Glory Comes with a Cost

I don’t know what it was about 2023 but last year was a hard year for many of my sisters (and brothers!) in Christ. I remember sitting down to write out my Christmas cards for the year, and I looked at the stack of thirty-or-so cards on my dining table and counted out about half of them that were going to people who had had a difficult year in one way or another.

To claim that the Christian walk is one of constant triumph and victory is to deny the realities that many of us are faced with. Don’t get me wrong—there are definitely seasons (and they can be extended seasons!) of glory, and celebration, and wonderful wonderful things, but sometimes we have to come face to face with the fact that life can get hard.

Last April, my friend Liana gave us April babies a little gift—it was a journal where for each day of the year, you write a little entry of that day, and there’s enough space on the page for five years’ worth of entries. The goal is that at the end of five years you can look back and see where you were on any given day. I just hit my year mark with the journal a few weeks ago, and I’ve been able to look back at entries from 2023 that I wrote this time last year.

I will be honest—it has not been easy looking back at some of those entries. In many ways I am not where I want to be a year later, and I’m also reading through the beginnings of what would end up being a hard second half of my year. Sometimes reminiscing isn’t the best thing you can do, especially in the case of old wounds that you didn’t realize are still sore when you poke at them. But reminiscing has also allowed me to take stock of my own walk with the Lord, and to ask some questions of my own responses to the situations I walked through.

Did I exemplify Christ-like character in how I reacted to such and such situation? Did I use those situations to run back to the Lord and to trust in him? And if this was truly a season of testing through hardship, can I say that I’ve come out of it more faithful, more obedient, and more in-step with Jesus Christ himself?

In this century of comfort that I have been raised in, I know that I am a person who doesn’t tolerate discomfort very well. I’d wager to say that actually most of us don’t tolerate discomfort very well, especially compared to our ancestors. Every new tool, every new technology, every new innovation has in one way or another been for the purpose of making our lives longer, easier, happier, and more comfortable.

So when we talk about a theology of suffering, we 21st century Christians are not particularly good at it—because we usually do everything we can to avoid it or ameliorate it. Don’t get me wrong, I am the first person who will cry out to the Lord when things get rough—but in our haste to escape hardship do we sometimes miss what God might be doing in us through that hardship?

The story of Joseph is an interesting one, in that we can see how God will use evil actions and mal-intent to bring about His own good purposes in the world. Joseph’s brothers may have wanted to get rid of him, but God used those evil intentions to send Joseph ahead to Egypt and position him into a place of power so that when the time of famine came, the family line of Abraham could continue to be preserved. (1) Psalm 105 says, “He called for a famine on the land of Canaan, cutting off its food supply. Then he sent someone to Egypt ahead of them—Joseph, who was sold as a slave.” (Ps. 105:17-18, NLT)

But the Lord also knew this fact about men, “power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” (2) Any man that gets handed the keys to the kingdom as Joseph did, would be sorely tempted in every way. From sex, to money, to fame, to abuses of authority, Joseph had plenty of temptations that he would have been faced with as the second in command next to Pharaoh.

But one thing I’ve always marveled at is how Joseph seems to have stuck to the straight-and-narrow even after he received the keys to the kingdom. Not only does he forgive his brothers, but he’s abundantly generous to them. He remains the husband to one wife and has two sons, despite the temptations to take up any number of concubines or wives. He stewards Pharaoh’s resources generously and faithfully, so much so that Pharaoh doesn’t need to worry about a thing for the rest of his life, and even sees his coffers fill up and the size of his territory increase, all under Joseph’s watch. In all of this, Joseph could have easily siphoned off some money or land and lined his own pockets.

Where did Joseph develop this work ethic? Where did he form his incorruptible character and his unshakeable faithfulness to Yahweh?

It certainly wasn’t at home under his father’s care. Jacob favored him to the point of spoiling him, and I think the Genesis 37 text shows us that Joseph wasn’t the wisest kid (though that could be chalked up to childhood innocence)when he told his brothers the dreams he had of his future authority over them. Likewise, it seems like Jacob also used Joseph as a sort of tattle-tale, when he sends Joseph to go check up on his brothers as they were out with the flocks.

So where in his life did he develop this character?

He learned it throughout his years of hardship, of suffering, of disappointment after disappointment. He learned it in his years of injustice and inequality.

In Potiphar’s house, Joseph learned successful stewardship, and to flee sexual temptations and lust. In prison he learned about God’s faithful love (Gen. 39:21), and to hear the voice of God as he interpreted dreams. Joseph learned faithfulness through disappointment, as he waited two whole years after interpreting the cup-bearer’s dream to finally be set free and leave prison. All in all from the night Joseph had the dream about his brothers, to the actual moment they bowed down before him, was about 22 years. (3)

“Until the time came to fulfill his dreams, the Lord tested Joseph’s character.”

-Psalm 105:19

“Young people need to deepen their theology of suffering. It brings longevity.”

-Jackie Hill Perry

God did not waste those 22 years for Joseph, nor will he waste your times of hardship and suffering. God knew that Joseph needed those long years of character-development to mold and shape him into the man that God wanted him to be. And when the moment of exultation came, Joseph was ready. With integrity and faithfulness he stayed faithful all the way to his the end of his life, to the glory of God.

I’ve observed that sometimes giftedness and success can grow faster than our own character does. Character is the one thing that will ensure we run the race faithfully all the way to the end.

How many ministers can we count now who have not managed to do that because their own integrity was lacking? How many young people who were on fire did we see flame out because they didn’t build framework of discipline and discipleship?

There is a special kind of glory that comes from seeing a person finish well, and observing their faithfulness all the way to the end.

This sort of gold only comes out of refinement. One where the heat and pressure of trials have burned all the dross away, and left pure, holy, gold.

Let us be a people who are thoughtful through our trials, who seek to use them as opportunities of growth and rejoicing, even when all we can utter is a broken “hallelujah”.

“Beloved, if you read the Scriptures you will never find anything about the easy time. All the glories come out of hard times.”

-Smith Wigglesworth

“Inima mea cântă azi cântarea plină de nespuse bucurii. Mai frumos nici îngerii nu cântă, ca acei din valea plângerii.”

(My heart sings today the song of untold joys. Even the angels can’t sing as beautifully, as those who have walked through the valley of tears.”