Struggle

What does it feel like to bite into a BLT sandwich? Or to craft a snowball with your bare hands? Or to cut your toe nails? In each case, it feels a certain way.

Okay, so what does it feel like to be a Christian, a follower of Christ? This, too, feels a certain way. Actually, it feels a lot of different ways at different times. But no doubt one of those ways is this: it feels like a struggle.

“Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.” – Colossians 1:28-2:5

Wherein lies the struggle of the Christian life? This question could be answered many ways. But taking our cue from Paul’s own testimony to the Colossian believers, struggle can come when you profoundly desire something and are earnestly working toward its accomplishment, while perhaps not yet seeing the fruit of your labor. Because to be a Christian is, for one thing, to desire great things. Think about what Paul says he’s aiming at: “that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Those are some pretty lofty goals. Paul wants his people to know Christ in the depth of their very being. He has committed his life to this task. It is the one, central reality for which he toils. But the greater the goals and desires one has, the more likely a gap appears between prospective aspirations and present accomplishments. And that pesky little (or large) gap feels, to the sensors of our human experience, like a struggle.

One of the consequences of this line of thought is that we shouldn’t see struggle as an intrinsically bad thing, as something to avoid. Rather, it is a corollary to the beefed-up desires that coincide with being a Christian. To rid ourselves of struggle would be to rid ourselves of desire. How much better to struggle with partially fulfilled desires than to possess a fully satisfied apathy. During this time of seeking God, let’s allow the gap between what is and what ought to be sensitize us to our struggle in making known the mystery of God, which is Christ. And then, let’s simply keep struggling with all His energy that He powerfully works in us.  

Jesse Peterson