Like rich men and camels

1 James, a bond- servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings.
2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:1-4 NASB)

When it rains it pours. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard that old saying in my life. Meaning that when one trial comes…many come at once. And all too often it’s true. How is it that just at the moment in life when things start to get rough, just when we feel like we might can manage under the stresses coming our way at that time…that so many more just flood us?

Life has a way of throwing things at us in ways we never expect or are prepared for. Or so it seems. Many attribute all these things to life, to chance, to happening without ever knowing there was a greater Hand at work in it all. They chalk it all up to coincidence or bad luck.

But Scripture clearly tells us that there is a method to the madness. There is a reason. There is a purpose. There is a plan.

And there is a higher power…a holy God…controlling it all.

But what happens when a person begins to feel that even that Holy God has turned against them? When those trials become too much to bear and thoughts turn to how even the Lord has gone against us…what then?

If we are truly in Christ we may feel that way…I didn’t think it possible until recently when the many trials I have faced lately became just one too many…for a time. How long that time will last most likely will depend on many things. The biggest of those things is how long the Lord will let us stay there.

I was there not all that long ago. My every moment was weighed down with the pains and cares placed upon me by this world…by my Lord…and I struggled through each day. My human mind couldn’t handle the most recent…one in a line of many…trial that I was placed in. And I lost my focus. I struggled. I cried. I hurt.

But I did it all alone.

I forgot…in that pain…to turn to my Lord. And in forgetting I lost the Hope that lives in me. The Hope that lets me face each day, each trial, just a little bit easier.

And while I was in that time…while I was focusing on the hurt and not the Hope…I got weighed down. I forgot…for a time…that I needed to cling tighter to Christ.

I remember once, years ago, when I felt like the Lord was doing something in my life. What He was doing I couldn’t see but I could feel that He was working in me…changing me…changing my life. I remember that in my prayers I said something like ‘you’re taking me somewhere, aren’t you’ and realized as soon as I said it that He is always taking me somewhere.

Some days He gently guides me by the hand, leading me around every hole in the ground, every rock that might make me stumble and other days…

Other days he shoves me head first into a pit of unknown dangers. At least there are days when it feels that way. On those days…which are really times and not necessarily days…I barely manage to get my feet under me before the rug is yanked away. Sometimes what’s under the rug is solid floor and sometimes it’s a deep dark hole that I must tumble through.

Those are trials. They are tribulations. They are tests to my faith.

Sometimes I pass the tests.

And sometimes I fail.

But either way…the Lord always brings me through it. He always reminds me that my hope is in Him. And so is my life. In the good and the bad. He has a plan and a purpose for my life and because he does…there is a method to the madness.

Life in general is much like a roller coaster. Everyone has good days and bad days. They have good times and bad times. There are times of plenty and times of little. There are times when we are so happy we can’t see straight. And times when we hurt so much we can’t see at all.

I told my daughter a couple of months ago that it isn’t in our good times that we grow and learn but in the hard times. It’s in those moments that we must struggle and hurt that we grow and mature.

As parents we want so much to save our children from all suffering. We want them to be happy and to have the things they need…and all too often want…of this world. But we often forget that as Christians…it’s a whole different story. Scripture tells us that it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to go to heaven.

So why do we cater to our children? Why do we give them everything we can so that they have better earthly lives?

I spent so many years as a parent trying to give my children…everything. I didn’t want them to know when times got hard. I wanted them to feel secure. I did my best to give them security in everything…in our finances, in our home, in me. In everything.

And then one day…things changed. Suddenly, with little warning. And it shook my children’s world. The younger ones bounced back rather quickly. The middle ones had a little tougher time. But the oldest…oh, the oldest…it took months and much angst before there was any semblance of recovery. And the trial…wasn’t even a horrible experience. Only a change in life and circumstances.

But because I had gone to such lengths to keep everything secure…to see to it that the children knew as little suffering as possible…my children suffered when that change came.

How prepared are our children for the trials and tribulations of life when we protect them from the bumps in the road along the way?

How prepared are we for the mountains when we rarely climb the little hills?

I speak of children only because that time in our lives when things changed suddenly stands out so much as I write this. It reminds me of the very truth in camels going through needles verses rich men getting to heaven.

We may not see ourselves or our children as being rich but no matter how poor we are…people in America are generally richer than people in a good part of the world. Our children may grow up with parents that struggle to pay the bills but how many times do we find a way to get them as much of the ‘I want this’ that we can squeeze from our meager funds? And when the funds are greater…so are the ‘I wants’.

I remember in my teen, when I was ready for my first car, my grandmother loaned me the money to make a down payment on a car that only cost me $1,200.00 total. But I had to put a down payment on it and make payments until it was paid off. I not only made payments on the car but I made payments on the money my grandmother had loaned me to get the car. I bought my own gas, paid for my insurance and tags.

