Oh the sovereignty of God! In these moments, do we really trust Him? I'm 100% certain that a change of plans or a completely unexpected event or a trial in our lives does NOT surprise Abba Father! Is it just a test perhaps? Rance and I studied I Peter over the summer with our college class at church and if you LET (meaning you have a choice!) His Word challenge you then it may just change your perspective on the purpose of trials and sufferings. 1 Peter 1:6-7 says:
6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ
Read it again and again. Peter is telling us to GREATLY REJOICE through various trials! Why??? God is clearly using Peter to write His words to tell us that the genuineness of our faith is being tested! Yes, God does test us! God desires our faith to be so genuine, much more precious than gold that perishes, that when we are tested by fire that our faith may be found SOLID, FIRM, founded upon the ROCK (Jesus), so genuine that it may be found to the praise, honor and glory of Jesus Christ. Can you imagine if we reacted this way always when we are facing various trials (all testings of life), when things aren't going our way, and when the completely unexpected happens? What if we greatly rejoiced? I cannot answer for you but I desire the genuineness of my faith to be found to the praise, honor, and glory of Jesus Christ. Just as the intense heat removed the impurities from the gold, the intense trial has the purpose of revealing and removing our impurities, to make us more complete and genuine in our walk with Christ. Peter goes on to say this in Chapter 4 verse 12-13:
Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; 13 but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.
Read it again and again. It seems as though Peter's readers were astonished that they had to suffer as Christians! I think Christians still live in this bubble today. Do we trust the Word of God?? If we do, if we believe His Word to be true, then we would not find it strange or astonishing when we face fiery trials. Peter's response is as if we should expect these fiery trials and testings of life. These trials are not strange that try you and I. Again, scripture tells us to REJOICE because we get to SHARE in Christ's sufferings. You and I will never ever ever suffer the way Christ did on our behalf. What if we reacted to sufferings and trials in such a way that the world got a glimpse of the pure nature of Christ.
Last Thursday, October 11th - Rance was getting everything ready and preparing for our weekend trip to Greensboro, NC for the middle school state championship cross country race at Guilford College. Hotel rooms had been booked over a month ago and everything was logistically planned out. The high school runners were going also to practice on their state course and to support the middle school team at State. The middle school girls team finished the season undefeated and conference champions. To say they were excited about racing for the State title is an understatement. They were estatic.
Rance went online to check the race times one last time to make sure he had everything written down correctly only to find the State race was no longer on the calendar at Guilford College for Saturday, October 13th. Certainly this was a mistake. It's the state championship race - how on earth does that get canceled? Maybe it was just moved? You can imagine as a coach that sinking feeling in your heart when you are not sure what is going on but you know something isn't adding up. After a couple of hours of searching and phone calls to Guilford College - Rance found out the race had been CANCELED (I will leave out the details on why). Yes, last minute. Is this really happening? We have everything planned out, hotels booked, a middle school team totally pumped and ready to race for the State title, and a bunch of parents planning to attend also.
Here we go. Fiery trials? REJOICE! The unexpected happens? REJOICE! Plans change? REJOICE! Explaining to middle schoolers they will not be able to race for the State title? REJOICE! The most fascinating part about all of this is watching Rance and the middle schoolers and their reactions. I am not going to pretend like their were not tears shed by both coach & runners. Are tears sin? HECK NO! Yes, they were disappointed but it was amazing to see how God worked through the entire situation. As Coach's wife - my job is to cover it all in prayer. The praying began that Thursday morning when Rance called (before telling parents/kids, etc) to let me know what had happened. I knew the Lord was not surprised by this but more than anything 'Lord what are you wanting to teach us all through this?'.
Rance began calling and searching for another 5k or ANY race to enter his runners into that Saturday. Since we already had hotel rooms booked in Greensboro and tickets to SCAROWINDS in Charlotte for Saturday night - we were still heading east regardless. Praying, praying, praying.
We knew of a race - in fact - a BIG, BIG race (it's basically known as the high school pre-state race for all of the state of North Carolina 1A-4A schools) happening that Saturday on the high school state course in Kernersville, NC but again it was for high schoolers and the registration was closed. That did not stop Rance from calling/emailing the guy in charge of this race (let's call him George) asking if there was any way he could get his middle school teams in this race as well as his high school runners that would be on the trip too. He explained what had happened with the middle school state race. Could it be so? The entire day went by and Rance never heard back from George. I did not stop praying. I love the sovereignty of God. He knows what is up! He is not surprised! He has a perfect plan! He had a purpose in canceling the middle school state race! Rance has had a faith that can move mountains since I first met him. That same faith did not change through this. He was confident the Lord would do something through all of this and he was most excited about the spiritual applications he could teach his teams.
At 9:46pm Thursday night, the Shulers were getting ready for bed when I just had this urge that Rance needed to check his email. He thought I was crazy but we did it anyways. Sure enough sitting in his inbox was an email from George saying HE WOULD ENTER ALL THE MIDDLE SCHOOLERS IN THIS HIGH SCHOOL RACE!!!!!!!!!!!! Let me explain the sovereignty of God right here. George actually knew the situation that had went on at Guilford College and why the race was canceled and all that. He was allowing middle schoolers to enter a race in which they did not even meet the requirements to run in (not being high school age). Did we dance a jigg in the Shuler household Thursday night at 9:46pm. YES WE DID! What an honor that these middle schoolers were going to get to RUN on the state course that they will eventually race on at State in high school - yet they could do it as middle schoolers! What's funny is, NOONE would even know they were in middle school - they were being entered just as if they were a high school team. Some may have noticed how short and tiny some of our girls were but that's all ;)
I cannot explain all that took place over the next couple of days as far as the team talks and the spiritual applications and the way all things work together for GOOD according to the Word of God. The cross country teams actually got to see how what seemed so devastating (their state race being canceled) turned out to be not so devastating. It's all relative. Yes, they may have won a state title - but is that not just an earthly treasure? You win and it's soon forgotten! What's even more incredible is how the team study this season is on Hebrews 12 and the last verses that the team studied on Saturday morning before race time - applied perfectly to the entire situation. Is that surprising?!?!
Oh why do we find it strange concerning trials & sufferings that happen to us? Thank you Jesus for the fiery trials of last weekend! The weekend definitely did not go as planned but
we are grateful for your perfect purpose in it all and for providing an even bigger blessing through the race we ended up racing in on Saturday.
More to come on the race & SCAROWINDS...
No comments:
Post a Comment