As I sat with my feet dangling off the edge of “The Diving Board” atop Half Dome in Yosemite National Park, I gazed down at the valley floor nearly a mile below my feet and thought to myself:

“I’d get down there a heck of a lot faster if I just performed a magnificent 10 1/2 with a triple twist off this here diving board. It would be a RUSH!”

It may be a rush, but not a very long one. It would only take 18.1 seconds to fall one mile—even with the 10 flips and 3 twists. Seeing as I’m writing to all you good folks right now, I didn’t actually do it. Without a chute, a base jump off “The Diving Board” of Half Dome would end in a sudden, grisly, and untidy mess in the valley below. Even with a parachute, you have to know how to use it—and I didn’t. Instead, I hiked the 8-mile trek back down to the valley floor while experiencing some of the greatest spectacles of God’s vast and picturesque creation along the way.

When the Israelites left Egypt, there were two possible routes to the Promised Land. One route was a comfortable drive along the MCH—the Mediterranean Coast Highway—through Philistine country, and into Canaan. Just think, the Israelites could have experienced glorious ocean views, spent their Sabbath days surfing, body boarding, throwing the Frisbee around, playing sand volley ball, roasting hot dogs (Hebrew Nationals of course), and making s’mores. The second route was a hot and tedious drive along the BDR—the Boring Desert Road. Along this path, the Israelites would struggle to find fresh water, bread, and meat. There weren’t Hebrew Nationals on fresh-baked buns; they wouldn’t have coolers full of cold beer and Mt. Dew. When the Israelites came to this particular fork in the road—where one choice was “Beach Bash —Mediterranean Style” and the other choice was “Deserts and Dunes—Sinai Style,” the decision was a no-brainer. Sure, there was the potential for war along the MCH, but it was worth it…and they were ready! Right?

The Israelites thought they were ready for battle (Exodus 13:18), but God knew they were more bark than bite. God knew that once they tasted battle with the Philistines, they would either meet their demise or turn-tail and run back to Egypt (Exodus 13:17). The beach was not an option. Instead, God forced the Israelites to take the BDR, while guiding and protecting them the entire way. The BDR was the long route; the BDR was the boring route; but the BDR was the correct route—and God was leading the way:

“By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.”

—Exodus 13:21-22

In most situations, there’s a fast, easy–and often—fun path; and then there’s a long, difficult, and tedious path. Nine out of ten times, God guides us along the long, difficult, and tedious path.

Why does He do that?

In his song “Long Way Home,” Steven Curtis Chapman sings:

I set out on a great adventure
The day my Father started leading me home
He said there’s gonna be some mountains to climb
And some valleys we’re gonna go through

But I had no way of knowing
Just how hard this journey could be
Cause the valleys are deeper
And the mountains are steeper than I ever would have dreamed

But I know we’re gonna make it
And I know we’re gonna get there soon
And I know sometimes it feels like we’re going the wrong way
But it’s just the long way home

Similar to His assessment of the Israelites, God typically knows when we’re ready to face a certain battle or not. God also knows when an army of Philistines is waiting to kill us at the end of the gorgeous coastal highway…or when a thrill-jump from the top of cliff will end in a splat. In order to avoid those deadly destinations, God often will lead us through long and strenuous—yet spectacular adventures. However, by leading us along the less than desired path, God’s intentionally protecting us from certain death…and leading us to our ultimate destination…leading us to the Promised Land…leading us home.

 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

—Jesus Christ, The Sermon on the Mount, Matt. 7:13-14

After cooking a wonderful breakfast of bacon and eggs, my mom would throw the eggshells into a giant mason jar, fill it with water, and set it aside. Weeks—perhaps months—later, she would open the jar, fill a small watering can, and walk around the house watering her plants. Michael Jackson said it best, “the foulest stench was in the air…the funk of forty thousand years.”  Within a nanosecond, my mom’s “fart water” would permeate our house. It consumed all that was holy, just, and pure. How it made the plants grow was beyond me…because everything else in the house was dying…including my very soul.

The night before their exodus—and death passed over the homes of the Israelites—they instituted a feast that is still commemorated today. On the tenth day of the month, each family was instructed to select a year-old lamb without defect. On the 14^th day of that month, everyone in Israel had to slaughter their lambs at twilight, spread the blood of their lambs on the sides and tops of their doorframes, and then eat their lambs. God provided strict instructions as to how they should cook their lambs and what they should order as side dishes—no mashed potatoes with gravy and coleslaw. Instead, their sides consisted of bitter herbs and bread made without yeast (Exodus 12:1-10).

