When You Hit The Wall

It may not have happened to you yet, but it will, even if you think you are a Christian. Relax, saints, things can always get worse. You will always ask the question: “Why me? Why did God not take care of this?”

I hit the wall the first time I got out of bed and realized that I was blind. I walked into a wall and I had to decide if I would spend the rest of my life asking questions about the goodness of God, or use what He had left me and learn that I could walk by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7) I have talked with many veterans about this same thing, after they realized that they were vagabonds.

Every veteran should be told at the beginning of his service, and certainly at the end of his service, whether healthy or unhealthy, that he is very much on his own. The government should proclaim, loud and clear, that in the American experience, the greatest shame of this nation is its treatment of disabled veterans and handicapped citizens.

One of my tenants said to me one day, as I was cleaning the hallway in his building, “why must an old veteran like you continue to work?” He said, “I have never understood why God doesn't supply the needs of church people?” God, is in charge, He is Boss. The sooner you realize this, the easier life will be for you. The first garden which God provided for man was free of all problems, just as our last garden, for the believer, will be. Our ancestors chose thorns and thistles, disease and dirt. The atheist, the unbeliever, would not recognize evil if there were no good.

God allows rain to fall on the just and unjust. The same sun that hardens clay, melts wax. He had his reasons for everything, you have to dig for precious stones and gold. As Longfellow said, “life is terminal for all of us, all must die, and some die early.” Our trials and tribulations, physical, mental, social are more precious than gold. (1 Peter 1:7) The great writer C.S. Lewis said, “there are two types of people in the world. One says, 'thy will be done', the other says, 'my will be done.'”

One man, teaching a boy's Sunday school class, said to them, “why do people call me a Christian?” He wanted to get an answer like, “because you believe in Christ”, “you are Christ-like”, etc. but he got no answer at all, finally the son of one of his neighbors said, “they do not know you like we do.”

Many ask the question: if God is all powerful, why not use His power to control evil? If God is all good, why not make everything good? Why do we have earthquakes, floods, volcanoes, house fires, car crashes that kill so many innocent people. Why did God allow His own Son to be beaten and crucified? Why, in God giving us free will, did He give us the choice of being good or evil, or some place in between. The hypocrite, the one straddling the middle of the road, is always loved by everyone, but the straddler, of all people, is most miserable. Why go to hell on the caboose? Why not go first class? You can be sure of this, when you hit the wall, you will need something that the world, the flesh, the devil cannot give.

Line up everything in God's Word, everything in your history book, every learning discipline. Satan majors in deception, only Christians are on the winning team, the only ones who can overcome defeat, disappointment, discouragement, otherwise there would be no need to put two teams on the athletic field, because one will surely lose. The tares are mixed in with the wheat, the tares have taken over the church, the country. From 1799 to 1892, the Supreme Court declared this a Christian nation, it has never been a Christian nation, not as profane as now, but the Christians in this nation, those willing to rise above the crowd, those who can hit the wall and come away ready to fight again, have kept it great.

This week, in this very city, a father and his 17 year-old son, were bicycling down the roadway, a drunk ran over them, killing the father; the son, near death. These things happen over and over. I ask, “why, God? Why, God?” When I lifted up my own mother, the last day of her life, she was nothing but a skeleton with skin, debilitated by cancer. When your faith is challenged by suffering, disaster, debilitation of yourself and others, you do not back up one inch, you dig in your heels and proclaim that Jesus paid it all. Eternity begins at your salvation, the battle is always the Lord's.

In the Roman soldier's armor, the belt held all his armor together. The truth is the Christian's belt, whether anyone believes it or not. We do not need to discover new truths, just rediscover old truths.