“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 NIV
When we are facing adversity and a spiritual battle, it is easy to blame God and to beg Him to remove us from it. “Why me?” is something that easily falls from our lips instead of gratitude and worship. We think if we are doing battle, God is picking on us, or just AWOL. Libraries and librarians, as well as Christians, are facing a lot of adversity and uncertainty currently, and many of us are facing them in our personal lives as well.
I am in a season of adversity and spiritual battle, but as I walk through it, I find myself encouraged and growing in my relationship with Him. It is easy to trust and praise God when everything is going smoothly—it’s harder when you face down attacks from the enemy and your own mind until you find yourself crying out the accusation, Where are You, God? Don’t You care?!
Charles Dickens beautifully captures in two sentences what suffering in adversity does for us, “Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but—I hope—into a better shape.[1]” Suffering shows us God’s heart, deepens and strengthens our relationship, and teaches us to trust Him as we “hope—into a better shape.” I see this as the shape of the cross as we cling to it and ask Jesus to help us. I have moved out of “Why me, God?” and into “Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to witness Your glory.”
I’ve come to understand that adversity builds my faith (when I surrender it to Him). It is easy to think we want unshakeable faith like the people in the Bible, but have you ever thought about how they achieved such strong faith? Moses, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, David, all the prophets, the apostles—How?! How could they believe?! It is easy to read their accounts and miss the miracles—we know God shows up. When we face trials in our own lives, we can’t skip ahead, and so often our faith falters because we don’t trust that God is with us. We forget that when they faced the trials in scripture, they were wondering, God, where are You? Don’t You care? The fiery furnace is a great example of what we should do. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego tell the king, “. . . He will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if He does not . .” (Daniel 3:17-18 AMP). “Even if He does not. . .” Is my faith that strong? Can I face down death and say, “Even if” God doesn’t—I will? We would rather not face the fire. We want God to show up and prevent our fiery furnace; however, I have come to understand that when He puts me in the fire, it’s to forge me into something stronger.
When this season of battle started for me, I did a lot of asking God, “Why?” but where I am now and where I started are not the same. Within the last couple weeks, I finally got back to being able to fully praise and worship God because I quit asking “Why?” and started saying, “Even if. . .” My trust and love of God are not dependent on my circumstances, my salary, or my title. My identity is in Christ—I am the highly-favored daughter of the King, bought at a price and set free to do His good works. He is with me. He has asked me to step into the fire and shown me such an outpouring of love and support that it has brought me to tears and to my knees. He sees me; He sees you too. He knows everything you’re facing. He wants to walk with you, but He needs your yes, your surrender, and your “Even if. . .” so He can forge you into “a better shape.”
[1] Charles Dickens, Great Expectations (New York: Open Road Integrated Media, Inc., 1998), ProQuest eBook Central.
Chris Labuda
Chris is the Reference & Instructional Librarian at Pittsburg State University. She has been an ACL member since 2021 and currently resides in Pittsburg, KS.