That car was my first taste of financial responsibility. I remember how hard I worked to make the money to make those payments and to keep that car. I was 17 years old, in high school, and raising a child that wasn’t mine.

I remember, too, how a few years later my grandmother bought my younger cousin a truck with a price tag in the thousands. That cousin was given that truck with no expectation of paying back a single penny of the price. That cousin paid for nothing of it’s expense.

At the time I remember thinking of how I had worked to pay off my car…which had cost a fraction of the price of my cousins truck…and how I had been expected to repay the few hundred dollars I had been loaned as the down payment for my car. At the time I think I may have had some hard feelings over that. But as time went on…as I saw the difference in how I matured as I worked for my car…and how my cousin didn’t…I was grateful things had worked our for me as they had.

Now, as I write this, as I remember that time in my life, I think of the camel and the rich man. I think of the lessons I learned in the struggle to pay for a car that cost so little. I remember how I agonized over the expense of vehicle repairs…but I got them done. I remember how happy I was to see new tires on my car the day I could finally afford to get them.

And I remember how careful I was with that car.

I knew better than to let it run out of oil because I would have to pay to have the damage repaired. I knew better than to leave the keys in the ignition because I would have to buy another car if that one got stolen.

Those are lessons that I learned well and still apply today.

I think, too, of the many Christmas toys that were short lived. Of the sometimes minutes that they held my children’s attention. And then I think of how that changed when the toys being received on Christmas dwindled. I think of how as my children learned to work for their own money, to buy their own toys, to understand that there would be less on Christmas morning, how they made wiser ‘I want’ lists. How they understood just what that toy they were given was worth.

They still leave their toys in the floor. They still grow bored with them. They still make ‘I want’ lists a mile long. But they also understand a little better…because they’ve had to buy some of those toys themselves…just what it takes to get them.

And I think of the camel and the rich man.

As a child I grew up with many struggles. Like everyone in all of time, those struggles came and went. There were hard times and there were easy times. Good times and awful times. There were times I would have stayed in forever and times I couldn’t wait to escape. But when I look back on my own childhood and I look at my children’s I can see that I succeeded in protecting them from so much of the bumps of childhood. That’s good, right? Isn’t it what all of us as parents try to do?

But in the end do I want my child to be a camel or a rich man?

Do I want them to learn and grow because they had to struggle a while or do I want them to despair because they are protected from the struggles, because I do all that I possibly can for them, and then have to watch them reach despair when they must face hills that I can’t route them around…long before they ever have to climb a mountain.

And I think of the camel and the rich man.

And I think of me. Of my own life. Of my hurts, my pain, my trials.

I remember reading something years ago about how the Mennonites go through life looking at everything as heaven is the goal. Then they ask themselves if whatever they are doing…getting…thinking about…will get them closer to that goal or further away from it.

I have no idea if they really do that or if it was something someone wrote somewhere because it’s what they think the Mennonites do. And I know that whether heaven is our goal or not…nothing we do will get us there so that thought process is futile. But I found it to be an interesting idea at the time that I read it and I find it interesting now.

Not because we can get ourselves to heaven through the things we do or do not do, but because of the camel and the rich man. Because I worked for my car and my cousin didn’t. Because I see the difference in how I handled problems of all sizes and how my children do.

Heaven is attainable only if the Lord choses us to be the recipient of the gift of salvation. But…if heaven is the goal…would we rather be camels or rich men? Even in life…when trials and tribulations come…would we rather struggle through the hills so the mountains don’t seem quite as hard or as high…or would we rather never climb a hill and then have to scale a mountain?

Trials have come my way, in what at times has seemed like one after another this year. There have been times that I barely got over the worst of the pain from one trial before another one hit. I am on the mountain. I must climb it. It’s been a difficult climb and it’s not over yet. But how much harder would it have been if I’d never scaled a hill?

I wrote some time ago about how the Lord places things in our lives to prepare us for the plan He has for us. My childhood prepared me for the road I would walk as an adult. My teen years prepared me for my adult years. My years as a mother prepared me for my years as a grandmother. My years as a young woman prepared me for my years as an old woman… There are probably millions of things in my life…most of which I know nothing of…that have prepared me for something. They were stepping stones that laid the ground for what was or is to come.

The most important groundwork was that which was laid to prepare me for the day the Lord would save me. We are told time and again in Scripture that Christ is the foundation, He is the cornerstone. He is the goal…even when we aren’t the ones laying the foundation or working for the goal.

Because of the foundations that the Lord placed in me…He gave me the goal. And still…the struggles in life are there. Some of those struggles are hills, some are mountains, but struggle we must.

