
Speaker 2:So what are?
Speaker 1:we talking anyways. So I just I just want to start with why this like kind of popped up. We've just we spent a lot, a lot of time recently with, like our foster care community and just having conversations.
Speaker 2:You're not giving specific examples, are you? No, okay?
Speaker 1:Just having conversations and like listening to each other and it just it made me reflect back on, like, the journey we've had over the past. What has it been two and a half years or so We've had over the past? What has it been two and a half years or so times where my head has been in certain places? And it just made me think that sometimes and I started with thinking about this with foster care is that we preach like community and having community and you need community, and community is a good thing for sure, and I actually have that mentioned in here but we sometimes, to protect ourselves and it's easy as a level of comfort we stay in our own little like bubble within our foster care community and sometimes like, well, we take something. That's true that there are people that are not doing foster care that can't fully understand the journey that we're walking or what we may be going through in certain seasons I started thinking about it even more diverse than that to where, even, like, there may be some foster parents that can't understand what we're going through and I can't understand what they're going through because it's so different. But then we sometimes, because of that that other people can't understand, we almost like sit in the hard and like, make our turn ourselves into almost like victims and we almost make it look like suffering and pain are always bad. And it just made me think about that and I, as I started to think about that, I started to think about it more broadly that anybody doing anything hard, anything that would involve pain or suffering, that they can do that within their own little bubbles and they can always look at the suffering or the pain as though it's something bad and the other people can't understand and they sit and they wallow in.
Speaker 1:It is kind of what I'm getting at. So that's what kind of got this stirring? So I want to talk about suffering and pain and hard things. And I was looking at it. I'm sure that you could break this up and there's probably tons of different types of suffering, but I was thinking of it kind of in two, mostly like two frameworks. That, first off, there's suffering that is just a byproduct of living in a fallen, broken, sinful world, Like we don't choose, we don't, we lose. When we lose a loved one, that isn't because of something that we've done. That isn't a byproduct of something that we had any control over. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a byproduct of the fall.
Speaker 1:Right. It's a byproduct of the fall. Right.
Speaker 2:It's a byproduct of the fall so they're suffering like not to be misunderstood with.
Speaker 1:It is something that we humans have done that.
Speaker 1:Adam that brought sin into the world, but I mean but like yeah, you're like when my dad passed away, it wasn't because of something that I did, and there's just suffering like that all over. Whether somebody gets a bad diagnosis with a disease, somebody passes away, there are things that just happen, Right. But then there's another type of suffering and it's a suffering. It's a byproduct of intentionally serving others, building something whether it's building a business, building a church, building a group, creating things, creating organizations, creating homes. There's just when you step out and start to do things that are hard like serving, building, creating there is suffering and pain that often comes with that, and I think that that's part of just like the natural way that the resistance of yeah that the well.
Speaker 1:I then there's. There's a few ways to look at it. There is resistance from the devil, which we talk about that in attacks, but there's also like it's like when I want to, if I want to build muscle, I, I lift weights.
Speaker 2:Right. Like it's the resistance, all of it is the resistance of the fall. Like we're constantly fighting against our muscles decaying. So, we have to work to keep them. We're constantly. If we're not striving and working hard toward our health, our health is going backwards.
Speaker 1:It's because we live in like our world is now up, Like it's not as it should be right, but my point is is that some of it is we didn't choose this, some of this is we know that they're suffering and we choose to embrace the suffering anyways. Like lifting weights, like if I want to build muscle, I have to lift weights, which tears my muscles down Right and then rebuild. That causes pain. It causes suffering. If I, if you want to win an NBA championship, like there is years of training and suffering and pain and fighting that you have to go through to be able to perform at that level to win Right.
Speaker 2:So, but sometimes I feel like we just look at suffering as if there's any suffering. It's bad and that's not. It's not true and God uses suffering Churches and religions and some churches who claim to be Christian churches that actually teach that your sufferings or your illnesses, those are a byproduct of you not having enough Like, they are consequences of something like you're not. Like, if you're wanting something to be healed and it's not being healed, it's happening because you don't have enough faith and you, like you're trying to think of an example.