The bitter herbs were a reminder of their bitter lives as slaves and bread without yeast was called “the bread of affliction,” it was a reminder that they had to leave Egypt in haste—with no time for the bread to rise (Deuteronomy 16:3). This ban against yeast became a festival in and of itself—the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Anyone caught eating anything with yeast during this seven-day festival was cut off from Israel (Exodus 12:15).

Why was there this particular disdain for yeast?

I’m a Dutch kid from the Midwest. If there was food on the table, there was a stack of bread along side. Growing up, bread was a necessary side dish. I remember an early disagreement in my marriage over bread. My wife had prepared a wonderful meal—there was no argument over whether the food was appealing or not…it was good. However, when I grabbed a loaf of bread and threw it on the table, she was insulted.

“If I wanted to serve sandwiches, I would’ve served sandwiches.”

To me, bread was a necessary side. To her, bread was only necessary if we were eating sandwiches.

I LOVE bread…but have you ever had unleavened bread? Nasty! Yeast to me, is a necessary component to a good loaf of bread.

It’s not that yeast was always bad. The Jews would still make normal, good bread—with yeast. Jesus compared the kingdom of God to yeast in how it spreads through the dough and causes it to grow (Matthew 13:33). On the other hand, Jesus also compared destructive teaching, dogmatic leadership, and wickedness to yeast.

Right after Jesus fed the 4000, he and his disciples climbed into a boat and crossed the Sea of Galilee. Unfortunately, the disciples forgot to take some bread with them. What were they thinking?

In one of my favorite discourses in the Bible, Jesus says to his disciples, “Be careful! Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (Matthew 16:6). The disciples immediately start whispering to each other, “He’s ticked now. Dang it! He said that about the yeast because we forgot the bread. You know that’s why” (Matthew 16:7, The Shawn Vander Lugt Paraphrase).

Knowing what the disciples were whispering about, Jesus basically calls them idiots and then says, “How is it you don’t understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (Matthew 16:11).

You don’t need a lot of fart water to stink up an entire house, you don’t need a lot of yeast to make the dough rise, and you don’t need a lot of destructive, dogmatic teaching and wickedness to destroy a group of people or even one person. Churches, small groups, families, and individuals are frequently destroyed because of someone’s fart water. In many cases, those people appear to be growing and thriving…like my mom’s plants or a loaf of bread. Their growth, however, is like a tumor—unnatural, twisted, and diseased. The church in Corinth was allowing a man to sleep with his father’s wife—they weren’t just allowing it, they were bragging about it. This probably wasn’t the guy’s mom…but it’s still gross…Jerry Springer gross. In response to this despicable act, the Apostle Paul wrote:

Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

—1 Corinthians 5:6-8

I’m in no way propagating the removal of yeast or fart water from our lives—only what they represent. As Paul said, get rid of the old yeast—remove any destructive teaching and immorality from our lives. Remove that stuff that multiplies and spreads like wildfire consuming our sincerity, truthfulness, and morality. Remove the fart water from our lives—that stench that saturates all that is good, just, and pure and kills everything in sight—including our very souls.

The battle had escalated to a point of no return…for either side. The officer in charge of our derisory platoon, Steve the plumber, had retreated to a safe place—away from the line of fire. When he arrived safely in his vehicle, Steve filled his lungs with a fresh air no longer tainted with the fumes of chemical warfare. Steve’s first contact with the enemy was an ordeal; Brad and I knew Steve would clash with this traumatic tribulation for the rest of his existence. Brad and I were all that remained. We couldn’t retreat…we had to stand firm and fight…even if it meant sacrificing our lives for the cause. We had to clear out the tunnel so the trained experts could move in, repair the damage to the water pipes, and provide clean water for the middle school students of Hamilton County.

The pipes in the tunnel had been leaking for months. After some misguided thinking, the powers that be decided some cardboard on the floor of the tunnel was a brilliant idea, thereby providing the perfect covering for our enemy. We decided to begin with a little “Shock and Awe” and bombed them repeatedly; they just hid under their cardboard and ridiculed our meager attempts with jovial laughter. The fumes filled the tunnel and the small classroom that provided the entryway into their domain. Steve went down to check on the success of our “Shock and Awe” only to scream and retreat to his van abandoning his platoon. He left us with one mission and one mission only: scrape the cardboard away with a 2×4, immobilize the enemy with a paralyzing chemical, and then annihilate each one individually with the small sledge.

