Let's Connect
The Official Podcast of Connect Church in Rockdale, Texas, where we want to help you live a life that matters; one that is both on mission and has a purpose to know Jesus and make disciples.
Let's Connect
Episode 6 - Riding the Struggle Bus: Finding Faith in Hard Times
We tackle the age-old question of why bad things happen to good people, exploring biblical truths about facing life's challenges and finding God's presence in our troubles.
• Jesus told us we would have trouble in this life - it's normal for everyone
• Trials and adversities are tests that give us the choice to move toward or away from God
• Everything we face filters through God's hands, giving us confidence He will provide strength
• Many of our problems are "first-world problems" that pale in comparison to true suffering
• The three pillars for navigating hard times: prayer, Scripture, and church community
• God doesn't provide a way out of troubles but a way through them
• Being "Christian" versus being "Christ-like" requires actually following Jesus
• Gratitude remains essential even during our hardest seasons
If you have questions or topics you'd like us to address on a future episode, you can send us a message through any podcast platform or visit our website at connectchurchrockdale.com.
Welcome to let's Connect, the official podcast of Connect Church in Rockdale, Texas, where we want to help you to live a life that matters, one that is both on mission and has a purpose to follow Jesus and make disciples. So let's get started.
Speaker 2:All right, welcome in to let's Connect the podcast, the official podcast of Connect Church here in Rockdale, texas. I'm your host, bill Whitmire, and I'm here, as always, with our pastor, ken Ansel. Ken, how are you doing today? I'm super Bill. How are you doing? Oh, good, about to blow away with all this wind, but yeah it's even crazier than normal.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's just banging in there. So this last month or so we've been talking about riding the struggle bus and things in our lives that cause us to struggle or get grumpy, as my wife tells me I do sometimes that's a good word, yeah.
Speaker 2:You're in grumpy mode today. You need to come out of that. It's a man thing? I think so, but we get into this and recently there's been some things that have happened around here and with folks that we know. I was at a wedding the other night and somebody asked me They've been listening to our podcast and they know who we are and they just asked me why do bad things happen to good people? And it makes you think about. We're in a Bible study right now and they just asked me you know so, why do bad things happen to good people? You know, and it makes you think about. You know, we're in a Bible study right now where we're going through James and the first part of James talks about that very stuff. And it just hit me wow, you know, this is what we've been reading this last week, and so that's kind of the I don't know what's that one of your top 10 questions that you get from folks.
Speaker 3:Well, people think about it a lot, don't they? And first, I always go to what Jesus said. He said you're going to have trouble in this life. Job's friend said I think we talked about this that man is made for trouble the way sparks fly up, and so trouble is normal. I think we have to drive the stake on some fundamentals right. Trouble is normal, it's whether you're a godly person or not. Jesus had trouble Doesn't mean he failed in his trouble, right, sin or anything like that. If anybody had trouble and trouble suffering as a Christian was the apostle Paul, and it's like it. It just didn't phase him. If he was in prison, I heard someone say he was going to write letters to the churches to encourage him. If he was dead, he was going to go to heaven and be with Jesus. You know, if they killed him, yeah, uh, if. If they turned him, turned him loose and put him out of prison, he was going to go expand the kingdom through sharing of the gospel. So it goes back to perspective, doesn't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean, we talked about it on Monday night and you know it's, people get those trials, they get those adversities in life and it's easy to sit there and say you know God, why are you letting this happen? You know, it's easy to see it as a setback, it's easy to get in that area where you're like man, I can't do this. You know, you pick up your Bible and you're going to read some Scripture and you start thinking why? But in reality, those trials, those adversities, they're tests. They're things that test us and you've got one of two ways to go you can go towards God or you can go away from God. And that's what they are, is tests. I don't know. Obviously I'm not God, so I don't know. But it sure seems to me that every time God has taught me something, it's either been something that I've earned or I've learned through those kind of tests.
Speaker 3:Yeah they are opportunities and I think there's a lot of people that run from God and for some reason, we like to find the reason or play the blame game and a lot of people want to blame God. Like you just said, run from God, blame God. Why is he allowing this? And no doubt everything filters through his hands. Right To me, that's encouraging and supports my faith that whatever I'm going through, whatever struggle, trial, testing, that it's filtered through God's hands. And it's cliche, but it's still true. Philippians 4.13,. I can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength, and so I know, if it's filtered through his hands, that it's going to be okay. Yeah, that I can tap into that power source. It doesn't mean it always ends right Like a terminal cancer prognosis. Well, as a Christian, it's going to end in heaven. For me, that may not be. I may want to live, live longer. I'm praying that I'll hit 91, so I still got a ways to go, and that I'll be in good health, you know, mentally and spiritually, physically.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I cut you off, I think no, no, you're good, I just was going to agree with you. You know it's. I've told you this before and I may have said it on the podcast before. We're getting to that place. This is our sixth podcast, so we're getting to that place now where I may say something I've said before, but there will be people that haven't heard or maybe they haven't heard it enough. But when you have that, I had a friend that had terminal cancer.
