| |

How to Live in A Broken World

How to Live in A Broken World  -christyfitzwater.com

I published a segment of this post three years ago, but I have extended it and am sharing it again, because this message is on my heart.

Pollyana is one of my favorite old movies. A young girl comes to a stuffy, crabby town and transforms it with her cheerful outlook and her ability to see good where no one else can see it. She talks about how her preacher father looked through the Bible and found enough ā€œglad textsā€ for every day of the year.

And now the U.S. Army is employing gladness as a preparation for soldiers before they go on tour of duty. The soldiers are taught to ā€œhunt the good stuff.” Listen to this six-minute, intriguing interview on NPR entitledĀ Classes Teach Soldiers to Be ‘Army Strong’.

Paul issues two commands:

Endure hardshipĀ with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. (2 Timothy 2:3 NIV)

and

Give thanks in all circumstances. (1 Thessalonians 5:18 NIV)

One way to study the Bible is to do addition. If we add these two verses together, what instruction do we end up with? I’m trying to absorb the idea that thanking God for the good in every circumstance equips a person to be able to endure hardship.

When I was young I read The Hiding Place, the story of Corrie Ten Boom whose family helped hide Jews in World War II, and they all went to a Nazi death camp because of it. She was annoyed when her sister thanked God for the lice in the camp. Betsy told her she was thankful because the lice kept the soldiers out of the barracks, which allowed theĀ womenĀ to meet together to read the Bible and encourage one another.

Over the last few days, the Lord has sobered me about the times in which we live. I recently saw pictures of an elderly woman standing distraught in earthquake rubble in Nepal. Then I saw an image of aĀ man smashing a police car window in Baltimore. Our family had a discussion about the scary demise of the honeybee. And just yesterday I saw a pornographic magazine right at the supermarket checkout and then went to a toy story where one of the featured games was titled with a cuss word in bold letters.

I can see my dad leaning his arms on his knees, after we watched a documentary on the holocaust in Nazi Germany.

These things will happen again, he said to me over and over when I was growing up.Ā You need to look at them. You need to ask yourself how you will live when times are bad.

How will we live?

I want to be the Betsy Ten Boom of my generation. I want to know what is good and right and act on it. When everything is horrific all around me, I want you to hear me praising the Lord and thanking him for his blessings. The worse things get, the more I want to shine with the joy of the Lord.

Being able to endure hardship in a broken world means actively looking for God’s goodness in every situation, and that is a skill we can practice and hone to perfection starting this very day.

What can you thank the Lord for today?

7 Comments

  1. What a positive post. Thank you. It’s hard to remain positive in this world if you watch/read the world news. A good reminder to let our ‘light shine’ in this world and to share the Good News.

    1. Yes, if all we do is read the news we are going to live in depression. We have to have an action to take against the blackness of it.

  2. Very powerful and true words !
    It’s so easy to be overwhelmed and overcome with the World and what it throws in your face everyday . I find it hard and frustrating trying to navigate my children through it all . I want them to maintain their innocence and joy for life and not be bombarded by the ugliness of a sinful World . I am trying to teach them to guard their eyes and hearts .
    This is a very good point you make here to find the good in things . We should just simply praise God for who He is when you can’t find anything else good in the World .
    And if nothing else it makes us see the World for what it really is , not to get comfy and that this place is not our Home !
    Thank you for these compelling words today Christy .
    – Leticia Justus – KingMakerBlog.com

    1. Oh yes, our children. How do we raise children in this? One one hand we have to try to guard them from evil. On the other hand, we have to equip them for when they inevitably come up against it.

  3. Aimee Weller says:

    Thank you Christy. I so needed this today.

  4. Amber Pippin says:

    I loved this blog today. It was so good. And so real. Thank you for sharing your heart with us.

Comments are closed.