Paul Mallard - Invest Your Disappointments: Going For Growth

Its hard to avoid the expectation of modern culture that this life should deliver constant self-fulfilment. But this sets us up for inevitable disappointment. Paul Mallard argues that we live under the sun, in a fallen world, but then demonstrates from Scripture and from his own experience that disappointments are designed by our loving and all-Sovereign God to draw us into deeper intimacy with himself. There is much practical biblical counsel on how to respond to frustration and disappointment (whether in our work, our relationships, our church, with ourselves or with God himself). All the way through, we are pointed to the time when God will release creation from frustration and bondage, and restore all things to how they were meant to be.

Dr Sharon James, Policy Analyst, The Christian Institute, Newcastle upon Tyne

This is a book that was lived out before it was written. As a father and grandfather, along with his wife Edrie, Paul Mallard knows a loss that will never be made up in this world. As a pastor, he has counselled hundreds in the variety of their fears and disappointments. As a preacher, deeply engaged with Scripture and alight with the joy of knowing Christ, he knows the glorious future that is before us all.

Peter Lewis, author, conference speaker and former pastor of Cornerstone Church, Nottingham, UK

Disappointments at some point invade most areas of our lives. Paul Mallard writes honestly and realistically about these, and encourages us not to avoid them, remove them or escape from them but to embrace them, and to find that there is a place of refuge and meaning within them. Every disappointment becomes an opportunity to grow more deeply in God.

Charles Price, Senior Pastor, The Peoples Church, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The best comfort in life comes from those whove needed the comfort theyre sharing themselves. In this short but profound book, Paul Mallard wonderfully shares the stories, hymns, poems and books that have helped him to live with disappointment, and that most of all point us to the Sovereign God who will soon replace all the disappointments of this world with complete and eternal satisfaction in Him.

Ed Shaw, Pastor of Emmanuel City Centre, Bristol, and author of The Plausibility Problem

INTER-VARSITY PRESS

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Paul Mallard, 2018

Paul Mallard has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as Author of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher or the Copyright Licensing Agency.

The publisher and author acknowledge with thanks permission to reproduce, on page 30, an extract from T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land , Part 1, The Waste Land and Other Poems (Faber & Faber, 2002).

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version (Anglicized edition). Copyright 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica (formerly International Bible Society). Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Publishers, an Hachette UK company. All rights reserved. NIV is a registered trademark of Biblica (formerly International Bible Society). UK trademark number 1448790.

Scripture quotations marked esv are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked gnt are taken from the Good News Translation (Todays English Version, Second Edition). Copyright 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked nkjv are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

First published 2018

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 9781783594450

eBook ISBN: 9781783595624

Set in Dante 11.5 pt/14 pt

Typeset in Great Britain by CRB Associates, Potterhanworth, Lincolnshire

Printed in Great Britain by Ashford Colour Press Ltd, Gosport, Hampshire

eBook by CRB Associates, Potterhanworth, Lincolnshire

Inter-Varsity Press publishes Christian books that are true to the Bible and that communicate the gospel, develop discipleship and strengthen the church for its mission in the world.

IVP originated within the Inter-Varsity Fellowship, now the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship, a student movement connecting Christian Unions in universities and colleges throughout Great Britain, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. Website: www.uccf.org.uk . That historic association is maintained, and all senior IVP staff and committee members subscribe to the UCCF Basis of Faith.

Dedicated to Esme, Ivy, Avennah, Evangeline (Genie), Moses, Opal and Abraham

Grandchildren are the crown of the aged (Proverbs 17:6 esv )

Foreword

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Lion, 1980), p. 172.

Introduction

Isaac Watts (16741748), There Is a Land of Pure Delight (1709).

1. Living outside the Garden

Often attributed to James M. Barrie (18691937).

C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (HarperCollins, 2014), p. 116.

2. The thorns remain

Adelaide A. Procter (18251864), My God, I Thank Thee, Who Hast Made (1858).

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion , 1.11.8, trans. F. L. Battles (Westminster John Knox, 1960).

Martin Luther, The Large Catechism, The Book of Concord , trans. and ed. Theodore G. Tappert (Fortress Press, 1959), p. 365.

(accessed 17 August 2017).

Ambrose Bierce, The Devils Dictionary (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015), p. 165.

L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables (Arcturus Publishing, 2017), p. 36.

3. Am I allowed to feel like this?

T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land , Part 1, lines 6063, The Waste Land and Other Poems (Faber & Faber, 2002).

Paul Mallard, Invest Your Suffering: Unexpected Intimacy with a Loving God (Inter-Varsity Press, 2013), pp. 2338.

William Shakespeare, As You Like It , 2. 7. 169.

4. Only seventeen years to go: when work frustrates us

Quoted in John Stott, Issues Facing Christians Today (Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1984), p. 161.

Ibid., p. 162.

If you are not married, do the same exercise, but adapt it and apply it to your friendships.

5. Only people make you cry: when relationships fail

John Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (Evangelical Press, 1978), p. 123.

Pablo Martinez and Ali Hull, Tracing the Rainbow: Working through Loss and Bereavement (Authentic, 2005), p. 3.

(accessed 21 August 2017).

(accessed 28 May 2017).

Michelle Graham, Wanting to Be Her: Body Image Secrets Victoria Wont Tell You (InterVarsity Press, 2004), pp. 9697.

Andrew Peterson, from the song Dancing in the Minefields, on his album Counting Stars (2010).

6. Parents in pain: when our children break our hearts

(accessed 22 August 2017).

7. Loving what Jesus loves: when church distresses us and leaders shock us

Martin Luther, Luthers Works , vol. XXII (Concordia Publishing House, 2007), p. 55.

Paul Mallard, Invest Your Suffering: Unexpected Intimacy with a Loving God (Inter-Varsity Press, 2013), p. 131.

8. The enemy within: when we are disillusioned with ourselves

See e.g. Tim Chester, Captured by a Better Vision: Living Porn-Free (Inter-Varsity Press, 2010).

Dag Hammarskjld, Markings , trans. Leif Sjoberg and W. H. Auden (Faber, 1964), pp. 128129.