Speaker 2:Like maybe if you got, cancer.
Speaker 1:It was as a consequence.
Speaker 2:Yeah Gotcha, that's not what the Bible teaches.
Speaker 1:Right and like, and there's so much nuance. I think to this too, to where there are times where God allows things to happen.
Speaker 2:That's like the whole story of Job Right, wasn't it in?
Speaker 1:Job where prior.
Speaker 2:To anything even happening. God gave permission for that to happen.
Speaker 1:Right and so, like God won't, and this is I can't remember if this is in part of one of the verses that I'm going to read, but it talks about how God God does not tempt you, but he will allow temptation to take place to test you. And now some of these things, I don't know what it's going to be like in the new world or the new heaven and the new earth. You know, when Christ comes back, if these things are still going to be true. But I think it just falls back to kind of just the way, the natural way, that things function in the world that we live. What I mean by that is, I feel like I think I've mentioned on here before, this falls into like when the founding fathers would mention natural law in some of the documents and things is like it's like there's, it's like gravity, like there are natural things that happen, that it's like the rules of the game that have been set up.
Speaker 1:So that's why when you listen to, you may listen to a podcast about on somebody that's not a Christian at all. Maybe it's a business podcast. They talk about building a business and they talk about how it is hard and it's you're going to go through pain and you're going to suffer that. You'll hear him say there is a price that has to be paid to achieve success on the other side of that, and that's just part of the natural order of the way that god has designed this earth. And then there are other times where god where, if you follow god, he intentionally uses that to grow you and make you better. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah, to sanctify us.
Speaker 1:So anyways.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to sanctify us. So suffering is a way of sanctification. Suffering is a way to grow and get better. You really can't grow and get better truly without some form of suffering in most cases. Better truly without some form of suffering in most cases. So I'm just going to hit these different Bible verses that I have here and then we can talk on the back end of it. So I'm going to read through a few different Bible verses. So the first one is 1 Peter, 5, 6 through 11. Where did I put that?
Speaker 3:Here it is.
Speaker 1:Okay, and I did some of these a little bit bigger because sometimes it's kind of do you ever like? Sometimes you're reading and you hear verses and you don't realize that it's smack dab in the middle of like a paragraph of another verse that you really like too, and they're like maybe only a few verses apart and you're like oh, that's one of the things I've enjoyed as I'm reading through the new Testament and reading a chapter at a time it's like, oh, I didn't realize this was in the same section, that this was in.
Speaker 2:Oh, this makes it, and these are chapter Philippians. Four has so many like rich.
Speaker 1:They're all connected together. It's kind of cool.
Speaker 2:And it's important. When you do have a verse, like when you're finding a verse, you want to read the scripture before and after and, honestly, it's nice to know the context of the entire book, because it's easy to take scripture out of context and that's something that is very important to not do.
Speaker 1:You don't want to just cherry pick scripture to fit an agenda. So, as I read this, I think this is one of those. So, starting 1 Peter, 5, 6, through, what did I say?
Speaker 2:11.
Speaker 1:6 through 11. Okay, humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that, at the proper time, he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober minded, be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Speaker 1:Okay, so that's the first one, all right. So the next one is John 16, 33. And it says I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace in the world. You will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world. And next is James 1, 2 through 4. And then I skipped ahead to 12. What did I say? James 1, 2 through 4. Okay, count it all. Joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
Speaker 2:And let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking, lacking nothing and just skipping ahead to such a good verse that, right there, just talks about how the things that we go through refine us and complete us really right and then skipping down to 12.
Speaker 1:Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life which god promise to those who love him. The next one is 1 Peter, 1, 6 through 7. And it says In this you rejoice though now for a little while if necessary. You have been grieved by various trials so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, Okay. Next one is Hebrews 12, 1 through 11. Okay, Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Speaker 1:Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted In your struggle against sin. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him, For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons, For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have earthly fathers who discipline us, and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live For? They disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.
