In 1979 my friend, Don, and some of his buddies, ventured their way up to the ski resort on Mt. Hood in Oregon for a day on the slopes. As he and his friends piled into his car they made their way to Government Camp, the last and main stop before reaching Timberline Lodge. From the camp to the lodge was a sixteen minute, winding, switchback steep road, ascending two thousand more feet. With snow already on the ground, and their car was a typical rear-wheel vehicle, they had to make a choice: take the time to put chains on the tires or make the climb without them. Chains were a must in snowy or icy conditions on Mt. Hood, but they were teenagers and were not interested in sacrificing ski time for traction.
Leaving Government Camp, they spent the next hour fishtailing, spinning their tires, and inching their way up the mountain. With no end in sight, the boys gave up and admitted defeat. They were losing precious skiing time, and who knows how much longer they had till they reached the lodge? They pulled over, unloaded the car, dug out the chains, mounted them to back wheels, and then reloaded the car. As they got back in their vehicle they knew they had a renewed hope. The next turn they made put them directly into the parking lot of Timberline Lodge. They had given up. They had waved the white flag. They had surrendered on the brink of reaching their destination.
Life is hard. Living by faith is harder.
In 2 Corinthians 4 Paul makes a bold statement, not once but twice. He tells us, “We do not lose heart.” We are not kind who give up, surrender, quit, or walk away while the ball is still in play. We may want to. We may be tempted to do so. We may be pushed to the brink, but we cling to our faith like we’re hanging on by the very last thread.
The two times Paul declares, “we do not lose heart,” act as bookends to hold his overarching thought together. In verse one he speaks of integrity and checking our agenda at the door. We refuse to deceive, to manipulate, and to “fear monger,” as it’s not about us. It’s never about us. We’re simply jars of clay who have been given the gospel as if it were a prized treasure.
Because life is hard, and living by faith is harder, Paul openly concedes how easy it might be to lose heart. Refusing to gloss over life and embrace faith, Paul is frank about the cost of discipleship. To be honest Paul actually offers four reasons why we might be tempted to quit and to give up. They can be found in 2 Corinthians 4:8-9.
First, Paul says we are “hard pressed on every side.” Like a trash compactor, stress closes in, squeezing the life out of us. Feeling we have no escape, the pressure will not let up. We’re spiritually claustrophobic and our stress levels are exceeding safe levels of operation. Our plates get full as more stuff keeps getting piled on. And it’s constant. We see no end is in sight and it’s simply too much to handle.
Secondly, he admits that we are “perplexed.” Things happen to us and events unfold that leave us baffled and puzzled with our equilibrium making us dizzy. Like a merry-go-round spinning out of control, we want to shout, “Stop the world! We want to get off!” We wonder how this could happen, and why it is happening. The more questions we ask, the fewer answers we find. And let’s be honest, those answers are often trivial and trite, masked in faith-like language.
Thirdly, Paul confirms that we are persecuted. Everyone turns against us, leaving us alone with feelings of abandonment. Persecution means the shouting voices of hate standing against us drown out the whispers of love from the voices standing with you.
Finally, Paul confirms the worst as we are “struck down.” Such language has doom written all over it. “Struck down” almost sounds like we’ve been slain in battle, and we’re left to take our last breath on the battlefield of life. Game over and no hope survives.
Hard pressed, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down. In the midst of such pain and suffering, where is God? More importantly, how does one prevent themselves from giving up, throwing in the towel, or losing heart?
If anyone has a cause to loose heart it might be my fifth grade teacher, Edwina Schackmann. Edwina towered over everyone at maybe five feet. Maybe with heels. But she was a giant of faith. While she commanded the respect of her students and fellow teachers, she commanded even more of her faith. But her story is not for the faint of heart.
Edwina and her husband had three boys, and her husband was a salesman who traveled the Pacific Northwest. On this particular day he invited his wife to join him on his sales trip with a stop off at the beach. Edwina packed a lunch, and with their youngest in tow, they headed on their adventure. Unbeknownst to them, their beautiful day was to turn into a nightmare. A drunk driver met them head on. Edwina’s husband was killed from the impact. Edwina suffered broken bones in her back. The baby, thrown from the car, fortunately landed in a soft patch of grass.