Speaker 2:She passed away. She went through this three different times, twice into remission, and then it came back no-transcript, kind of in a woe is me state of mind, because she was a special friend, somebody I'd known since school. We went to Baylor together and I remember her saying this and she even posted it on Facebook. At one point she said for those that are worrying and praying for me, just keep praying. God's going to heal me. He's either going to heal me and I'll go home, or he's going to heal me and I'll go to heaven. Yeah, heal me and I'll go home, or he's going to heal me and I'll go to heaven yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, and that is a huge faith. I mean, that's just an amazing faith right there, just to feel that way. And it's one of those things now that when things get bad in my life or I'm being challenged by something, or there's just something that's come up, that's just in my way I often think back to when Dana said that and I'm like you know there's so much truth in that and it makes you consider that you know, I'm healthy, I'm a little chubby but I'm healthy, you know, and I give thanks for that, and I give thanks for that. And then, when you look at what I see as adversity, what I see as a trial in my life, and I think back to other people, I think about other people around me and I'm like you know, it's nothing compared to them and for some of those people, what compounds it is that they don't have that relationship with Christ.
Speaker 2:They're facing all this completely alone, oblivious to that. And if it was to end, there's nothing afterwards.
Speaker 3:There is, but it's nothing you want. Yeah, it's nothing good. So, yeah, adversity is an opportunity for me to flex my faith. I mean, I see I'm not saying it's enjoyable, but the struggles are real and my faith is real. It's an opportunity for me to show that I trust the Lord, because that's it. When we're facing adversity, do we trust God, yes or no? It is a yes or no answer. I heard Louis Giglio say earlier today on something I was watching on Instagram I think that we might not be okay, but Jesus is in us and Jesus is okay that he never had a day he sinned, never had a day where he was anxious, never had a day where he doubted, and so we want him in us. Right Galatians 2.20, paul said he had died and the life he was now living, christ was living through him. So we want to give Jesus that full reign and authority in our life. Whether we're on the struggle bus or not, you know every day right.
Speaker 3:Even if we're. You said you're a little chubby, but healthy, right. We want to like Jesus, it's all yours. Or when we're suffering Jesus, it's still all yours, and I'm going to trust you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean, you know we just we think about this stuff when we think about our troubles. You know, we think about this stuff and we think about our troubles and then so many times our troubles tend to be on the materialistic side. On top of that, it's not even past the health issue, it's on the materialistic side. You know, I remember I had someone tell me one time they wouldn't have thought I lived in the house I lived in. They thought I would have lived in some kind of mansion or something, I guess I don't know. I live in a simple country home out in the middle of nowhere, nothing fancy.
Speaker 2:It's almost 20 years old now, so I'm constantly doing maintenance on it, but you know, it surprised them, but it's not about that it's not about all the other things.
Speaker 2:And I know one friend of mine told me one time he said man, if I was you I'd be really working on that to make that, to improve it. And I'm like, well, it serves its purpose. It's a place where the nurse and I live, we sleep there, we have our family there occasionally. But you know what? There's going to be a time where we can't do anything with it anymore. We don't take it with us, it stays right here. You know there's my grandmother told me one time.
Speaker 2:She said you know, people worry about all this stuff so much. They worry about losing this, or they worry about losing that, or they worried about not having that. And a hundred years ago nobody's. A hundred years from now, nobody's even going to care about it anymore. You know that thing is so important to us, that thing, that we're so afraid of losing out. When we have something bad that happens to us and we're worried about losing it, you know it's not going to matter once we're gone. You know we talk about the health. We were just talking about that too. And I remember you know you're talking about Paul, and when Paul was in prison at one point he just, you know, he just wished he could go to heaven right there.
Speaker 2:But he also told God. You know, God, if you're going to take me, I'll be so happy to go right now, but if you're going to leave me here, that's fine too, because there's a lot of work left to do, you know, and to think of things in that manner, rather than thinking about oh why are you putting me here? Why?
Speaker 3:am I here? I mean how?
