Encouragement in the face of adversity. 9/8/40

Scripture: I Samuel 30: 1-19

Text: I Samuel 30: 6b -- "David encouraged himself in the Lord his God."

There come over all of us periods of discouragement when it seems that we may be overwhelmed by some adversity. A member of the family may be taken with serious illness when it seems that the load of responsibility or expense was already more than could be borne. Something unexpected and disastrous occurs in one's business and he is haunted day and night with the possibility of ruin. He whistles, he struggles and works day and night to pull it out toward success again.

A cause which we have labored for and loved is set far back by new developments and it is a long time before its supporters can be rallied and organized again. Consider how difficult is the lot of those who labor for the cause of total abstinence from the use of alcoholic liquor. That cause once seemed won in the USA. A whole generation of children grew to young adulthood without seeing even one saloon. Probably it seemed too easy. The tide turned again. And now many of us are appalled at the amount of drinking in public seen all over the land. What will be its effect on the dependability of our people? How can we keep this from invading our homes? The forces of temperance and abstinence will have to be rallied again into what parliamentarians are pleased to call the "party of the opposition" to provide a healthy and necessary check on the dangerous expansion of the liquor traffic.

Adversity, as well as success, strikes at our (1) personal hopes and well-being. It lurks near our (2) business with its threat to comfort and to daily bread. It undermines our cherished (3) causes and institutions. How shall we deal with adversity? Well, there is the matter of hard work. The mother who is kept busy with house work and the care of five children just sets herself to work harder than ever when one of the tots gets measles. The man who is determined to pull his business back from the edge of bankruptcy works day and night over it. There is increased intensity of concentration and sometimes fear and no end of worry. Now, generally speaking, I do not think that worry is a good thing for anyone. But I have known situations in which a little uneasiness did no harm. A student had been making honor grades in his high school course in physics. Other work and extra-curricular activities gradually took so much of his time and attention that his standard of work in the physics class dropped sharply. The teacher dropped a hint which got back to him through another teacher that his rating was going to fall well below honors the next time grades were turned in unless his work improved definitely and quickly. The hint disturbed him -- not harmfully -- but enough to spur his efforts to do the work in physics which he was easily capable of doing.

There is something more important, however, than work, increased concentration, and some worry in meeting adversity. Everyone who faces adversity needs encouragement! That is why a boy may whistle when he has to go up a dark lane alone at night. It would be preferable to take the walk in the daylight. And since there is no one else to encourage him, the boy encourages himself by whistling!

Psychiatrists and good social workers know how important it is to bring out courage in those who have gotten their personal lives all twisted up, or who feel down and out. More important than any other help (and other help is often very necessary) is the skillful encouragement toward renewed self-respect. But a greater encouragement than these is often needed.

Consider the circumstance in which David found himself in the story from First Samuel, which was read as our scripture lesson today. David, who had been serving with the Philistine army, was sent back home with his men because some of the Philistines did not trust an alien in their midst during battle. When David reached Ziklag, where they had left their families, they found that their marauding enemies, the Amalekites, had invaded the city, plundered it, burned it, and carried away their families.

That would seem to be about enough adversity for David, or anyone else; homes burned, goods stolen and families carried away captive by a powerful enemy. It was dismaying enough to David's company so that they wept, and kept it up (says the Scripture) "until they had no more power to weep!"

David's own trouble was even worse than that of his fellows, for he was their leader and, curiously enough, there was some talk of stoning him because his followers somehow strongly blamed him for their troubles. I suppose he was hastily accused of neglect or mis-judgment, or poor administration.

Certainly David sorely needed his courage. Interestingly enough, the account says that "David encouraged himself in the Lord his God." I think that right in that phrase is seen the mark of a truly great man. Lincoln, during the years that were the most difficult of his life; years that brought him the most personal anguish as he continued his determination to hold the nation together and to make it free; increasingly acknowledged his dependence on God. David was like that too. First, and most important, he "encouraged himself in the Lord his God" and he sought God's guiding. Putting aside his sorrow and anxiety, and the mutinous threats of his men, he put his whole attention for a while on what God might say to him. Should he take his tiny band of men and pursue the marauders? Could they rescue their families or would their wives and children simply be destroyed as hostages in the conflict? Was there any other way? Perhaps all of these questions entered his mind and were laid before the Lord of his life.

As he prayed, pouring out his difficulties and questions, he waited for an answer; and it came in the renewed conviction that the thing for him to do then was to pursue and to rescue. Then with the full confidence that this was what God wanted him to do, David took his band after the enemy and routed them, and they rescued and recovered their own.

In the face of adversity, "David encouraged himself in the Lord his God." You remember that Job did the same thing. When he was stunned by the loss of his flocks, his houses and his children, when he who had been a man of wealth was reduced to poverty; when his body became wretched with boils; when his well-meaning friends tormented him with the insistence that he must have sinned to bring all this upon himself, Job clung faithfully to his belief in God. Though he could not understand it all, his trust never faltered! "Though He slay me yet will I trust Him." [Job 13: 15]. That was Job's triumph in the face of adversity. And that utterance is far more important than the "happy ending" of the story in which Job recovered and prospered again.

Perhaps you may have read the two installments of a "Diary of a Polish Nurse" in the February and March issues of the Atlantic Monthly. The hospital was surrounded by the Bolsheviks. Their doctor and a dozen or so of their staff had been brutally killed. Their patients were helpless. They were in great danger of being exterminated entirely, both nurses and patients. One rather friendly Bolshevik tried to get this particular nurse away and send her through to the safety of her own lines, for she seemed to resemble a daughter of his in Russia. As she followed him in the snow, she presently knew that she could not desert her sister nurses and her patients like that. She could not face her conscience and her God if she ran away, even to safety. So she turned back toward adversity, toward danger and almost certain death.

I have received a little monthly bulletin from a society for the hard of hearing. It is always full of encouragement for those who suffer from the handicap of being unable to hear as well as others whose ears function normally, and it always reflects an enthusiasm that is inspiring. One issue quotes a famous speaker saying that "as soon as a man begins to accept his handicaps and handles them with positive technique, they present themselves as opportunities, sometimes fascinating!"

No matter what you may think of our President's political policies, there is one thing that is forever inspiring about him. Crippled for life in the midst of a blossoming career, by infantile paralysis, a disease which we all dread, he has been encouraged in his adversity by friends, his wife, and I have no doubt by his God, to handle the misfortune with positive technique. He has not only risen to the highest office of the land, but he has gone about his work so energetically that most of the American people are, most of the time, quite unconscious of his physical limitations.

Friends, the difficulties which are sent from, or allowed by, God, are not meant to crush us but to test us. Fear is an enemy, eternally to be conquered. Confidence in God, who guides us and cares for us, is our birthright, eternally to be cherished. Jesus came to teach us that and died, living it. When faced with trouble, let David teach you an ever-needed lesson and "encourage yourself in the Lord your God." For the Almighty and Eternal One is the only sure source of courage, of hope, of life; the only sure source of guidance on any difficult day. Turn to Him without hesitation for help and He will not fail!

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dates and places delivered:

Pilgrim Church, Honolulu, March 10, 1940

Pilgrim Church, Chicago, June 2, 1940

Cedar Falls, First Presbyterian Church, July 7, 1940 (potential candidate)

First Congregational Church of Aurora, July 14, 1940 (candidate, Sandwich)

Wisconsin Rapids, September 8, 1940 (first regular service)

W.F.H.R., Wisconsin Rapids, November 28, 1940