The 1st Lesson

1. Hard work, because there is no lion in the street (Proverbs 22) and even if there is we may be called to slay it with our bare hands like David or sit amongst them like Daniel or tame it like the Ringling Brothers. Prayer is hard work. There is no formula or easy way around it – it requires commitment both to prayer and to being in right relationship with God – both of these require a lot of work, over and over again. Last summer I spent a week in Western Canada ministering with my parents at “Bush Camp”, our annual outreach to the children of our Native community. An old friend of the family and respected man of the community, Sam Adolph, was there teaching children how to make drums and other Native crafts. I sought him out to have a drum made so that I could give it to George and Drena as a gift for giving me this year with them. Next time I will be careful what I ask for, because as I discovered, the brunt of the work happened to be skinning the fat, the extra skin and the hair off of the hide to make this wonderful idea of a drum. After an hour of this agonizing, back wrenching work, I had formulated many different ways to make this job easier in my head and I share them with Sam. With a wise grin and a slow start he said, “You know Nathan… I’ve tried every trick in the book and none of them work better than elbow grease. That’s all it is, elbow grease” And then he let out a reassuring chuckle. Something told me, he knew what he was talking about. The famous of author of “Orthodoxy”, G.K. Chesterton shared his thoughts about “elbow grease” by stating, “The Christian ideal has not been found tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult and left untried”. Paul Little has said, “The most crucial battle in our lives is the continuing one of securing enough time alone in the presence of God. Our spiritual vigor and vitality in everything else depend on the outcome of this battle.” I finish this point with a quote from John Stott - “The thing I know will give me the deepest joy – namely, to be alone and unhurried in the presence of God, aware of His presence, my heart open to worship Him – is often the thing I least want to do.” The fact that it is just a lot of hard work makes it easier to embrace because I know that I don’t have to wait for the magic formula to hit me. It’s not that there is something necessarily wrong with me, I just need to keep at it and work hard. There’s freedom in that – to just go for it.

The 2nd Lesson

2. Risk taking – fixed results give fixed results – risk gives you something you could have never thought of. It may require some encouragement and a good company of like-minded individuals that really are a team. Many like to think of courage as done by the lone-ranger but more often it is done in the midst of fellowship with those who encourage you to go for it, to take the chance. Remember, “en-courage” means “to enable courage in someone else”. God consistently is speaking these words to us, but many times they are drowned out by false guilt, lies of the enemy, or bad company who only see as Lot did, with his senses, and not like Abraham did, through the eyes of faith. This is to see what is already, but not yet, what could be and what will be. Risk taking is necessary, without a challenge, there is little or slow growth.

The 3rd Lesson

3.Patience and long-suffering. We are to be a people that are not driven by results. We cannot only orient ourselves to our expectations – God wants so much more for us and this requires waiting at times. The suffering our world is facing is already impossible, so it requires a hope that cannot and will not be based on results if anything is to be done. Many good missionaries leave the mission field because they didn’t see the results they expected. We see this in broken marriages as well. As the bride of Christ, be ready to love based on principles, upon character, and upon what you have received freely from God, not on results. Nothing else will do and then be prepared to be disappointed.

The 4th Lesson

4. Anguish. It is a high calling. If you want to be invited into the heart of God, right into the center, embrace anguish. Don’t believe the enemy of our souls when he tells you to protect your heart from hurt, from pain, when he tells you not to care and to transcend the circumstances. You don’t need to look for pain, it will come, but when it does don’t hide from it, let it do what it is supposed to do. God endures pain all day, it’s like a full-time job to Him. If God were to talk about what He did all day, like most of us do after work, I’m sure He would share from the deep anguish of His heart (although not only). I shiver to think what would happen if God disconnected from the pain that we cause Him and decided to care less about us or not at all. Anguish is a stewardship and I personally find it very easy to not be a faithful steward of pain. It is a part of life – we have to accept it and the more that we give ourselves to loving others truly with the love of God, the more painful life will become. C.S. Lewis has said, “The opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference.” So if you want to know God, know anguish and let it steep you in His love. Many are looking to replace anguish with happiness but only true joy comes in the midst of Anguish. George often quotes Billy Graham by saying, “Life at its best is filled with sorrow.” Many have experienced this and know it, and yet more are trying to escape it and as a result they are missing the blessings that their hearts so long for. The very actions that we make to reduce pain and suffering are the same actions that are stealing from us the very thing we desire from those actions.