In the midst of greatest trial my most pressing needs are clarified. I may never know the crushing power of hopelessness and depression without having faced the approaching or encroaching obstacles threatening my certainty. Yes I may intellectually comprehend the overwhelming power of evil or advances of the strong upon the weak from a distance, maybe even share sympathy and compassion for their oppression. However, having full experiential knowledge of how they felt or feel the moments before they are ravaged or destroyed by greater force, is beyond literacy. I cannot understand your road having never walked it, so the job is to the best of my ability try to place myself in your shoes and then come to your aid as should happen.
Easy, safe, self-sustaining this perch upon my ivory tower watching the rabble below as I toss crumbs from the parapet. Leadership may be done from on high as with the superior race families having never known personal trouble, trial, hunger, poverty or absolute despair in powerlessness. Though some may lead with prowess from their lair of safety, but they will never touch and I must say I do not envy that they may never truly know the dangers of simply struggling to live. Nor do they have the ease to God’s Throne that most of the impoverished have in spades. You see, they need God they don’t just want to believe in a convenience they Need to believe in the hope of deliverance and salvation because this life holds no peace for the poor. Their battle is real, their safety challenged each moment and their hope all that they possess. If I cannot do a thing then I am significantly more willing and likely to understand that without God I will never achieve it.
The Lord is my shepherd I shall not be in want, said David so aptly in Psalm 23. Sheep know no safety except that which the shepherd provides, they are innocent, defenseless and frankly stupid. When challenged they will run and most likely die at the hand of a wolf or other predator. They are dependent upon their Shepherd for their safety, for their food and water, without which they would simply over graze the same pasture and die from their own inability to find more food. The Book of James tell us how to achieve this Unwanton state of humanity. When we face our trials and temptations with JOY, the JOY that comes from knowing the Lord’s Protection, Provision and care, then the Holy Spirit releases patience to each of us. When that patience allows us to endure the trial in that state of Joy then we eventually become perfected and have want for nothing. In other words we become mature in our faith and fully believe upon God’s Promise to deliver against that promise and “Provide for all of your needs according to my riches and Glory in Christ Jesus”.
There is great knowledge to be sought and consumed at the level of the Rich who live seemingly carefree compared to the poor. But the knowledge of the poor, empirically deliver benefit beyond those available to the Book educated and money supported. When we face trials that surpass our coping capacities we are actually gifted by God with the immediate understanding of our limitations, those things which reside in the impossible category. Thus we are simultaneously blessed by the understanding in God’s Word promising the ability to deal with the impossible through Christ Who Strengthens us. Without Whom we would certainly fail, but with Whom we are guaranteed successes in this life and the next.