“Clear the tunnel!” commanded Steve as he grabbed his roast beef sandwich and tuned his radio to Rush Limbaugh.

We left Steve to rot his brain and trudged back to the front lines.

“Go ahead,” said Brad, handing me a can of Raid Ant and Roach Killer spray, a two-pound sledgehammer, and a four-foot long 2×4. “May God be with you!”

I lowered myself into the darkness, turned on the lantern, and waited for my eyes to adjust. I giggled to myself and low-crawled to the end of the tunnel. I could hear the enemy scampering underneath their soggy protection.

“You will soon meet your demise my little friends.” I whispered and then chortled to myself.

I could hear Brad laughing hysterically in the classroom above as the fumes continued to permeate his lungs and his mind. His footsteps were thunderous on the ceiling of the tunnel; I knew he was slow dancing with the skeleton model. I just smiled and prepared my waning sanity for the impending onslaught. When I reached the end of the tunnel, I placed the 2×4 flat against the wall and pushed down…scrapping away a few inches of the cardboard. With the spray and the hammer easily accessible to my right hand, I took a deep breath, focused my few remaining functional brain cells onto the task at hand and scrapped away two feet of the enemy’s protective cardboard shield.

They all attacked at once! They scampered, they scurried, they scuttled…coordinating their strike. One cockroach the size of a Volkswagen—obviously the leader—fixed his beady eyes straight into my soul. He reared back and advanced furiously in my direction. Fear swelled up inside of me, but didn’t cripple me. My courage overcame my fears; I grabbed my first weapon and sprayed him directly in his eyes!

“DIE, DIE, DIE!” I yelled as the tunnel filled with fumes. My visibility was temporarily impaired, until suddenly he slowly appeared—marching out of the fog. The slogan on the roach spray read, “Kills on Contact.” The advertisers couldn’t have been MORE wrong. They weren’t dead…not in the least. The leader’s mobility had lost its intensity, but he was still pressing on. I grabbed my hammer. “DIE, DIE, DIE!” I yelled as I obliterated the enemy…first, the leader…then his faithful platoon. The battle had been won; however, the war was far from over. I repeated the mode of attack: scrape away their protective covering, spray to immobilize them, and then destroy them with my sledge. It was crude, but effective.

“I AM THE LORD OF THE COCKROACHES!” I cried out in a savage, Lord of the Flies demeanor. I then cackled and threw back my head bashing it into the tunnel’s ceiling. I fell to the floor of the tunnel as several working brain cells died instantly. The sound of Brad dancing with his fleshless dance partner continued to resound from above.

When I came to my wits, I realized that I wasn’t lord of the cockroaches. Even a tiny insect would not submit to my will. If I was lord of anything that day, it was my own stupidity.

God’s goal in Egypt was to prove to Pharaoh, the Egyptians, and even His own people that he was not only the Lord of the flies, the gnats, the frogs, and the cockroaches, but he was the lord over all the Earth. After the plague of frogs, God sent a plague of gnats, flies, disease on the Egyptian livestock, and boils. God had already proven to the Egyptians and the doubting Israelites that he was their only source for sustenance, protection, and healing. For the seventh, eighth, and ninth plagues, God took on Pharaoh and the Egyptian pantheon by proving he was the Lord over the weather, Lord over fertility, and Lord over the sun. Before sending hail and lightning, God said:

“Let my people go, so that they may worship me, or this time I will send the full force of my plagues against you and against your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth. For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”

—Exodus 9:13-16

Jesus proved his Lordship over these same things when he walked on the earth. He turned water into wine, healed the sick and diseased, and controlled the weather. God pointed it out to Pharaoh when he said, “There is no one like me in all the earth.” Jesus claimed to be this same authoritative God…a God that is incomparable and possesses ultimate authority over all.

“Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.”

—John 14:10-11

“Believe on the evidence of the works themselves.”

When Jesus miraculously filled Peter’s fishing nets with fish, Peter responded by saying, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” (Luke 5:8). When God sent hail and lightning upon the Egyptian countryside, Pharaoh exclaimed, “This time I have sinned. The LORD is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong.” Sometimes when we encounter the mighty works of Christ and truly witness his Lordship over all, it brings us to our knees in repentance. Repentance, unfortunately, isn’t the end-all and be-all.