Speaker 1:For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it, and the last one I have is Romans 5, 1 through 5. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who is given to us. So, with this, just reading through these different verses that talk about pain, suffering, discipline verses talk about pain, suffering, discipline. We, Christ, went through suffering Like when you think about this and we're to. Once we give our lives to Christ, we are to follow him.
Speaker 2:And sorry, I don't mean to interject We'll, we will put all these references in the show notes so that you guys can just study them on your own and that could be like a really cool thing to just read through those passages, those chapters, and even if you have more time, those books. A lot of them were repetitive chapters. So there's Romans, peter, romans 1, peter, john, james and Hebrews, so it's five books of the Bible. So that could be like a fun thing to, like a starting place to study, especially if this is something that you have wondered about yourself or like if you're going through struggles. It's such an encouragement, like what you're about to talk about. It's so encouraging when we walk through this heavy and hard road, and that's not to say that we are to be martyrs of our circumstances, of what's in scripture and he talks about how his sufferings were for God's glory and that through those sufferings he was, you know, refined.
Speaker 1:Right, and everybody but John was killed Right. And when you step out and to live God's will, it requires you to serve others. And when we are serving others, we are stepping into brokenness. We're stepping into others' brokenness, because if we're not serving somebody else when we serve, we're serving people that are in need, people that are going through things, and so when we're doing that, we're stepping down into the muck that they're into to come alongside them and either just be there with them, help, pull them out of the mud and sometimes just share in that with them. And when you're doing that, there's going to be suffering, there's going to be pain. And so when you're living out God's will, god doesn't call you to be comfortable because you can't be comfortable. If you're serving, you're living out God's will. God doesn't call you to be comfortable because you can't be comfortable. If you're serving, you're uncomfortable, you're stepping out of your comfort zone. So sometimes when we do that, like it's hard.
Speaker 2:And sometimes all of it is hard. The Christian life is hard, raising a family is hard, and that's why the scripture in this world you'll have trouble, but take heart is hard and that's why the scripture in this world you'll have trouble, but take heart, I've overcome the world is such an encouragement because even as a I mean everything that we do in this life as believers goes against the grain of what culture, especially the further and further culture, gets from the world. So simply just being a wife and mom and trying to raise kids in this world, you're going to have opposition.
Speaker 2:And that doesn't mean that you're doing something wrong.
Speaker 1:And I hope I'm being clear because I'm not saying that just Christians suffer. Everybody suffers. That was kind of the point. There's a fall.
Speaker 2:Often in our culture today what's being talked about is being comfortable, is just trying to protect and shield and shelter and and and purchase like, just like, yeah, make yourself comfortable in this world.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we're not even, and there's all these conversations about just take it easy and um yourself and comfort care, and I think that there's a place to do some of those things, but it's to help you reset, to get back onto the battlefield. And I think too often we think that sometimes one if we're suffering, it's because something that we did or because we're bad and there's nothing to gain from the suffering. Or we sit in this and wallow in our suffering within this self-pity and in reality that's weakness and sometimes you have to toughen up and just take the next step forward. And just going back to I have one other verse here that I didn't put in the notes. But going back to Christ, christ suffered.
Speaker 1:Christ was suffering when he was preaching. He had people attacking him. He had people chasing him out of cities, felt unsafe, going to certain places and then, beyond that he was. Then, once he was arrested, he was humiliated. They were trying to degrade him and then, when they couldn't get anything with that, they beat him. And you read through the Bible they beat him. I think it's in the book of Isaiah. They talk about beating him beyond where you couldn't recognize him. He was beaten so brutally and so bad and they portray this so intensely in like the passion of the Christ. It's like it makes you like sick to your stomach seeing it. And then he was killed.
Speaker 1:You want to talk about suffering? I mean he was killed, but then Christ says but take heart, I have overcome the world because he rose. We have hope, but we have to share in that suffering. And if you don't think that that's true, let's go to Matthew 16, 24. Then Jesus told his disciples if anyone would come after me, then Jesus told his disciples If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? And what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. You have to suffer when Christ says take up your cross and follow me. That's not some nice little. Oh, let's pick up these two pieces of wood put together That's—they made Christ carry his cross to be crucified, you have to deny yourself, you have to die with him and be resurrected. And then there's suffering. That's going to come of that, when he says in this world you will have troubles, you have tribulations, but take heart, I've overcome the world.