Speaker 2:many times could Paul have said that why am I shipwrecked, why am I in prison again? And yet there he was. He just sat down and wrote letters to people. That's the amazing part to me and that never gave up. And so many people when they feel like they're at the worst of their time or they're at their wits end that's what I do a lot of times I'll sit back and I'll say well, you know, paul was in prison writing people, telling them how to do things. You know, we talked about Bible. Stay one time would you go to prison?
Speaker 1:for being a.
Speaker 2:Christian. And there's Paul. Not only is he in prison, but he's writing letters out you know, yeah, yeah, I'm writing my lawyer.
Speaker 3:He was writing to the church, you know. Yeah, yeah what you're saying? Is we just our problems? Not always. Again, you know, we've got a friend that's just gone through some surgery and he's had some serious, serious, serious health concerns in the past. We love him a lot so I'm not making light of anybody's adverse situations, but we have a lot of first-world problems.
Speaker 3:You know like I'm frustrated. I've got to take the new car in to get its first oil change tomorrow, and I don't want to do that. I'd rather be at home, right and like that's not a problem, is it?
Speaker 3:That's not anything to be frustrated about. It's free. They have a nice waiting area. You know, coffee, soda, whatever you want, they'll take care of you. But yeah, we have so many first world problems. But you know, yeah, I know we're not being insensitive and that's what.
Speaker 3:In Philippians 4.13, when Paul talked about being content, he was in prison and he said I know what it's like to have a lot. I know what it's like to not have a lot, right, living in a small home. I know what it's like to live in a big home. I know what it's like to have a new car. I know what it's like to drive a whip. I know what it's like to have a fat bank account and I know what it's like to drive a whip. I know what it's like to have a fat bank account and I know what it's like to have nothing no money coming in and no idea where my next meal is coming from. But it's perspective, right. God was his provider and he knew the promises that are in God's Word. So he was going to live in a way that God could show him those promises are true.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, you lived out in California for a while, and so did I. I lived in the south part of the bay and I was a very junior sailor and I lived in Sunnyvale, california. It is part of Silicon Valley. It is expensive to live there and I lived there on $900 a month with two children and a wife, and we had a really good church there. It was the First Baptist Church of Sunnyvale, and that's in an area of the country where Southern Baptist churches can be hard to find there's not many yeah.
Speaker 2:And not that I had to go necessarily to a Southern Baptist church. It's just that being a Southern Baptist boy at that time, that's what we were going to do. Yeah, sure, and I remember you know that was a really good time in my life and we didn't make any money, but we had a good church. We had a good, solid church and it didn't have anything to do with the building.
Speaker 2:It had to do with the people there. And so I know there's a lot of folks that may be listening to us that think that well, ken's a pastor, he does this, he has a nice house, you do what you do and your wife's a nurse practitioner and you have a nice house. And it's easy for you to say that, well, it is and it isn't, because I don't care who you are, I don't care how much money you make, I don't care how big a house you live in. You're always going to have troubles. And so at that time it would have been very easy for me to not be making any money, not have anything to do, never being able to go on vacation, just lucky to have a place to live and to be able to have groceries and everything. And it was still one of the happiest times, especially with the folks that we were around and the church that we were in there.
Speaker 2:And then I've had the exact opposite. I've made a lot more money and been in a lot worse times and not been in that church, not been focusing on God, probably couldn't have told you even where my Bible was, and I look at those times and they were the worst. They were the worst, but in those hard times— God was there and I was with God. In the other hard times that were extremely hard and I wasn't in church, god was still there, but I wasn't with God. And so, when we have these hard times that we've talked about, you've got that choice.
Speaker 2:You can go towards God or you can go away from God.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, jesus is the game changer, huh, whether or not you're in an abiding relationship with Him praying regularly, fellowshipping with other Christians. You talk about having a great church, good community of faith in your Bible, you know, being sharpened by others. I mean that's yeah. I can think of times too in the past where it was very hard, financially hard, but God was good and some of that was being in a great church. So you can't that's just so undervalued by 21st century people how important church really is.
Speaker 2:When we were in Bible study the other night. I wrote this down while you were I don't remember who was talking, I think.
Speaker 2:Well, one of the other guys was talking, but I wrote this down when he was talking and then I wrote it down here so I could bring it here today. And I said, we often discuss prayer and Scripture, but we must have that strong church community to rely on. This is a huge source of knowledge, empathy and sympathy and love. Oh, man, and I mean, we've talked about this before too, not on here, but we've talked about it in church, we've talked about it in Bible study. You'll get those people that say, well, I don't need that church, I do my own church on Sunday in my living room with my Bible.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know. To me, prayer, scripture and that church community, those are the three things that you need to live a Christ-centered life. You brought it up Sunday and you said that the word Christian is only used four times in the.
