Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all.
Hebrews 12:7,8
When Pete Seeger wrote “Turn! Turn! Turn,” it became an international hit. And when it was recorded by The Byrds[1], it became the number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. I can still hear the electric guitars and lyrics from deep inside the memory of my early teen years.
The song basically repeats the wise words of King Solomon[2]. He told his people and anyone listening that there were different times in life. Different seasons where we did different things. Where we changed dying and uprooting to healing and building. We all can learn a lot by listening to these immortal and true words.
Both Solomon and Seeger knew something. That to get people’s attention, they had to motivate people to do something. And like all good advertising plans or social media posts, there’s a call to action. There’s something to do. Something to change. You can’t just read these words and sit still. We’re energized and motivated to get up. To take action. And there’s nothing wrong with this.
And while there are definitely times to get up and do something, this isn’t what the Hebrews needed to hear. God’s plan for them wasn’t to change gears. To get up and move to someplace else. To do something different. For them, God’s perfect plan was even harder than leaving their jobs and going to a different place.
I know that this is really hard to imagine or understand, but the absolutely best thing for these Hebrews was to basically do nothing. They were to stay right there. Even though they were under deep and intense persecution, God’s plan was for them to stay right there.
But why? What good could possibly come from staying there? How could God use their persecution and pain for anything? What’s wrong with God anyway? Isn’t he powerful enough to defend them? To take care of their persecutors? And isn’t God good? How can anything but suffering come from persecution?
Didn’t God tell Elijah to run away from Ahab[3]? Didn’t Jesus himself walk away from people that were going to kill him[4]? Didn’t he pull away from people and go into the mountains[5]? Didn’t he leave Judea and go back to Galilee to avoid the Pharisees[6]?
Yes, there are times to go someplace else. To leave one job and start another. To take up a new hobby. Make a new friend. And while there are times to do something, there are also times that we just need to sit still. To stay right where we are.
When God asks us to stay right where we are, even when we’re going through pain and persecution, there’s something more important going on. Something of greater significance and bigger benefit for us. But it comes at a high price. That price is staying right where we are. As good as stopping pain and persecution is, there are those important times where we just need to be still and know that God is God[7].
For the Hebrews, their staying where they were had a very important goal. Staying was the only way to show if they were going to endure. By not running away, by not trying to get out, they were showing something to God. To one another. To the world. And to themselves.
Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.
Deuteronomy 8:2
God’s discipline was going to show the proof about where they were God’s children. Or not. Yes, God knows everything, but they didn’t. It was going to be their own words, thoughts, actions, and attitudes that would convince them about themselves.
It’s the same for you and me. It’s the best tool on God’s toolbelt. When he humbles and tests us, it’s to see exactly what’s going on inside our heart and soul. As someone put it, the only way to prove what’s inside the teabag is to put it in some hot water and let it sit a while. As hard as it is to think about or understand, this time of pain is to train. God is personally involved with teaching us something that we can’t learn any other way. Yes, the road is rough, but it’s the only path to get to where God wants to take us.
Noodling Questions
What kind of time of life are you living in today? Describe.
Who are we running away from? Towards?
Describe the tests that have made the biggest change in your life.
[2] Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
[3] 1 Kings 17:2,3
[4] Luke 4:30
[5] John 6:15
[6] John 4:1-3
[7] Psalm 46:10
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