Pharaoh repented and recognized God’s Lordship, but he didn’t fully submit to God. He eventually hardened his heart and jumped right back into the fumes of sin. Pharaoh knew he had to submit, but he just couldn’t humble himself enough to do it. Peter also didn’t quite grasp the full purpose of Christ that day on the Sea of Galilee. He may have recognized his insignificance in the presence of the Almighty, but he didn’t fully submit to Jesus’ Lordship. In fact, Peter didn’t fully submit to Christ until Pentecost.

Recognizing Jesus as Lord and repentance is only the beginning of a wonderful journey. Submission to Christ’s Lordship over your life—embracing the reality that we are not the lord of anything…be that our finances, our careers, our families, or even the cockroaches—is far more difficult than recognizing the power and authority that Jesus has over our sins. Submitting to Jesus’ Lordship is handing over ANY power we think we have to Jesus…and letting Jesus manage our life entirely.

Embracing Jesus as my Savior is simple and comforting.

Embracing Jesus as my Lord is a daily struggle.

I just pray I have enough brain cells left to fully submit to Jesus as my Lord and denounce my claim to the throne as the lord of anything…including those blasted cockroaches.

Have you ever noticed how some people thrive in their own sinfulness and misery? I’ve also noticed that several individuals who are perpetually miserable don’t claim any responsibility for their life’s downward spiral. They wallow in self-pity and play the victim superbly. Quite often, they create situations in which they’re victimized. Some surround them with pity and support which only feeds their delusions.

Playing the victim is a profitable delusion for some individuals. It’s actually easier to convince yourself that you’re being persecuted and continue down the path of self-delusion than to admit fault. When others pity you, it only reinforces that delusion.

I can openly admit that I’ve played the victim from time to time. I think we all have. I’ve also clung onto my own sin and addictions as if they were actually benefiting my life. When we play the victim, we arrogantly embrace our pride and endure the pains of resentment just so we don’t have to admit we’re wrong. When we harden our hearts and grasp onto our sins and addictions, we delude ourselves into believing that there is more comfort in the life we’re living than any other option. We can’t comprehend how repentance—acceptance of our sin and responsibility—could lead to an even more comfortable redemption.

Twelve years ago, I was talking with a young man in my youth group. He told me that he didn’t want to accept Christ yet, because he wanted to enjoy his life first. I understood where he was coming from. I had once believed the lie that a life in the darkness of sin is more enjoyable than a life in the light of Jesus. This lie is perpetuated by the deceptive practices of Satan—he convinces us that the Christian life is stagnant, that God is a fun-hater, and that Heaven will be BORING! The enemy LOVES it when we subscribe to these lies. Randy Alcorn writes:

“Satan need not convince us that Heaven doesn’t exist. He need only convince us that Heaven is a place of boring, unearthly existence. Satan cannot stop Christ’s redemptive work, but he can keep us from seeing the breadth and depth of redemption that extends to the earth and beyond.”

Satan wants us to believe that the stench of sin, death, and addiction is better than the glory of redemption and eternal life found in Jesus Christ.

At the end of The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, Frodo is overwhelmed with the agony of carrying such a heavy burden…the ring is too much to bear. In fact, Sam actually carries Frodo for the final stretch of the journey. In the final climactic moment, Frodo reaches the precipice of the volcano where he can finally be free of the ring and all the baggage it carries. Unfortunately, Frodo succumbs to the power of the ring…he convinces himself that he can wield the ring’s power…that he is better off with the ring than without it. Instead of destroying the ring, Frodo claims it as his own and risks, not only his own redemption, but the redemption of everyone and everything he holds dear.

Sin, addiction, pain, and persecution are burdensome…but sometimes…the absence of those things is petrifying.

Our pride, our desires, our compulsion to be pitied, our hardened hearts…all stand in the way of our freedom—our redemption! We’ve bought into the enemy’s lies and convinced ourselves that our life outside the light of Jesus is better than the life inside it.

The bloody Nile didn’t convince Pharaoh to free the Israelites, so God made frogs come up out of the Nile and overrun the land of Egypt. There were frogs in everyone’s houses, in their beds, their ovens, their pots, and their pans. Frogs were EVERYWHERE!

Unable to take it anymore, Pharaoh summoned Moses and begged him to get rid of the frogs. This is how the conversation went down:

Pharaoh: Pray to the LORD to take the frogs away from me and my people, and I will let your people go to offer sacrifices to the LORD.

Moses: I leave to you the honor of setting the time for me to pray for you and your officials and your people that you and your houses may be rid of the frogs, except for those that remain in the Nile.

Pharaoh: Tomorrow!

