“Even when there is nothing anyone can do, Understanding Helps.” Perhaps referencing a quote from a fiction book where the plot description is: “An FBI hostage negotiator confronts a commercial pilot who has hijacked his own plane in this spellbinding thriller…” is not a proper place to hear the Quiet Whispers of God; however, as I’ve shared previously in Respectfully Mystified, God doesn’t always speak to me through conventional means. I’m delighted if God has an audible voice that you recognize, but personally, it’s the words He has given others to write that seems to be His conduit to share with me.

It is not uncommon for me to be reading both fiction and non-fiction, academic journals, and Scripture all in the same day, so after a time of praying for discernment over a tough decision, I opted to allow my mind to get lost in a page-turning thriller that had no relevance to the situation. Engaged in the storyline, unsure of where the plot was headed, I read across the above quote from one of the main characters and it reverberated in my thoughts– Understanding Helps. Yes, it truly does!

Understanding Helps was my response after sharing on social media a struggle I was facing. Friends reached out to share their own personal experiences of how God had walked them through a Tough Season. With no clear answers of how to address my personal situation, it didn’t matter. The willingness of others to share their own stories, the vulnerability it took to reach out and say, “Julie, I get it!” was enough because Understanding Helps. We often may not have a perfect solution to offer to someone we care about, but Trust Me on this aspect, God speaks through those personal stories.

In this current Wintering season, that I thought was ending with an Arriving Spring, I’ve spent a great deal of time researching how to become a Contented Soul, along with what it means to truly Rejoice in the Lord always. Pastor David Dwight brings an interesting perspective to this idea that Understanding Helps when highlighting a passage out of Philippians 4. Depending on who is offering the reminder to Rejoice matters to the message, because it’s difficult to accept a reminder to Rejoice from someone who’s life appears to be what Dwight describes as “happy trails from beginning to end…There’s a lot of hardship in the world and you’ve been able to cruise above it or not be hurt by it…Your life has been Pleasant Valley, so standing up and telling everybody else to Rejoice in the Lord lands a little hollow.”

When we are reminded that Paul, the author of those words in his letter to the Philippians, was in prison and “the executioners were sharpening the blade as he was writing the letter, then we see a man whose life experiences were all over the place in terms of hardship,” offers Dwight. These words don’t land quite so hollow anymore, and that was my experience when friends shared their personal stories of walking through tough seasons, their Understanding Helps. It’s a challenge to accept advice from others when they have not experienced the Raging Seas that we have. It’s easier to heed suggestions and empathy from those who have truly walked through even harder seasons than our own.

No one chooses to be the voice of experience, we’d rather not endure that hardship of illness, doubt of purpose, or lack of understanding, but when we can walk alongside of one another, sharing how the Lord cultivated in us a Habit of Resilience, this kind of Understanding Helps in an authentic and genuine manner. So, thank you, to all of you who reached out—in fact, too many to personally respond to at this present moment—please know how much God is using your words, your stories, to speak to my heart, even more so than a phrase written by a stranger—your Understanding is still helping this wearied soul to move Onward in search of arriving at a place of contentment.

References:

Dwight, D. (2022, September 25). Contented soul | Flourishing soul, Part 2. Hope Church. Richmond, Virginia. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_ll9X93Tfo

McMinn, L.G. (2006). The contented soul: The art of savoring life. IVP Books.

Nance, J.J. (2016). The last hostage. Open Road Media.