Skip to main content

Are You in Trouble?

Trouble
When we get in trouble as kids, we expect to get punished. And we tend to carry that expectation into our relationship with God. But let me suggest that some of us need a new theology of trouble. I like what the Bible says about trouble: “This trouble you’re in isn’t punishment; it’s training,…
By Seth Barnes

1505

When we get in trouble as kids, we expect to get punished. And we tend to carry that expectation into our relationship with God. But let me suggest that some of us need a new theology of trouble.

I like what the Bible says about trouble: “This trouble you’re in isn’t punishment; it’s training, the normal experience of children.” (Heb 12:7-8)

So, trouble is training.

And it follows calling. It’s a beautiful thing to have a call from God. God speaks to you and says something like he said to Peter: “Follow me and let’s make disciples.”

When God calls you, you know in advance that you’re going to be in trouble. He’ll use trouble to create in you the character and humility you need to follow that call. When he allows you to experience pain, he’s testing the quality of your commitment to your call.

So if your call has cost you, I say, “Bravo!” You are the real deal. You are getting the standard operating equipment that he gives all his sons and daughters.

I am often in trouble

When Karen and I followed a call, it was costly. I was tempted to believe the lie that all the stuff I had to go through to follow my call was somehow unique – maybe a signal that I’d misunderstood what God was saying.

But the truth is, Adventures was birthed in trouble and rejection. I made it two years in my prior place of employment before being let go. I was looking for a place to hide and lick my wounds and wound up setting up shop – Adventures‘ first office – in our garage, by the rakes, bags of clothes for the Good Will.
 
I told God, “I’m tired of this life of ministry. I don’t like how hard it is. I really would like to do something else.”

And he responded, “Don’t grow weary in doing good.”

I was thankful that we were still on speaking terms, but it wasn’t what I wanted to hear.

God reminded me, he had called me to follow a man who was born into trouble and rejection. Jesus’ parents had to struggle just to find a place where he could be born. Soon after that they were on the lam from the law, skipping town and outrunning the authorities.

And when he grew up, he was constantly in trouble. When Jesus first started following his call to ministry, he stirred up so much trouble that those who heard him were furious and “drove him out of town…in order to throw him down a cliff.” (Luke 4)

When you study his life, you see that Jesus was perpetually getting into and out of trouble and that he has called us to follow his example.

You’re in trouble too

As I look around the world at all the places Adventures is working, there’s a common theme – we seem to go to troubled places. Little girls caught in the sex trade in the Philippines, Thailand and Cambodia – all in trouble. Orphans struggling just to eat all over Africa. People everywhere caught up in a confusing legalism that they think is God’s idea.

And we, the staff of Adventures, ourselves struggle to break free of the trouble that attends our call. The Espositos and Kayes in Nicaragua. The Burders in Ireland. The Gerbers in Swaziland. Read their prayer letters – they see trouble and breakthroughs every day.

It’s part of God’s equipping. And it’s the natural consequence of taking on an enemy that has staked a claim that he doesn’t want to give up.

Learning to love the garage 

I learned to not despise my trouble or my time in the garage. I learned that if you’ve got a dream that God gave you and the world needs, then God probably has a garage, a place of humbling, for you to start in.

And when he allows trouble to shape your character and confirm your call, he has a message he’s whispering to you:  Your surroundings don’t dictate your potential.

Too many of us have never seen our trouble or our garage for what it is – a place of humble beginnings. There are things we’re hanging onto in our lives that have lost their usefulness and are getting in the way of God’s dream. When we’re in trouble, he’s cleaning house.

Here are a couple of questions:

Are you seeing the trouble in your life from God’s perspective?

What garage does God want to move you to in order to birth his dreams?

We mustn’t be afraid of the humble place.  The dream we’ve been dreaming for 25 years at Adventures is that a generation of radical disciples would rise up and go to the nations to set captives free.

We’ve seen signs of hope, though it’s nothing like a movement yet. But if we put our ear to the ground, I think we may hear the distant rumblings that tell us it’s coming.

The media and even many Christians who look at this generation may see a valley of dry bones. But I see young men and women gifted with trouble and finding their garage. It may look as bare and smelly as a manger, but it’s a place where God’s dreams are birthed.

His dreams are so big and so world-changing that he has to introduce us to trouble so that we’ll be equipped with humility before he equips us with power.

As you face into your trouble today, remember, it’s a fulfillment of Jesus’ promise: “In this world you will have trouble.”

But please be en-couraged by what he says next:

“Take courage, for I have overcome the world.”

Comments (23)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

about team

Loading