“The
Blessings
of
Adversity”
Dr.
Jeff
Cover
Proverbs
30:
7-9,
Luke
12:
13-24
Central
Presbyterian
Church
April
20,
2008
So
far
in
this
series
Bill
has
lead
us
through
some
poignant
reflections
on
times
when
faith
is
hard
--the
shattering
death
of
a
loved
one,
when
our
wound
seems
incurable
--moments
when
we
recognize
our
dreams
are
being
destroyed
--times
of
wilderness,
when
we
feel
we’ve
lost
our
way
This
morning
we’re
looking
at
a
completely
different
kind
of
threat
to
our
faith—when
things
are
going
well!
Right
now
you
might
be
thinking
something
along
the
lines
of,
“Well,
Jeff,
you’ve
gone
completely
off
the
deep
end
now!
When
things
are
going
well,
it’s
easy
to
have
faith,
not
at
all
like
the
hard
times.
How
could
faith
be
hard
when
everything
is
going
well?”
But
how
clearly
I
remember
a
turning
point
during
a
women’s
Bible
study
at
Preston
Hills
Presbyterian
Church.
One
of
the
women
was
talking
about
a
particularly
stressful
time
in
her
life,
and
she
said,
wistfully,
“That’s
the
closest
I’ve
ever
felt
to
God.”
The
other
women
all
nodded.
I
wasn’t
sure
I’d
heard
her
right.
I
said,
“Wait
a
minute.
Are
you
saying
that
it’s
easier
to
have
faith
when
things
are
going
badly
than
when
they’re
going
well?
That
those
are
the
times
that
have
brought
you
closer
to
God?”
“Oh
yes,”
they
all
agreed.
When
things
were
going
well
they
tended
to
rely
on
their
own
resources,
rather
than
upon
God,
they
said.
It
was
a
little
moment
of
epiphany.
We
all
sat
there
in
the
quiet,
pondering
the
strangeness
of
such
blessings
of
adversity.
I remember something that a wise person once prayed: “Oh Lord, I have thanked you for my roses. But have I never thanked you for my thorns?”
I
think
of
the
words
of
our
hymn,
“Come
Sing
to
the
Lord”,
paraphrasing
Psalm
30:
“In
my
success
I
felt
secure
How
good
you’ve
been
to
me.
I
said
that
this
is
my
own
work,
Ascribing
all
to
me.”
(Fred
Anderson,
1986)
And
suddenly
these
words
from
the
hymn,
“God
of
Our
Life,”
become
especially
clear:
“When
we
are
strong,
Lord,
leave
us
not
alone,
Our
refuge
be.”
(Hugh
Thompson
Kerr,
1916)
Oddly
enough,
it’s
when
things
are
“coming
up
roses,”
when
we’re
strong,
that
things
can
get
most
dangerous
for
our
faith.
It’s
when
things
are
going
well,
that
we
can
forget
our
blessings,
when
we’re
successful,
that
we
can
get
off
track.
We’re
most
likely
to
forget
our
Maker
in
those
moments
when
life
is
going
so
clearly
our
way
that
we
can
imagine
we’re
“self-made
people.”
Friends,
there
is
no
such
thing!
One
of
the
ironic
truths
of
life
is
that
when
we’re
awash
with
blessings,
it’s
easy
to
forget
them.
It’s
when
we’re
deprived
of
something
that
we
notice
its
absence.
Think
about
it—it’s
when
we’ve
stubbed
our
toe,
that
we
notice
our
feet
at
all!
When
our
feet
hurt,
we
notice
them.
The
rest
of
the
time
we
just
take
them
for
granted.
The
sayings
of
wisdom
from
Proverbs
grasp
something
of
this
when
they
plea
of
the
Lord:
“Two
things
I
ask
of
you;
Do
not
deny
them
to
me
before
I
die:
Remove
far
from
me
falsehood
and
lying:
Give
me
neither
poverty
nor
riches;
feed
me
with
the
food
that
I
need,
or
I
shall
be
full,
and
deny
you,
and
say,
‘Who
is
the
Lord?’
or
I
shall
be
poor,
and
steal,
and
profane
the
name
of
my
God.”
(Prov.
30:
7-9)
It’s
not
just
that
our
wise
man
here
is
longing
for
a
middle
class
existence.
The
author
of
this
saying
is
asking
for
deliverance
from
parallel
temptations:
the
temptation
to
steal,
because
he
doesn’t
have
enough,
and
the
temptation
to
think
he’s
done
it
on
his
own,
because
he
has
too
much!
In
our
passage
from
Luke
today,
Jesus
is
being
approached
to
settle
an
inheritance
dispute.
A
fellow
in
the
crowd
asks
Jesus
to
bid
his
brother
to
divide
the
family
inheritance
with
him.
But
Jesus
will
have
nothing
to
do
with
it.
He
refuses
to
get
sucked
into
the
argument.
Those
of
us
who’ve
been
around
families
at
times
of
death
know
that
bereavement
tends
to
bring
out
the
best
and
worst
in
families.
There
are
often
hard
feelings
around
inheritance
questions.
Jesus,
instead,
warns
his
listeners
about
the
dangers
of
greed:
“for
one’s
life
does
not
consist
in
the
abundance
of
possessions.”
And
he
went
on
to
tell
this
story
about
a
farmer
who
had
such
a
bumper
crop
that
he
hardly
knew
what
to
do
with
it.
He
built
ever
and
ever
larger
barns,
in
order
to
hold
his
abundance,
instead
of
figuring
out
a
way
to
share
some
of
what
he
had
with
those
in
need.