And now, for my interpolation:

Moses: Tomorrow? Really? I thought you wanted ‘em gone? You’re willing to spend the night in a bed full of frogs? Just say the word…and poof…they’re gone. Now! Today!

Pharaoh wanted to be free from the invasion of the frogs, but he wasn’t sure it was worth the risk. Pharaoh needed to assess how bad his life with frogs really was. He needed some time to think…to go over the pros and cons one last time. Why should he do today, what can be put off until tomorrow? What if living with frogs is better than living without them?

When Jesus called Peter, James, and John to be his disciples, “they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him” (Luke 5:11). When faced with the call from Jesus to follow him, we also have to be like Peter, James, and John, drop what we’re doing and follow him…no looking back…no assessing our current situation…no bargaining with Jesus for more time…no putting off for tomorrow what we’re called to do today.

Later, a man approached Jesus and said: “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:61-62).

OUCH!

I guess when we’re asked to choose the time we’d like the frogs out of our houses, our beds, and our pots and pans…when we want to be released from the burden of sin, pain, suffering, and addiction…when we’d like to follow Jesus and experience freedom and redemption, our answer should be, “TODAY!”

When I lived in California—and possibly for my first few years out in Colorado—I was never satisfied. I lived my life in a state of permanent discontent. As I look back on the last decade of my life, I realize—now—that I truly had everything for which a man could ask…except contentment. I was perpetually peering over the proverbial fence and convincing myself that the grass always looked, smelled, and probably tasted better on the other side. Colorado was the “other side” for which I longed. Nonetheless, once I jumped the fence, I eventually became aware that the grass in Colorado is just as brown, stinky, and dead as the grass in California—when you don’t water it.

A few weeks ago, I took my kids to see Journey 2: The Mysterious Island in 3D. I was truly expecting the headache of the century. As I drove home from the theater, I was pleasantly surprised—no headache, which was a definite plus, but I also could honestly say that I enjoyed the movie…so did my kids. They still talk about a specific scene.

One of the characters, Gabato, played by Luis Guzmán, wanted to fulfill his daughter’s dream of going to college. Knowing he couldn’t afford it on his own, he left his daughter behind, abandoned his hope of escaping from the island in order to hunt down a small portion of gold as it spewed from the volcano in the center of the island. Gabato arrived at the base of the volcano and encountered a cooled gold nugget buried in the ground. To Gabato—and to the viewers—the gold nugget appeared to be the size of volleyball. The scene changed back to his daughter and her situation, and when the scene returned to Gabato, he was 10 feet into the ground unearthing a nugget the size of a school bus. We laughed at Gabato’s illogical behavior. However, upon further reflection, I realized that Gabato illustrated an unfortunate truth within our society:

Discontent, feelings of inadequacy, and hopes of a better life lead us to dig, and dig, and dig for something to fulfill that emptiness—something to sustain us and give us a full and meaningful life.

We may not be digging for a gigantic gold nugget the size of a school bus, but we’re digging for what that nugget represents…and the more we dig, the more we sacrifice those things that are more important in life. We ignore God, our families, and our friends while we dig for more money and more possessions. We ignore our spiritual and physical health while we dig into our addictions and bad habits.

The Nile was a source of life and sustenance for the Egyptians. They drank from the Nile, they bathed in the Nile, and they relied on the Nile to water their crops. If it weren’t for the Nile basin, Egypt would just be another desert nation struggling to survive.

Prior to turning the water of the Nile River into blood, God assured Moses that He was Mighty and Powerful—in control and the Sustainer of all things. By turning the Egyptian “life-source” into blood, God was making a statement. When the Nile turned to blood all the fish died, the people could no longer rely on the Nile for drinking water, they couldn’t count on the fresh water for their crops, and it definitely wasn’t useful as a bath or to wash their clothes. What was once life had now become death. God was showing the Egyptians and the Israelites, that He—not the Nile—is the “Life-Source.” Often, the things that we rely upon as sources of life and sustenance lead to exactly what the Nile had become—DEATH!

It’s interesting that even after God proved that He is the true Life-Source, the Egyptians continued to dig for something else. They clawed along the banks of the Nile in search of fresh water—they kept on digging for that sustenance—that life (Exodus 7:24).