For months Edwina recovered in the hospital in a partial body cast. Recovering from her broken heart took longer. I’m sure a lot longer. When she taught me, her boys had grown to be respectable, Godly men making their mom (and dad) proud. I remember Edwina talking about sitting in the hospital with nothing to do. She read her bible and used her cast as a table to cut art projects and lessons for the children’s bible classes.
Edwina lost her husband. She lost a father to help her raise their boys. She could have lost her faith. She didn’t. She endured and was never one for losing heart.
Where do we go to find the strength to endure, because life is hard and living by faith is harder.
Returning to 2 Corinthians 4:8-10, for each of those reasons to lose heart, Paul offers hope. While he admits life is hard, he reminds us how God is the one who holds us together. The strength to endure does not come from within, but from the One who empowers you from within. So yes, we are “hard pressed on every side,” but God says we are “not crushed.” We may hurt, and often do, but we’re able to press forward.
Sure, “we are perplexed,” but God states we are “not in despair.” Hope will not abandon us, nor will it disappoint. We will scratch our head trying to make sense of life, but that it leads to abandon all hope is not part of God’s will.
True, we are often “persecuted,” but God promises that we are “not abandoned;” we are never alone. Jesus promises to never leave us or forsake us, so that the whispers of love quiets the shouts of hate.
And of course we can be “struck down,” but God declares we are “not destroyed.” We get hit and even knocked down, but we don’t get knocked out. We get back up and go on living, enduring, and even thriving.
Because God is with us, sustains us, and fuels the fire within us, “we will not lose heart.” The closing exhortation bookend occurs in verse 16. Even though physically we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed. The strength to endure comes from God who fuels the Spirit within us. If allowed, his Spirit will keep us moving with forward progress. So it’s true, life is hard and living by faith is harder, which is why, in spite of the reasons above, “we do not lose heart.”
My friend Jamie takes a group every spring to hike the Grand Canyon. The Phantom Ranch Trail is a 10 mile hike down and another back along a path with 500 feet vertical cliffs. You walk down, but it’s a climb coming out. Every year 12 people die at the Grand Canyon from falling, dehydration, or medical problems exacerbated by the hike. A couple of years ago, Jamie and his crew met a man who was on the edge of being another fatal statistic.
With four and a half miles to the top Jamie’s group was on target to reach the entrance before dark, no later than 5:30. But then, they met a man struggling to make it out. He was physically and mentally unprepared for the hike (he was over-dressed, overweight, and had packed an 85 lbs. backpack including a tent for a day hike). He had no water. No food. No electrolytes. No friends, as the group he was with left him behind. To say he was spent was an understatement. To say he was losing heart and that his body was giving out was not far from the truth.
Knowing the switchbacks were only getting steeper and harder, Jamie convinced the man to join his party. But doing so meant a much slower pace. Much slower. With the crew acting as a buffer to prevent him from falling, they started the ascent. They walked him out by these simple instructions. They were taking 20 steps then resting for 20 breaths. Then they repeated the process: 20 steps followed by 20 resting breaths. They continued the cadence for the next six and a half hours arriving well past their scheduled arrival time. When they reached the entrance of the park, they were hardly on record time. But it wasn’t about a record, it was about not giving up against all odds. It was about not losing heart.
Maybe you’re on the verge of giving up and you’ve been feeling the hope leak out of you like a small hole in a balloon. You are losing heart, and you don’t know from where the strength to take the next step will come. Or, maybe you will encounter someone today who is losing heart. It’s easy to do when death hovers over us on a daily basis. Life is hard and living by faith is harder. Maybe the way out is the slow pace where you take 20 steps forward followed by 20 resting breaths. You repeat this process so that you do not lose heart. You repeat this process until you reach the summit, which you may not reach it very fast, but will reach it. It’s not about speed or record pace. It’s about not losing heart, to keep forward progressing moving. And who knows that right behind the next turn maybe your destination.
Soli Deo Gloria!
(i.e,. only God is glorified!)