Necessary: 6 Months & 3 Lessons Later

Today marks six months since my Achilles tendon snapped in half playing pickleball the last day of spring break. Six months ago, I did not know that injury was necessary.

I could not have said it then, or nine weeks later when I stepped down a stair at church, and the delicate tendon ruptured again. Nor would the idea have dawned on me nine weeks after that as I balanced on one foot, hunched over the sink to wash the wound from which emerged wisps of white tendon. 

No. I couldn’t have said it then.

I could affirm, “God is good,” and did say, “He wants to teach me.”

But I couldn’t have said the other thing. 

But like the rosy glow before sunrise, truth was dawning. Sometime between the infection of the tendon and scheduling the third surgery came the sobering reality that I was in a tough spot. 

And with that serious business, came the pink glow of truth. 

Necessary 

I can confidently say that these “various trials” were necessary. I say that because Peter did.

“In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

—1 Peter 1:6-7 (ESV)

“Necessary for what?” you ask.

Necessary to test my faith. I think that is what the Apostle Peter meant when he said, “if necessary.” He meant that if we are grieved and distressed by trials, we can rest assured that in the perfect wisdom of God, those exact trials are necessary.

We can rest assured that in the perfect wisdom of God, those exact trials are necessary.

By test, I mean the kind of test that a chemist would use to confirm the nature of the substance in his hand—”the genuineness.” I mean, to test of the veracity and purity of my faith.

The purity of gold can be tested in various ways. Applying acid to a gold to observe its reaction reveals its authenticity and purity. Pure gold will resist the acid while lower purity gold or fake metals will react by changing color or texture. 

Trials are to faith what acid is to gold. 

Purifying Trials

But there’s more. Trials not only test the nature of our faith, they purify us. Apostle Peter tells us how our “various trials” can serve to purge our sin.

“Since . . . Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.” (1 Peter 4:1-2, ESV)

This does not mean sinless perfection, but that one who endures trials has been purified. Patterns of sin, and “human passions” are changed in the crucible of suffering. When we face trials in faith, our passions are weakened. They are unseated from the place they had in our soul.

That purifying work comes as we endure.

Pastor and author David Mathis notes,

“We do not endure in theory. We endure in practice. And the enduring not only proves who we have been; it also produces who we will be.”

After enduring, we will be more pure, more holy, more like Jesus. 

6 Months & 3 Lessons Later

A friend recently gifted me with David Gibson’s, The LORD of Psalm 23. She warned me to take it slowly, to let it soak into me, and I have tried. The first lesson I needed to learn is stated so clearly in “How He Leads,” Gibson’s chapter on Psalm 23, verse 4,  

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For you are with me…” 

1. God leads us into trials.  “If I find myself in the valley of deep darkness, it is because the good Shepherd has led me there. . . The valley of the shadow of death, the days of deep darkness, do not mean we have left the path of righteousness; in fact, they are where the Shepherd‘s path of righteousness is sometimes located. This is how he leads” (p. 61).
2. God gives grace for the day. He gives us mercies to match the troubles. If I had known on March 28 how the next six months would unfold, I think I would have despaired. But Jesus told us to pray for daily bread and Paul said God’s grace was sufficient. Worry comes when I ponder tomorrow’s troubles without figuring in the mercies God will send them. 
3. God’s people struggle with God. I did. I won’t sugar coat. There have been lows. Some days I woke with such dread of the day on one foot ahead that I already wished for the night. Jacob wrestled with God. God loved Jacob and he struck his hip. From then on, Jacob walked with a limp. And God was his God. “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” is also my God. 

Necessary, and Good

I don’t know what struggle you are going through, what dark valley the Good Shepherd has led you into. But I know that God’s children, the sheep of his pasture, will be grieved by “various trials.”

I know that if you are a child of God, these trials are necessary. 

But I also know that though the Lord “cause grief, he will have compassion

    according to the abundance of his steadfast love;

for he does not afflict from his heart

    or grieve the children of men” (Lamentations 3:32-33).

Our tested faith, gifted by God (Romans 12:3) and purified by trials, will be celebrated! It “will result in praise, glory and honor” when the Shepherd who walks beside us is revealed. 

I couldn’t say this six months ago, but today I will. The last six months of rupture and re-rupture and crutches and CAM boots and casts, of wound care and infection and surgery times three—all of this was necessary, and good. 

“It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.”

—Psalm 119:71 (ESV)