Speaker 1:And I think and this is just my little thing is that in some ways we get little glimpses of the reward of suffering here, where, if we work out, we gain muscle and we're more healthy. Sports is so evident a basketball team and you're training and you're putting in the reps. You get to see often the fruits of your labor through getting better, through winning games, through winning championships. You get to see that. So we get these little tiny windows of it. But Christ says that he's going to repay each person according to what he has done, and the other verse is talking about receiving a crown, like we will be rewarded for following Christ and suffering because of it when we are joined back with him in heaven. So let me just go back to my notes here, okay, so in that, Suffering, I think in some of these things maybe isn't always the right word.
Speaker 2:It's just you're saying like the opposite of comfort which would be.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Sometimes suffering, sometimes discomfort, sometimes doing hard things sometimes.
Speaker 1:And it can be physical pain, emotional pain, financial pain, like. There's different types of pain that you can go through, and I'm not saying that all pain is Sometimes bad. Things just happen and it's not like and God didn't intend for the world to be that way, so I'm not talking about those things. But at the same time God can use those for his good. And actually that was the other passage that I had here that I didn't read through. But this is going to kind of cap off with Romans 8.28.
Speaker 1:But Romans 8.18, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
Speaker 1:For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
Speaker 1:For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
Speaker 1:For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now, and not only the creation but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies, for in this hope we were saved. Now, hope that is seen is not hope for who hopes for what he sees, but if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for, as we ought. But the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words, and he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God, and we know that, for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.
Speaker 2:That's such a good passage. What's the reference again?
Speaker 1:that was Romans 8, 18 through 28. And to be honest with you, I started just looking for Romans 8, 28, and I didn't realize that some of the other passage about how the world groans, like in birthing pains and that's another great example, right Because of the fall Eve was to bear children. And women know this. Men will never know this that you go through so much pain birthing a child, being pregnant and then birthing a child, but then look at the good thing that comes from it on the other side of things. So much so that, like afterwards, like when you and I talk, you tell me that you love the labor and no one would choose because of what it brings, and that's a perfect example.
Speaker 1:In order to have this blessing of a child, you have to go through pain for that child to come, and that's what I'm talking about. Is that most any good thing? Anything that you want, that you want to achieve, that you want to strive for on the other side of being sanctified, on the other side of being better, on the other side of financial freedom, on the other side of doing foster care and getting some of these sometimes amazing stories is pain Simply being refined in who you are as a human Right.
Speaker 2:I was just having this conversation with our son this week and he was talking about how he didn't want to keep doing this extracurricular activity because it was hard and uncomfortable for him. And I just explained to him that I understand that it's hard and uncomfortable, but it's in those very situations that that's where we grow. And so, just talking about this episode as a whole and what's the takeaway and what's the point and it sounds to me like your point is just encouragement of if you are going through hard things and deep and heavy waters and you are just feeling like beaten down, that that doesn't, it's not like. It's like, oh good, yeah, you're right on track. You, you're supposed to be beaten down and and all of these things. No, it's not that, but it's like this is part of life and it's just take heart can be good yeah, it can.
Speaker 2:You can grow in those seasons right um right where it says rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character. These are all great things. Character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. That's a great scripture, right there to share with your kids when they're walking through hard times. So as parents, it's like, yeah, we want to shield them from hard things, and we might even want to shield our spouse from going through hard things, but through those things, god will use them and he will refine us.
Speaker 2:And that's a beautiful thing. That doesn't mean we intentionally go jump through a fire or intentionally put ourselves in circumstances that are more than we can handle, but it just means that in this life we're stupid.
Speaker 1:Yeah to do yeah, or you don't burn your skin so that you can have the suffering, or as a foster like you have to know your limits.