33 These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33 NASB)

Being in the world is a struggle…and because we are in the world…we will struggle. But we have Hope in Christ. When the world’s cares take all hope away…there is Christ. There is Hope.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:3-5 NASB)

We may lose our earthly hope for a little while but if we belong to Christ He will only leave us in that place for so long before He reminds us of Who we belong to. Like a kick in the backside that reminder is enough to pull us back to where He wants us to be. We must struggle, we must hurt, we must face the trials and tribulations, but we must face them not for chance, or just because, but for the purpose that the Lord has made us, so that He may put us where He wants us and so that He can make us what He wants us to be.

6 In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, 7 so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; (1 Peter 1:6-7 NASB)

We have been given Hope beyond measure when we are in Christ. Our salvation is our greatest hope. Christ is our great Hope. Earth and all it’s cares can take away our fleshly hope in this world but our true Hope lies in what has been given to us out of the mercy of our Lord.

I’ve heard many times that if ‘God will bring you to it, He will bring you through it.’ It’s something that I never paid much attention to. But if you really stop and think about it, there’s much truth in that. The Lord will bring us to many things…He will also bring us through them. And when we come out the other side of them…how much richer will we be for the struggle we endured?

Not rich like the rich man, but rich like the camel that struggled long and hard to get through the eye of the needle…painfully, slowly…and when he finally popped out the other side…discovered he was in heaven.

Our trials…tribulations…sorrows…pains…are only for a little while. They are the refining fires that make us who the Lord wants us to be. And in that refining fire…oh, how we change, mature and grow, whether we want to or not.

I have made taffy candy, have watched it made on large scales…when taffy is made you take a substance that is stretchy but firm and twist it, pull it, squeeze it, and start again. Over and over and over you twist and pull this semi-stretchy substance until it changes and becomes soft and pliable. It goes from what it was…to what it is supposed to be.

It is molded. It is changed. It is refined.

Like taffy, we are pushed and pulled, twisted and squeezed by the Lord and His plan until we sometimes feel as if we can’t take another moment of torture but…what the Lord brings us to, He brings us through. And out the other side we emerge…like a butterfly from a cocoon, no longer a caterpillar but a butterfly with beautiful wings…something greater than we were when we started the process.

Because there is a method to the madness. Because when we belong to Christ He won’t allow us to be rich men…we must be camels that struggle to get through the eye of the needle.

I read a book the other day…actually I finished a book the other day, it took a few days to read it…about a little girl whose one desire was to own a Bible. This girl lived in a time and place when Bibles were hard to come by. She worked and longed for a Bible of her own. She walked miles just to read someone else’s Bible. It took her years and years to earn enough money to buy her own Bible and then she had to walk 50 miles to get it. She covered those 50 miles, barefoot, in two days.

We live in a time where Bibles are plentiful and can be had cheaply. I know of a thrift store that gives away Bibles…they won’t charge for them no matter their condition, age or worth. If I walk through my house I could gather enough Bibles provide them to a good number of people.

But that little girl worked long hard hours for years to be able to buy a Bible. Then she walked many, many miles to get one. How much more did that Bible mean to her, when she finally got it, than does the Bible my daughter owns that was given to her at her birth?

How much more precious did the words in the Bible seem to a child that longed to read them for years and had to work hard for that privilege?  

Like the camel struggling through the eye of the needle, that girl struggled for the words of our Lord. She toiled and labored much for the chance to own a copy of what she considered a treasure.

And treasure it she did. The very Bible that young girl worked so hard for was passed on at her death and now lives in a museum. It has survived for hundreds of years.

I have a Bible in my home that is falling apart. I got it that way. It’s a cheap paperback Bible that isn’t all that old, and doesn’t have the look of a Bible that has been read much. Instead of falling apart because it was a much used Bible it appears to be falling apart because it was a much abused Bible. I own it because it serves a purpose that I could never do with an intact Bible. The very fact that it is falling apart has now allowed it to become a much used Bible.

But when I think of the history it most likely had to wind up in the condition it was in when I got it…I am reminded of the little girl that worked so hard, for so many years, to get a Bible of her own. And how she would have treasured a single page from this falling apart Bible.

When things are given to us easily, we generally fail to see the treasure that we hold. Another saying I’ve heard many times…’easy come, easy go.’ Bibles in our country are so easy to be had that most people put little value on any particular Bible. When Bibles were harder to come by people treasured them, they kept family records in them, they gave them places of honor in their homes, and they passed them from generation to generation.

Some of those Bibles had been struggled for, worked for, and highly protected and cared for as a result.

How much greater is the prize…when we finally come through the needle…once we’ve struggled through it?