City Life Starter

Written by Megan Meier

The Word

“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,…”

Romans 5:3-4 (ESV)

Megan’s Musings

Suffering produces character, eh? Reminds me of someone:

Calvin’s dad in the Calvin and Hobbes comic is always trying to build character in his (quite lazy and naughty) son. Throughout the ten-year strip run, Calvin did not develop one ounce of character. Besides the humor factor, why is that? 

Nobody likes being told “(fill in the blank) builds character” it even feels patronizing and discouraging, especially if someone is going through a tough time, so here’s one last comic:

I’m guessing Dad even annoys Mom with his well-meaning character tirades. 

Instead of saying, “suffering builds character”, I’ll tell you what happened to me last week: I was in my car about to drive to work when I realized something was wrong. For one thing, the car tilted a bit to the left, and the dashboard read, “Low tire pressure”, I thought, oh no. I got out and found my front driver tire completely flat. I had no spare tire or time to change it if I had one, but I miraculously managed to get to work on time, albeit in a very miffed mood. As I got ready for the work day, it dawned on me I had a choice: I could continue to pout and let my bad mood ruin not only my day but everyone else’s, OR I can see this not as a bad day, I only had a bad two minutes. And my perspective changed, then branched out to my facial expression and posture. As the work day ended and I was thinking about writing this devotional, I realized endurance, character, and hope are choices (mind blown ). I could have chosen to pout all day, but I wouldn’t have had the more positive perspective. In fact, I wrote my notes for this devo while waiting for a new tire. 

Nobody likes suffering. Nobody. Living was difficult enough in the apostle Paul’s time, but add on being a Christ-follower in an environment hostile to Christianity, yikes. Paul is writing to the Christ-following Romans to change their perspective about their suffering, to rejoice in a godly way. He’s not saying this in a patronizing “suffering builds character” manner (he had his fair share of suffering himself), he’s leading it up to the true goal of Jesus. Seeing hard times in light of God’s goodness and grace leads to endurance (or perseverance) in His way, then the habit becomes godly character, then the direction leads to hope in God. The end result is the hope in Jesus Christ and His Promise of Heaven.

Oh, and back to why Calvin never built character, he just didn’t want to.  

Application

A couple of book recommendations on the power of perspective change are Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl and See You at the Top by Zig Ziglar (or listen to the audiobook, he was a great motivational speaker). 

Problems will happen, you’re probably having some now. If you’re going through a rough patch, talk to someone, whether it’s a trusted Christ-following friend or a counselor, depending on your situation. But first, take it to God, He already knows what you’re going through and wants to be close to you (Psalm 34:18). 

Prayer

Dear Lord, help me to see You when problems arise. Let the suffering lead to endurance, character, and hope. In Jesus’ Name I pray, amen.