He
said
to
himself,
“Soul,
you
have
ample
goods
laid
up
for
many
years;
relax,
eat,
drink,
be
merry.”
“But
God
said
to
him,
‘You
fool!
This
very
night
your
life
is
being
demanded
of
you.
And
the
things
you
have
prepared,
whose
will
they
be?’
So
it
is
with
those
who
store
up
treasures
for
themselves
but
are
not
rich
toward
God.”
(Luke
12:
19-21)
Jesus
also
goes
on
to
say,
“Where
your
treasure
is,
there
will
your
heart
be
also.”
(Luke
12:
34)
So,
what
might
it
mean
to
be
rich
toward
God?
Perhaps
to
invest
in
the
things
that
God
is
interested
in.
Out
in
the
hallway,
outside
our
Right
Start
Preschool
door
hangs
this
saying,
“One
hundred
years
from
now
it
will
not
matter
what
sort
of
car
you
drove
nor
what
sort
of
house
you
lived
in,
but
one
hundred
years
from
now
the
world
will
be
a
better
place
because
you
made
a
difference
in
the
life
of
a
child.”
It’s
that
kind
of
investment
that
appeals
to
God—one
that
makes
a
difference
in
the
life
of
one
of
his
children.
God
cares
that
our
basic
needs
are
met,
that
we
have
adequate
shelter
and
enough
to
eat,
and
people
to
love
us.
That’s
why
Jesus
tells
us
it’s
perfectly
fine
to
pray
for
“our
daily
bread.”
But
the
endless
accumulation
of
things
is
something
Jesus
warns
us
about.
Things
aren’t
enough
to
sustain
us.
And
the
idea
that
by
having
enough
stuff
we
can
make
our
lives
satisfying
and
worthwhile
is
an
illusion.
So
how
do
we
live
our
daily
lives
in
such
a
way
that
when
things
are
going
well,
we
don’t
forget
to
live
in
faith?
How
do
we
live
our
lives
so
that,
on
those
occasions
when
things
are
going
well,
we
remember
the
God
who
made
and
who
daily
sustains
us?
In
other
words,
how
do
we
cultivate
that
sense
of
daily
grace
by
which
Jesus
lived?
One
way
is
by
developing
the
habit
of
noticing
something
of
what
God
is
up
to
in
the
day-to-day.
A
useful
exercise
for
doing
so
was
one
developed
long
ago
by
a
fellow
named
Ignatius.
He
developed
a
useful
spiritual
practice
of
examining
his
day
by
looking
at
in
terms
of
where
he
had
noticed
God
and
where
he
had
missed
God.
He
called
the
places
where
he
had
noticed
God
at
work,
“consolations,”
and
the
places
where
he
had
missed
God,
or
drawn
further
away
from
God,
“desolations.”
Try
this
little
spiritual
exercise
at
the
end
of
your
day
if
you’re
a
night
owl,
or
at
the
beginning
of
the
new
day,
if
you’re
a
morning
person.
Look
back
over
the
events
of
your
life
for
the
past
24
hours.
Pretend
there’s
a
little
10-minute
film
entitled,
“My
Day.”
Review
your
day
as
if
watching
it.
Where
were
you
pleasantly
surprised?
Where
did
some
moment
of
beauty
strike
you?
Where
did
some
word
from
Scripture
speak
to
your
mind
or
heart?
Where
did
you
find
yourself
singing
some
chorus
of
a
praise
song
or
hymn?
Where
did
a
comment
from
someone
give
you
encouragement
or
lend
you
strength?
Where
did
some
such
comment
come
from
you?
Where
did
you
notice
that
someone
needed
your
loving
attention,
and,
by
the
grace
of
God,
did
you
respond?
Where
did
God
murmur
some
word
of
assurance
to
you?
Those
are
examples
of
consolations,
those
daily
means
by
which
God
draws
near
to
us.
To
cultivate
our
ability
to
notice
them,
is
to
learn
to
have
the
eyes
of
faith.
It’s
to
be
a
faithful
person
when
all
is
going
well.
Give
thanks
to
God
for
all
such
moments.
But
notice,
as
well,
where
you
might
have
drawn
further
away
from
God
in
your
last
24
hours.
Try
to
notice
the
desolations
of
daily
life,
too:
--those
places
where
the
beauty
of
early
spring
was
bursting
out
around
you,
and
you
failed
to
notice
--those
moments
when
you
allowed
your
imagination
to
be
captured
by
a
wayward
thought,
and
so
pulled
away
from
God
--those
instances
when
someone
was
reaching
out
to
you,
and
you
were
too
preoccupied
to
notice
--those
opportunities
when
you
might
have
offered
an
encouraging
word
or
a
helpful
comment,
and
you
neglected
to
do
so.
The
point
is
not
to
beat
yourself
up
over
them,
but
first,
to
notice
them.
And
then
you
ask
God
for
forgiveness
and
pray
for
the
insight
and
the
resolve
to
do
better
in
the
next
day.
That’s
what
it
means
to
live
by
grace—to
pay
attention
to
what
God
is
up
to
in
the
business
of
our
daily
lives,
and
then
to
work
with
God,
rather
than
at
cross
purposes.
Even
when
our
lives
are
going
well,
we
don’t
want
to
forget
the
Author
of
our
blessings.
Even
when
we
don’t
have
the
“blessings
of
adversity”
to
remind
us
of
God,
we
want
to
recall
that
all
our
days
are
lived
in
light
of
God’s
providence.
Amen.