When Jesus spoke with the Samaritan woman at the well, he said to her:

 “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

—John 4:3-14

Later, when Jesus preached to the Pharisees he said,

“I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

—John 10:9-11

God revealed His divine name to Moses: “I AM.” When Jesus made these statements, “I AM the living water, I AM the gate, I AM the good shepherd,” he was comparing Himself to the Great I AM of the Old Testament. It ended up getting him crucified because Jesus likened Himself to the true Life-Source, but that is exactly what Jesus is. That, in essence, is the Gospel—the Good News:

Jesus provides us with the living water; Jesus provides us with safe pasture; Jesus provides us with life to its fullest; Jesus provides us with sacrificial love and protection; Jesus provides us with eternal life; Jesus is all we need!

No more digging! Because without Jesus—The Living Water—life is just brown, stinky, and dead!

The Mercury SuperChair tilted back as it began its final incline to the top of Breckenridge’s Peak 9. We all knew the routine…there was no avoiding what was about to occur…we just had to tuck and cover to avoid the onslaught. There were only 30 chairs to go, so we tucked our chin inside our coats and covered our faces with our gloves as the bitter, cold wind began its assault. The wind’s weapon of choice: skin-piercing ice-shrapnel flailing toward our faces at 40 miles per hour. We were completely defenseless.

My buddy leaned over and screamed into my left ear, “I know we’re supposed to be tough enough to handle this, but I just want to cry right now! I’m just glad you’re on the end.”

I just nodded and thought to myself, “It’s too cold to cry. My tears would just become more ice-shrapnel for the wind to pelt onto someone else’s face.”

We dismounted, scooted over to the embankment…slightly out of the wind, and despairingly peered up to the top of Peak 10. The wind was blowing snow across the top of the peak masking it from our view. We were heading down to the Falcon SuperChair which took us up to Peak 10, over 1000 feet higher than where we currently shivered, significantly windier, and all black-diamonds or double-black-diamonds the entire way down.

“Are we still doing that? My friend hesitantly asked, “Do you see that wind?”

“I still want to,” his wife answered. “If I don’t push myself, I’m never going to improve.”

“Yep…what doesn’t kill us only makes us stronger!” I finally said as I clipped in and took off down the run.

The wind’s assault upon the Falcon SuperChair was worse than ever before, but the runs on Peak 10 were superb. When we reached the base, we all agreed: By pushing ourselves and persevering, we reached a higher skill level and matured as boarders. We became more prepared—closer to perfection—closer to our ultimate purpose as snowboarders.

Here is a true statement:

Nothing tests one’s skill, vitality, integrity, or faith more than pain, persecution, and suffering.

The Apostle Peter puts it this way:

“Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine.”

—1 Peter 1:7 (The Message)

That’s exactly what happened to the nation of Israel before Pharaoh released them from bondage in Egypt. Moses, their supposed deliverer, marches into the very courts he once called home and demands that his uncle grant his entire labor-force a short, 3-day vacation so they could worship God in the desert.

That doesn’t sound so bad, does it?

Pharaoh was angry that Moses would even distract the Hebrew slaves by making such a request. As punishment, Pharaoh no longer provided straw for his slave’s bricks. Instead, he forced his slaves to find their own straw, but he didn’t reduce their quotas. By making that simple request, Moses had created an even bigger problem for the Hebrew slaves. Their situation in Egypt had gone from bad to worse.

Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all” (Exodus 5:22-23).

God knew exactly what He was doing. The Israelites had to come to the realization that God’s promise and purpose for their life was better than their situation in Egypt. They had to suffer more now than they had ever suffered before or they would always want to return to their former way of life. They had to endure pain and affliction in order to become more prepared—closer to perfection—closer to their ultimate purpose as God’s people. Even after suffering under the heavy hand of the Egyptian slave drivers, many Israelites forgot how tough they had it: Only two and a half months after God delivered them from bondage in Egypt, the Israelites grumbled, “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death” (Exodus 16:3).

Almost always, when God prepares us for our purpose, our current situation goes from bad to worse. Jesus put it bluntly:

“You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.”

—Matthew 10:22

The author of Hebrews expounds, “You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised” (Hebrews 10:36).

Like snowboarding—or just about anything—without pain, there’s rarely any gain!

God had an amazing thing planned for the people of Israel—a “Promised Land”…an inheritance…“a land flowing with milk and honey.” They just had to persevere through persecution, trials, suffering, and pain in preparation for their purpose. They had to endure “pain” in order to “gain” their inheritance.

Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, God has an amazing thing planned for followers of Jesus as well—a “Promised Land”…an inheritance…a kingdom that cannot be shaken” (Hebrews 12:28).

The Apostle Paul summarizes this blog post in the best possible way, so I’ll just let him do it:

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

—Romans 5:1-5