Speaker 2:Like for us as a foster parent, it would become martyrdom when we say this is, this is the call that god placed in our life and we have five kids, but we need. There's more. We, we have to do all of it. We have to take on 50 kids. We have to get a better house and we have to get into debt, because this is, this is our right and that's what to carry.
Speaker 1:But that's where it's important to follow to, to listen to God, because he's not going to tell you to do something like that. If it's going to destroy you, right, he's. But the things he's going to call you to is going to require suffering and pain and discipline. So, just as we're finishing this out a little bit, we're finishing this out a little bit. So one thing, before I jump into just the next ending section, is I just want to remind people that you don't have to do this alone and we're not called to do it alone. God designed us for community. God has given us family. God has given us friends. You may have a team. It's like when you have a sports team. When you have a team sport, like basketball, football, like you're training and going through this together, you're linking arms. If you're in the military, like community, because part of our suffering is so that the world can see, because in a lot of ways, it's how you handle going through the pain and doing hard things that non-believers are watching. That draws them and attracts them to Christ is how you handle going through these things. Because they're going through things and they don't have God to lean on. They don't have Christ to lean on because they don't have a relationship with him. And so that's the other piece is that you have Christ, like when things are hard, like sometimes.
Speaker 1:I will now go on a walk and just have a conversation with God. How many times did Jesus leave the disciples to go out and walk away into the woods or somewhere isolated to just talk to God about it? So you have God, god has your back about it. So you have God, god has your back. So jumping into this a little bit. So this is why I just want to go back to we can't wallow in our suffering, we can't let ourselves become victims. We must endure, we must toughen up and we must just. Sometimes it's just taking the next step. Sometimes it's just moving and not sitting in the victimhood, not sitting in the suffering, but taking the next step forward. So I want to play. I was going to say it, but it's much better if I just play it, just listening to this. I'm not going to say what it is, because some of you are going to know what it is beforehand. I'll tell you afterwards, for probably all the ladies out there.
Speaker 3:Let me tell you something you already know the world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently, if you let it you. Nobody is going to hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done. Now, if you know what you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth. But you got to be willing to take the hits and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you want to be because of him or her or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain't you.
Speaker 1:It's Rocky, rocky, and he was talking to his son and a little bit later he goes on. But until you start believing in yourself, you ain't going to have a life. And I I caught that part and it just made me think of is, if you're sitting in your comfortable little bubble, what kind of a life is that? Is that a life worth living? Why do we love the stories of overcoming pain, overcoming hardship, overcoming suffering? We watch movies like Cinderella man, rocky, the Miracle on Ice. We love stories of the Patriots being down 30-something to nothing in the second half against the Falcons in the Super Bowl. We love to watch the video clips of Kobe tearing his Achilles, tending and toughening up and pushing forward and standing up and shooting two free throws on a torn Achilles and then walking himself back to the locker room. We love to hear the story of Michael Jordan playing with the flu. Michael Jordan had many other games where he scored more points and did more things, but he did it when he had the flu. We did it when he was going through pain and suffering. We love these stories. Those are the stories that are remembered, those are the stories that have impact.
Speaker 1:So if we're gonna help bring others to Christ. We have to follow Christ, follow God's plan for our life, have a relationship with him in the most genuine and possible way that we can, and then go out and serve and build and create. God created us to be like him and he is a creator, he's a builder, he serves. Jesus came not to be served but to serve, and we are to be like him. And when we do that, we're going to go through pain and suffering, and other Christians are going to see that and be inspired by it. Non-christians are going to be drawn to that. But if we live a life in a comfortable little bubble and we live a life without pain and suffering, is it truly a life worth living? And just to kind of finish this off, we don't intentionally make bad choices to get suffering. Trust me, you're going to get plenty of suffering by just trying to do what God's calling you to do. We choose to do hard things and suffering is a byproduct. It makes us stronger, it makes us more capable. It shows our weakness to the world. God uses that to bring others to him in order to meet others in their pain. It gives people hope. It brings them to Christ, because it's how we handle the pain and suffering. If not, we waste it and it's not a life worth living.
