There are certain words that we have heard repeated so often by certain people that they have become engraved upon our hearts. And those very words will sometimes echo in our hearts and come from our lips in unexpected moments. For some reason, most words of this type tend to be negative words. Some people, when they are about to begin something new, hear phrases like, ‘Why bother. You know you won’t stick to it!’ or ‘Even if you do it, it will never amount to anything,’ and they hesitate to try. Upon my own heart are engraved the expressions, ‘It can’t be helped,’ or ‘There’s nothing that can be done.’ These words quite naturally lead me to an attitude of resignation that is close to passivity rather than encouraging me to actively engage in something. It is rather like listening to the Beatle’s song, ‘Let it Be.’ Another word I hear is, ‘It’ll be all right.’ Whenever there is a worry or concern I find myself saying these words to myself and blurting them out to others. There is an element of optimism in these words, but also a sense of refusing to face harsh facts and escaping to wishful thinking that it will work out somehow. When I tried to recall from whom I had heard these words, I realized that for me it had been my parents. My parents are no longer in this world, but I can still hear their voices within me.
‘You are my child, whom I love. With you I am well pleased.’ Luke 3:22
It has been 40 years since I became a Christian, for the past 20 years, these words have been gradually and deeply engraved upon my heart. For the first 20 years of my Christian life, my experience of the Christian faith was fervent hard work in my own strength. Intellectually, I understood the meaning of the word ‘grace,’ but it had not penetrated deeply into my soul. However, these words have gradually led me into the world of grace. Furthermore, my understanding of the salvation that is in Jesus Christ has changed from an emphasis on salvation from judgment and condemnation to salvation that makes me a child of God, salvation that brings me into a relationship with God the Father. As I have meditated on these words over and over again, my understanding of them has moved from my head to echo in the depths of my heart. I have begun to grasp that life is a journey of faith in which we are made alive by the grace of God the father to live in a parent-child relationship with God.
There is another phrase that has become significant to me during the past 20 years of my faith journey. The phrase was given to me through Dr. Hans Burki, my soul-mentor of whom I wrote in the previous article. The phrase is ‘Growth through Crisis,’ or perhaps, ‘No Crisis, No Growth.’ As we journey through life, we are sometimes confronted by crises of life and faith. The way we perceive these crises has a great impact on how we will deal with them. In the context of dealing with several crises, I heard these words from Dr. Burki and they have gradually been engraved on my heart. During a crisis, I would be confronted by situations or difficulties that could not be coped with on the basis of previous experience or knowledge. I would sometimes be overwhelmed by a sense of the utter darkness that lay ahead. At such moments, the phrase, ‘No Crisis, No Growth,’ would be a great encouragement to me. It reminded me that the current crisis was just another opportunity for further growth. It gave me strength to wait for the hope of salvation from God.
Dr. Burki’s wife, Dr. Ago, is a famous marriage and family therapist in Switzerland. She, too, affirmed the truth of these words in the context of the relationships between parents and children and couples. As I look back at the experiences of our family, I truly believe it, too. These words have often sustained me when I came to a place where I could not see ahead.
God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.