Life Isn’t Always Easy…

Yesterday…

…at church, enjoying a visit from Lucia. Lucia is a bubbly, smiley Brazilian lady running the administration of an African hospital in Chad. She spoke with energy, enthusiasm and humour; she clearly enjoys her job involving spreadsheets, finance, business management…

She spoke too of the challenges that she faces – working in English, French and Arabic, when Portuguese is her first language… leading an administration team, made up of 3 different nationalities and three different Chadian ethnicities in a team of 5 people… cultural differences in practice and expectation… The main causes of death are road accidents, then malaria…

Life isn’t always easy.

…reading Chuck Colson’s ‘Life Sentence’. He’d been Nixon’s political ‘hardman’, become a Christian, involved in Watergate and been imprisoned. Released from prison in 1975, he started visiting prisons across the US, campaigning for prison reform and pioneering a ministry to prison inmates.

He describes speaking in a conservative church: ‘…at one point I said, ‘I believe in the literal truth of Scripture and the authority of the Bible.’ Choruses of ‘amens’ roared through the sanctuary. Later I referred passionately to Christ’s words that we are to visit those in prison. The sanctuary was silent.’

Colson’s work wasn’t easy; his message wasn’t easy for the congregation to hear; their reaction wasn’t easy for Colson to understand.

…hearing the old Nat King Cole song ‘Smile’:

Smile, though your heart is aching
Smile, even though it’s breaking
When there are clouds in the sky
you’ll get by…

Life isn’t easy for friends going through tough times… aching, breaking hearts… family breakdown, dementia, bereavement, loneliness, depression… Some still smile, despite internal darkness.

If you smile through your fear and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
You’ll see the sun come shining through
for you…

Life isn’t easy? I’m reflecting on Lucia’s cheerfulness, Chuck Colson’s determination… coming from the faith that David expressed with familiar words: ‘Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me..’