Speaker 1:You hear a lot in some sports references about fall in love with the process. You'll hear stories of and sports is such a good little microcosm of this. But you'll hear the stories of Kobe, michael Jordan, tom Brady. These people they win the Superbowl and then they're like kind of lost. Afterwards they're like what, what, what's next? This is it, cause everything they were working towards got them there. But then you hear them because these are repeat championship winners where they talk about you have to fall in love with the process. It's actually the process that you grow to love, the process of chasing the championship. So we need to fall in love with the pain. We need to fall in love with the suffering because we know what it produces. So just to wrap up, I want to say two things. I'm just going to repeat James 1, 2 through 4.
Speaker 2:Well before you do, because I think this goes right into the verse you're about to share.
Speaker 2:You're talking a lot about pain and suffering, and this verse is going to articulate this really well. So I know you're going to mention it, but the Christian life and life in general can also be very, very beautiful. It's a beautiful thing and, just like you're saying, you learn to love the process, you learn to love the heart, and there's so much satisfaction in doing things the right way, and the right way is often the hard way. And so, while, yeah, there is the pain and there is suffering and there are some things that just will never make sense, this life is also so beautiful and so fulfilling, and there's so much to live for and to get out of bed for in the morning, and so sometimes just knowing that you're living the life that God is calling to you is satisfaction enough, and sometimes it's so hard you can't even be, you can't even recognize that, but always it's good and it's beautiful, and that's where, like, that community piece comes in, because they can remind you of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I would just say I mean, you bring up a good point. But what is the? Is it Jocko Willink that says discipline? Discipline equals freedom, because you're disciplined through a lot of this action, this suffering, this pain, and because of that it can, it grows you, it makes you better. So there is a freedom that comes from that. Like if you go through the, you're in debt. Let's say you put yourself in debt and we've done our debt update piece and we put ourselves through the pain of getting out of debt by cutting back, of maybe not enjoying some of the material things of this world now to get ourselves out of debt. There is a freedom that comes after that Just, and they call it financial freedom.
Speaker 1:So you do see the fruits of your labor in even here, sometimes in a lot of ways, and what we don't see, the fruits here, we'll get to see in heaven. So there is absolutely. There's enjoyment and beautifulness out of developing and growing through through all of these things. So James 1, 2 through 4 says I'm just. I know I read it earlier, but I'm repeating it again. 2-4 says I know I read it earlier, but I'm repeating it again Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its full effect so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing and I would say, if you look at that, that lacking in nothing that's a beautiful thing and that's freedom. So the last thing I want to say ends on a little bit of a lighter note, but anytime you've heard me talk about this, or people that know me, I just want you to understand my heart, as in. This is why I do the 75 Hard Challenges.
Speaker 1:The 75 hard challenges because when Andy Frisella created it, it was listening to the podcast and he was meeting with the iron cowboy and the iron cowboy talked about how he intentionally puts himself through little like little suffering to create mental toughness, to test himself, to create mental toughness to test himself. And that's really what 75 hard is. It's not about me looking a certain way physically or any of that. It's about, and it's not even about really the health piece. For me physically, it is about the mental toughness piece, and I know I keep doing it because I need it, because if I'm not training that muscle, training that mental toughness muscle, I notice myself starting to fall backwards and starting to slack in that place.
Speaker 1:I'm naturally lazy, I naturally don't want to do these things, so I have to continue to work and grow that muscle and I feel like 75 Hard is a way for me to intentionally control putting myself through a smaller amount than some of the big things of life, but intentionally it's a program that I can put myself through to help train that mental toughness piece, that mental toughness piece, because sometimes, guys, we just need to toughen up. We just need to persevere and push through with Christ, with the support of our community, with the support of our family or spouse or whomever, but ultimately with the support of Christ, if he's all you even have of Christ, if he's all you even have. But we just need to. Sometimes we have to toughen up. We can't be fall victim, we can't be so weak and soft and wallow in that, because that is not a life worth living. Bye.