Gò0dNews for Family
The Wisdom in the Struggle by John Garrod
“M
ay the Lord answer you in the day of struggle…” (Psalm 20:1).
sweep over our faith. “Where is my God?” we cry out. He is right there with you. He may not part that
I was born with a bit of a silver spoon
tidal wave, even though He could. He may not make the
in my mouth. My wife might describe it a little differently;
struggle disappear, although He could. No, He may not
the word spoiled might come into play.
do any of that, but what He also will never do is leave you
As the youngest of 4 children, by the time I was a
nor forsake you. Psalm 20 tells us that He is with us in our
teenager and my siblings had moved out—either married
distress. We may read that twice, ten times, or a thousand
or in college—our father’s engineering business was
times, but until we have experienced that distress—and
thriving, and money was flowing rather steadily. We had a
seen His steadfast faithfulness in our lives—we may harbor
nice beach house. I had a car to drive and a dune buggy to take me to trouble—a mere $4 filled its gas tank! We were not wealthy by America’s standards, but we were…comfortable. At the least, I never remember seeing my parents’ struggle. We would all like a life with no struggles, at least not major ones. We would like to struggle with deciding between taking the BMW or the Mercedes. For most of us, those aren’t the struggles we face. We struggle between new clothes for the kids or whether we can afford ground beef for dinner. We may struggle between keeping the electric on or making a car payment. We may
cracks in our faith. As we endure the struggles, holding
struggle between buying new tires for the car or getting a
fast to this promise, we build our faith.
few months out of a couple of used tires. We try to shield
We should take care to share these lessons with our
our kids from these struggles, we don’t want them to
kids. One day, they will be out there, sailing around
worry. But life as an adult is full of struggles.
among troubled waters and rising waves. They need to
Struggles, real struggles, aren’t any fun. Although,
know He is with us through all of it. They need to know
struggles are the place where God teaches us to trust
that He uses those struggles to develop our faith. Protect
Him. It is not that God is inflicting us with struggles for
them, but don’t build so big a shield that they can’t see the
His enjoyment—rain falls on the just and the unjust, Jesus
deliverance, or the hand that delivers it.
declares to us in Matthew. Sometimes those struggles don’t tsunamis—imminent destruction about to wash us away. It is here that fear—desolate, desperate, lonely fear—may
34 // July 2021
About The Author
feel just like rain, they loom over us and our outlook like John Garrod is a father of six, husband of one. He is a graduate of Lee University (c/o ’19), a discipleship teacher at South Cleveland Church of God, and a U.S. Army veteran.
