Milazzo - All the kings horses: finding purpose and hope in brokenness and impossibility

When the valley is deep

When the Mountain is steep

When the body is weary

When we stumble and fall

When the choices are hard

When were battered and scarred

When weve spent our resources

When weve given our all

In Jesus Name we press on.

DAN BURGESS

I press on toward the goal for the prize of theupward call of God in Christ Jesus.

PHILIPPIANS 3:14

I N THE INTRODUCTION I asked: What do we do when weve fought our hearts out, givenevery last ounce of what was in us to give, and weve simply got no fight left? Whatdo we do when all that remains is an overwhelming sense of hopelessness, defeat,and despair? To the extent that the answer to those questions hasnt been clearwithin the pages of this book, I will take one last crack at them here. Yet strainas we might, worldly ears will never hear the answer to those questions. Jesus admonished:He who has an ear, let him hear (Rev. 3:22).

Theres hardly a chapter in this long family story in which I didnt find myselfin desperate circumstances of one sort or another. At long last, though I couldnthave planned it this way (nor would I ever have wanted to), I must conclude thisbook facing one of the most difficult seasons of my life, battling financial insolvencyeven as I battle for my life and health, devoid of the resources I need to adequatelycare for my physically and mentally impaired son. That is this authors version ofhopelessness and impossibility. What is yours?

I trust it has become clear to you that true, lasting hope does not reside in mypersonal story. But before you rush off to find it in some other book or story, understandthat true hope cannot be found in any human story. In the end, were all just dyingindividuals on a dying planet. Perhaps that is too morbid to assert in the epilogueof a family story. Yet, if were honestly grappling with hope, we had better lookto something higher than ourselves, something that can never be taken from us throughtheft or deceit, something even death cannot touch.

My son came into the world a healthy, vibrant baby. In these pages youve seen tragedyradically alter his path, and youve observed his remarkable, sometimes miraculous,progression through the stages of his life. Although he now inhabits an adult body,he will remain a child all his days in this world. Yet in his life Ive discoveredthat even a child, especially a child, can have ears that hear (Matt. 18:3).

Bryson knows God created us from dust and breathed life into us. He knows that eventhough weve been granted such a great gift (not a bad upgrade from dust), weveall turned from God, choosing sin instead of obedience and rebellion instead of faithfulness,and that we are all worthy of death for doing so. Yet he also knows God loved usso much He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, right as we were in the midst of ourrebellion, to suffer and die on a cross, taking our sin upon His sinless life, andpaying the punishment and death we deserved for our sin.

He knows that Jesus rose from the grave and lives today as an invincible King whowalks with all who repent and choose to follow Him, enabling us by His grace andpower to press on through every peril we will ever face in this world. He knows aday is coming when Jesus will bring all who have believed in Him home, to a placewhere there will be no more sin, no more sorrow, no more pain. Yes, my childlikeson knows all these things.

And lest I forget, my son knows the correct answer to the questions posed way backin the introduction: What do we do when weve fought our hearts out, given everylast ounce of what was in us to give, and weve simply got no fight left? What dowe do when all that remains is an overwhelming sense of hopelessness, defeat, anddespair? His answer simply is: In Jesus name, we press on.

The above song, Press On, written by Dan Burgess and sung by Selah, is one of Brysonsfavorites, and its not hard to understand why. All his life hes been forced topress on through horrendous anguish and pain. What is harder to understand is whyhe needed to suffer such torment in this world. Indeed, why do we all experiencesuch difficulty and sorrow here? Any honest consideration of these questions pointsus back to the sin and rebellion weve all chosen, sin that wrecked the perfectionof Gods creation and permanently marred the human race.

Even so, I dont pretend to understand the selectivity of suffering in the world.Who gets cancer, or succumbs to Alzheimers? Who gets crushed in a car wreck? Whatwinds sweep down to choose a victim, while sparing others right next door? What makesJob, or my son, or you, dear reader, the subject of Gods showdowns with Satan?

For that matter, what makes Jobs declaration, Though He slay me, yet will I trustHim (Job 13:15, NKJV), more appropriate or noble than his wifes counsel simplyto curse God and die! (2:9)? The Bible tells us God loves us, yet who could blameus for becoming cynical, or even bitter? Lets be honest. Its often hard to seeGods love here. What we do see quite readily is sorrow, pain, and death all aroundus. I once saw a bumper sticker which read, Life sucks, and then you die! How wouldyou answer the occupant of that car?

Religion is full of talk about Gods love. Frankly, if God doesnt ever do more thantalk, why should we care? Jesus lifts our eyes to a far deeper understanding of thelove of God than religion will ever grasp. Jesus love is fraught with action. Henot only saw our anguish and pain, but He came. He willingly died to grant us forgiveness,eternal life, and genuine hope as we press on in our journey here and now.

Yet let me not wax poetic about the love of Jesus without making this notion of pressingon with Him a bit more practical and real, as I trust Ive done throughout this book.In reality, we must press on with Him as if through a war zone, because thats preciselywhat this world is, and it will continue to be a battleground until Jesus returns.

Every soldier must anticipate becoming battle weary, beleaguered, even wounded fromtime to time. During times of battle fatigue or woundedness, Satan will not misshis opportunity to taunt us with every step we try to take, pointing out the utterimpossibility of victory, tempting us to lay down in defeat. We must understandthe serpents mastery of the half-truth. Our circumstances may indeed be impossible.Give him that part. Being more than conquerors in Christ (Rom. 8:37, NKJV) involvesa far higher definition of victory than Satan wants us to perceive.

The only victory that overcomes in this battleground world is our faith in JesusChrist: This is the victory that has overcome the worldour faith (1 John 5:4).Let us allow Him to define the terms of our victory, and show us how to press onin the direction He will lead us toward. It is a preposterous understatement to saythat Jesus can deal with our impossibilities. Even death couldnt stop Him. Nothingcan!

Every soldier must also understand there can never be a lost battle, nor a sinfulfailure, nor even a long wilderness season (even those we know we have caused orcontributed to through our own sin), that can ever stop us from pressing on to victoryonce again, if we keep turning to Christ in repentance to follow Him in obedience,receiving His victory by faith. The war has already been won by Christ. By faithin His finished work of grace we join Him in His victory, without condemnation,no matter how badly or often we may have failed. Checkmate is always to Christ, andalso to us as we refuse to surrender, but continue to press on in His name.