by Randal Matheny

Take the last six weeks. Please. (Just kidding.) Here's a little list of what's been happening in our congregation over the last month and a half:

• Suicide attempt • Personal financial disaster(s) • Sexual immorality • Cancer • Victims of robbery • Marital separation and reconciliation • Prolonged unemployment • Persecution

And we have "only" about 40 Christians in the congregation! We're not exactly Corinth redivivus, but we've had our share of problems.

That's why Hebreus 12.7 spoke loud and clear to me recently.

"Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline?"

Many things we bring upon ourselves, yet the resulting bumps and lumps can teach us something. And it seems some of us (if not all) have a lot to learn.

There is much we can do to avoid the lumps. We can go a long way in avoiding a lot of suffering. We can

• Live like Jesus. • Soak up the wisdom of God. • Learn from others' mistakes. • Be frugal in personal spending, generous toward others. • Work hard, even for a meager salary. • Be squeaky-clean honest. • Show bend-over-backwards kindness. • Turn the other cheek. • Let resentment shrivel on the vine. • Eat right, sleep well, wake up with a smile.

The more we add to this list the more we can make the first one shorter. But in spite of it all, sufferings will come. We cannot but involve ourselves in the problems of Christian friends and family members. Sickness pops in for a visit when we least want it. Persecution comes calling when we feel least prepared to meet it.

What then?

Back to Hebrews 12.7. "Endure." It's no easy row to hoe. There's no softening the blow. Sometimes we feel as if we're in the ring with the heavy-weight champion slugging away at us.

The Lord helps, he wants us to take a lesson to heart, wants us to draw closer to him, but from somewhere down deep we have to pull out the desire, the determination, the decision to endure.

The fog may be so thick I can't tell which way is up. The mud may be so deep I can barely extract my foot with a thluck.

My problems mixed with your problems, and our problems piled in on their problems seem to constitute the perfect motive for bailing out of the church. That's what the Hebrew Christians were doing, and we're tempted to do the same.

The Hebrew writer tells us we're in the right place (10.19-25). The place where problems and sufferings and sins are seen for what they are, dealt with as they should be, examined for lessons to be learned.

We're in the right place. Stick it out. Endure.

It's a sign, says Hebrews, God is treating you as his child.