The Strength of Adversity – Sunday, May 15, 1983
Life is so basically good, and we so expect it to be good, that occasionally we are frustrated and confused by the adversities that may appear to stand in the way of our happiness. There may even be those who ask, “If God loves us, why does He not protect us? Why does He not keep trouble from afflicting us?”
The most immediate answer to that question is that He does. He does love us, and frequently He answers our prayers with deliverance. Are not the scriptures filled with songs of gratitude such as the one found in Psalm 30: “I will extol thee, a Lord; for Thou hast lifted me up…O Lord my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me.”1
But sometimes, too, God may appear not to intercede. Sometimes we are blessed not with miraculous deliverance, but with the lesson of adversity.
The eighteenth century British statesman and orator Edmund Burke taught that ” Adversity is a severe instructor, set over us by one who knows us better than we do ourselves, as He loves us better, too.”2
Indeed, from adversity, from challenge, from difficult moments and potentially defeating circumstances have come some of mankind’s noblest moments.
17 years ago, the American educator and concert pianist Leon Fleischer was stricken with an undiagnosed case of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. The result was that he lost control of the fingers of his right hand. He could no longer play the piano—a potentially devastating tragedy for a man who had been a child prodigy, who had dedicated much of his life to performing on the concert stage.
But the artist devoted himself to his teaching; he began conducting; he did not utterly despair. In 1981 an operation restored the use of his right hand. Subsequently, he returned to the concert stage.
But of those intervening years when his dreams seemed ruined, he says, “There is no doubt that what seemed like the end of the world to me in my little life turned into an opportunity for growth, for expansion and a widening of horizons.”3
So, it often is with adversity. We must pray for God’s help in our lives; and He will help us. Sometimes the adversity which is best put aside, will be put aside. And for that adversity which does not leave, He will make us strong enough to bear, and the stronger for having borne.
1 Old Testament, Psalm 30:1,2
2 The New Dictionary of Thoughts, Tryon Edwards. comp. Standard Book Co. New York. 1955. p 7
3 “The Sound of Two Hands Praying” Gerald Clark. Time Magazine, July 12, 1982, p. 75
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May 15, 1983
Broadcast Number 2,804