I'm making an attempt in this post to help a friend. As far as I know he has never read anything that I write....as a matter of fact he doesn't read much of anything at all. He first believed in Jesus Christ in....I'm not exactly sure....but it was either 1980 or 1981....before I first believed in Jesus Christ. I will have to print this out and ask him to read it.
He has had things happen to him in these four decades that would cause other men to totally give up on any ties to the Christian faith. I knew another man way back when....who also had come to Christ before I had.....and he was very vocal in his faith. He lost his father suddenly....and his wife left him. He then vocally and openly out right rejected the faith for which he was known. We talked about this once....and he told me that he...."makes no bones about it".....he no longer believes.
My friend who I'm addressing in this post has had three wives literally walk out on him....taken in by the 'real' excitement of the world. I watched this happen all three times. He also has physical pain problems that multiple doctors have been unable to identify let alone treat. Consequently he has struggled much. The world might give his struggles a label from psychology....but I have known him well for all these years....and this depth of despair is spiritual in nature.
Legend has it that Luther once threw an inkwell at the Devil in his room at Wartburg Castle. I can't even imagine what Luther went through in those days. Depression to Spurgeon was debilitating at times. I heard R. C. Sproul talk about his depression caused by detractors. I could feel the hurt in his voice. There are too many notable Christian ministers of the past that suffered greatly to even attempt to give a list.
So this friend of mine....he would stand up....and go on....and then at some point fall again under the weight of the pain....and it may have taken some time....but he would stand up again....and go on again....and at some point be knocked down again.
Talking to him today....that seems to be all that he can remember....getting knocked down. I was there...and what I remember most....is him getting back up! How many of us would do that? He probably got up a dozen times over the years. Some of his falls he surely brought on himself.....we all do that....but the fact remains....he got up more than anyone else that I have personally known.
I'm going to make an odd statement. Wow....that doesn't sound like me....but these 'depths'....in the long run.....are blessings. If a Christian man has never experienced these depths....these deeps....then he should at least wonder why. Has he never disturbed the enemy....never even gotten their attention? We are not tin soldiers....playing at soldiering. There is real fear...and real wounds. There are a lot of medals given away today in evangelicalism....the best seats in the synagogue....conference engagements....honorary degrees. Many of these are surely deserved but Martyn Lloyd-Jones comes to mind. He didn't want the adulation....or his name in lights....and often scorned it. He only wanted one thing....His Lord's approbation on that day of judgment that is to come! So there are no medals for my friend....for he is a grunt....unknown in the halls of power....with no war correspondents around....other than me....and I want to give him his due.
He has no rank....but he has something better. He was the lost sheep....and that means that the Good Shepherd Himself had come out to look for him! I want him to stop looking at his falls....and start looking at forty years of....when necessary....which was often....getting up! He has the Purple Hearts to prove his service.
One more thing I would tell him. How many Christian men can look at all of their children....and be sure as well as we can be sure....that they are Christ's....eternally Christ's....born from above....redeemed? In this modern church age....from my experience over four decades....those statistics leave a lot to be desired....where Christian parents hardly even think about whether their children are actually born again....whatever that might be....but my friend has three children....(now this is in process as I type)....but he may....in baseball terms....wind up three for three....in delivering his children to the risen Christ! What more success can there be than that!