Speaker 3:Bible three times in the.
Speaker 2:Bible. So we talk about that and when you ask people, are you a Christian? I mean, I've heard it say you know we're in Texas, you know we're the star on the Bible belt, you know we are the belt buckle on the Bible belt. And so you ask people are you a Christian? And most people in the state of Texas are going to say yes. But if you were to ask them, are you Christ-like? Well, that's a whole different story. It's different, yeah.
Speaker 3:You ask people that you're probably going to get some answers like well, you know, blah, blah, blah whatever, that's a hard, you know.
Speaker 2:Are you trying to imitate Christ, like it says in the Bible? Are you trying to? Is that who your mentor is? Is that who you're trying to imitate? You know, and for a lot of people well, I'm a Christian I mean cha-ching.
Speaker 3:Yeah, man, what you're saying is so true. And while I'm thinking, I mean I know there's Muslims and other people that don't claim Christ in Texas, but I only know one person in Texas that has told me I am not a Christian. I Christ in Texas, but I only know one person in Texas that has told me I am not a Christian. I don't want to be a Christian, I'm not going to be a Christian Leave me alone, ken, somebody in our family. But yeah, I mean, I read last week that everyone's a Christian until it gets biblical, and that's kind of what you're describing.
Speaker 1:Am.
Speaker 3:I following Jesus, which, being a Christian, being a disciple, being a follower of Christ, they're all the same thing. So, yeah, so many people claiming to be a Christian but not following Jesus, not being a disciple, a learner, doer, someone that's learning from Christ through His Word, through His church, and then doing what they learn. And really, what you said a minute ago made me think there's a thread of gratitude in all of this, isn't?
Speaker 2:there Like whether or not, we're grateful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there is. I mean, I think a lot of people get upset because they haven't a trial or some sort of challenge or something happened in their life. That's pretty significant and they're looking for a way out. And you know the Scripture, the prayer, that church, family and, like you just said, having that gratitude for Christ being in your life and allowing you to have this opportunity, being thankful to God, those are the things that get you through. I really don't know if ever there's been a time when I read that God's not, there's not a way out, but there's a way through. And that's what God's going to provide is a way through the things that go on in your life. And when I read that, I started thinking to myself and I can't really recall I'm not saying that there was ever a time that he didn't just get me out of something of something. But I look at the rough times in my life and the big reason I made it through was because of Christ. There's that old thing where the footsteps.
Speaker 2:There's times when there's two footsteps and there's times when there's one, and that's when Christ is carrying you.
Speaker 1:And there's some truth to that.
Speaker 2:But yeah, that gratitude that goes along with it, yeah, those big three. And then you have to have that gratitude, you have to be thankful and yeah, you know what, there's going to be bad things that happen to good people and we say that, and I say that, and I say good people and we have an idea of what good people are, although it says in the Bible that no one's good, but we good people. Although it says in the Bible that no one's good, but you know, we look at it that way. And even when those bad things do happen to that person who's trying to be Christ-like, who might have lost their way for a while, that gratitude for Christ that I'm alive that I have this opportunity, that I have this opportunity to get out of this.
Speaker 2:You know, I think a lot of times. How can I be happy when all this stuff is going down on me? Well, you ought to have the gratitude that you have that opportunity to work with Christ to move through that and get through that and get to the other side.
Speaker 3:Yeah, every breath is God's grace, so we're grateful for that. And then, yeah, the growth that comes through those hard times. We're out of time, aren't we?
Speaker 2:And yeah the growth that comes through those hard times. We're out of time, aren't we? We're getting there, yeah, so you want me to say a prayer then?
Speaker 3:That'd be great.
Speaker 2:Unless you got a last word.
Speaker 2:No, I think I'm good. I've probably talked too much already. No, it's good. No, it's good. Let's just say a prayer and we'll get out of here today. Dear Lord, we thank you for this beautiful day. We thank you for all that you do for us and we love you so much. We ask you to watch out for folks and help them through the issues that come up in their lives. We ask you to help them and guide them on your path and just to be there for us all, as you always are. We ask you to watch over everybody, and we thank you for all that you do for us, for it's in Christ's name. We pray, amen, all right.
Speaker 2:Well, that is episode six. I want to thank everybody for listening. I want to thank everybody for the good feedback. If you have questions or if you want to ask us about something and have us address something, you can. On all of the podcast sources, you can click and send us a message and we'll get that on our website. If you want to send it to our website, those links are available on all the website deals. They're available. On our church website, connectchurchrockdalecom. You can find links to the website. You can leave us a message and we'll address that. Thank you.