Suddenlys

There are a lot of “suddenlys” in life. One of my earliest memories is as a three-year-old happily jumping up and down on a friend’s bed, when suddenly my head hit the headboard and blood was everywhere. Playtime ended and my parents rushed me to the doctor’s office. (This was back in the day when that was possible.) After getting several stitches, I still have a barely visible scar on my forehead.

Another time, I took a break from my homework as a teenager to go play football with some friends. As I was attempting to make a tackle, suddenly I felt this intense pain in my left knee. I limped home and later learned I had torn the ACL along with some cartilage. Nothing was ever the same with that knee.

And just this weekend, I was doing laundry while cleaning the house in preparation for my wife’s return from South Africa. Suddenly, in the midst of the spin cycle, the machine just shut off. I tried everything, all the internet hacks, to get it going again. Nothing worked. Now we’re having to decide whether to repair it at great cost or just buy a new one.

“Suddenlys” take all kinds of forms. I remember the morning I returned home to find a note on my Bible from my first wife informing me she was moving out and wanted a divorce. Those kind of “suddenlys” literally rock your world, while others, like our washer giving out, are just very inconvenient. The value of all “suddenlys,” however, is in knowing how little control we actually have over our lives.  Things happen that we don’t expect and our faith is tested in those times. James reminds us that we should not fear or dread them. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,  whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

I have indeed been shaped spiritually by the “suddenlys” in my life. If I’m honest, I’ve been much better at responding to the world-rocking ones than to the inconvenient ones. The latter ones have been a long slog in learning not to get frustrated and angry. But I have improved significantly over time. Both kinds of “suddenlys” have helped me see the bigger picture that nothing in this life—not health, wealth, relationships, jobs, or routines—can be taken for granted. And as I have gained a better perspective, so too have I come to realize more and more that the only truly unchangeable and reliable thing in my life is the Lord. As the Hebrew writer states: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (13:8)

I think that is the purpose of the “suddenlys” that we experience in the course of our lives. It is so easy for us to grow dependent on things moving along smoothly in life, but the true test of faith is when we suddenly experience some not so good things. How do we handle them? As it has been with me, it is a process of growing and learning. I think there are few of us who respond well early in our lives to sudden negative changes. But as we continue to grow, our trust in the Lord should become stronger so that we weather the “suddenlys” by increasingly trusting the Lord to carry us through them. In so doing, our perseverance in life will grow and so will our spiritual maturity, further preparing us for life on the other side.

© Jim Musser 2022 All Scripture references are from the New International Version, 2011.