Tuck
Christian Living
William Powell Tuck, a native of Virginia, has been a pastor in Virginia, Kentucky, Louisiana and North Carolina. He has also been a seminary professor and has taught adjunctively at several colleges and at the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. He is the author of seventeen books, including Our Baptist Tradition, The Compelling Faces of Jesus, The Lord’s Prayer Today and The Ten Commandments: Their Meaning Today. He received the Parish Pastor of the Year award from the Academy of Parish Clergy in 1997 and an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from the University of Richmond. He is married to Emily Campbell and is the father of two children and has four grandchildren. He resides in Midlothian, Virginia.
Facing Life’s Ups and Downs
All of us have known anger, fear, depression, anxiety, or other dark times. Coming to grips with our moods or the low places of life can seem insurmountable, but Christians need not give way to despair or feel hopelessly determined by moods or circumstances. In Facing Life’s Ups and Downs, William Tuck makes the important connection between religion and daily living. Our Christian faith is not reduced to worshiping on Sundays and participating in private devotions, as important as those disciplines are; our religion is about how we relate to God and other people. Our faith can help us deal with circumstances that try to twist and distort our perspective, bearing us safely over the angry current to the shore on the other side. We follow a Lord who said he came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. Christ offers us life at its highest and best. As we turn to him for support and guidance, we discover a resource that undergirds and sustains us in the most difficult and trying times. Our faith strengthens us to meet the struggles we confront.
Chapter 1
LIFE GETS SO DAILY
A medical doctor spoke to a friend one day, saying, “There is a disease which no knife or drugs can touch.” “Oh, you mean cancer,” the man responded. “Oh, no. That’s not it,” the doctor said. “We are going to get that devil or devils one day. I mean boredom.” It is astonishing how many people suffer from boredom. We hear young people say, “Oh, I’m so bored!” But this problem is not confined to the young. Sooner or later, most of us discover that much of life is monotonous, routine, and daily. We must repeat certain tasks again and again. Young men and women dream of going to college to pursue lofty educational goals. At a distance, the pursuit of knowledge seems like an exciting adventure. Then they go to school and realize that their education entails sitting in class and listening to lectures week after week, reading book after book, writing paper after paper, and taking test after test. The pursuit of knowledge grows routine, monotonous. Some people dream of becoming doctors, lawyers, bankers, dentists, teachers, accountants, or some other kind of professional, and they launch their preparation to get the proper academic credentials. After they complete their preparation, however, they soon discover that they must follow certain routines every day and week to accomplish their jobs. For many, no matter how exciting their jobs seemed at the beginning, soon they become monotonous and daily. Some people dream of getting married. Before they wed, they drive miles to see their loved ones, covering each other with roses and
2
FACING LIFE’S UPS AND DOWNS
affection. Everything seems marvelous. Then they get married, and the monotony of life sets in. They discover the necessity of daily chores. Babies arrives, and there are diapers to change, washing and ironing to do, food to cook, dishes to clean, garbage to carry out, a yard to cut, and a hundred other jobs to complete to keep the household moving. The routine changes a couple’s perspective from Fantasy Island to Kroger and Sears and Roebuck. Marriage gets tough and daily.
BOREDOM: A CAUSE FOR PROBLEMS Boredom may be the root of many problems in our society. Out of a deep sense of boredom with their lives, some people turn to alcohol for excitement and eventually become alcoholics. They can’t deal with the routines of life. Many young people become delinquents and begin lives of crime because they are bored. “I have nothing to do,” they say. Many marital affairs are a result of one partner becoming bored with marriage. Their everyday existence is so routine that they can’t stand it. They seek to find excitement in their lives someplace else.
A PESSIMISTIC VOICE The writer of the book of Ecclesiastes seems familiar with the problem of boredom (3:1-11). From his vantage point, life is hard. This pessimistic writer declares, “All is vanity and vexation of spirit.” This is a cry of the boredom born out of despair. Others have fallen into the trap of seeing life as too daily and boring. I saw a postcard that showed a snail on top of a large ball. The inscription on the card read, “Slowly but surely I’m getting nowhere!” A lot of folks feel that way. In a Hagar the Horrible comic strip by Dik Browne, Hagar’s wife stands over him while he sits in a chair with a mug of beer in his hand. She holds a bucket in one hand and a mop in the other. A large basket of dirty laundry is behind her. “Remember how you said I’d live a life of luxury as soon as your ship came in?” she asks. “Yes,” Hagar responds as he drinks with his feet propped up. “It sank, didn’t it?” she
LIFE GETS SO DAILY
3
observes.1 Many people think their ships have sunk. I saw a “Dead End” street sign where someone had written the words, “What isn’t?” Many people see everything in life as a dead end. They ask, “What is the point? Life is so routine, monotonous, mundane, and daily. What is the point?”
THE POSITIVE APPROACH (JOHN 4:3-39) We all struggle with the problem of boredom at some time or another, especially as we get older. John’s Gospel speaks to this issue. In John 4, Jesus had to go through Samaria. The words “had to go through Samaria” in John’s usage is a theological description, not geographical. Jesus could have bypassed Samaria, as most other Jewish people did. In the country of Palestine, Galilee lies at the north and Judea is situated in the south. Samaria lay between these two regions on the 120-mile strip of land. Because of their hatred of Samaritans, most Jewish travelers went around Samaria instead of “through” it. As Jesus traveled through the area, he came to the town of Sychar and sat down at Jacob’s well, the city’s water supply. A Samaritan soon came to get water from the well, and she and Jesus began a conversation. This passage teaches us four lessons about overcoming monotony: the need to wait, the importance of routine, the significance of a different perspective, and the result of a changed life.
Tuck
Christian Living
William Powell Tuck, a native of Virginia, has been a pastor in Virginia, Kentucky, Louisiana and North Carolina. He has also been a seminary professor and has taught adjunctively at several colleges and at the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. He is the author of seventeen books, including Our Baptist Tradition, The Compelling Faces of Jesus, The Lord’s Prayer Today and The Ten Commandments: Their Meaning Today. He received the Parish Pastor of the Year award from the Academy of Parish Clergy in 1997 and an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from the University of Richmond. He is married to Emily Campbell and is the father of two children and has four grandchildren. He resides in Midlothian, Virginia.
Facing Life’s Ups and Downs
All of us have known anger, fear, depression, anxiety, or other dark times. Coming to grips with our moods or the low places of life can seem insurmountable, but Christians need not give way to despair or feel hopelessly determined by moods or circumstances. In Facing Life’s Ups and Downs, William Tuck makes the important connection between religion and daily living. Our Christian faith is not reduced to worshiping on Sundays and participating in private devotions, as important as those disciplines are; our religion is about how we relate to God and other people. Our faith can help us deal with circumstances that try to twist and distort our perspective, bearing us safely over the angry current to the shore on the other side. We follow a Lord who said he came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. Christ offers us life at its highest and best. As we turn to him for support and guidance, we discover a resource that undergirds and sustains us in the most difficult and trying times. Our faith strengthens us to meet the struggles we confront.