Rough Road Ahead

2 Samuel 11:26-12:15

Any Bette Davis fans here? (I’m dating myself!)
Her 1950 classic … “All About Eve” …
Won an Oscar for Best Picture …
In one memorable scene … a party; heading out of the room, she looks over her shoulder, as only Bette Davis could do, plants her feet, and says scathingly to the gathered snobs and social climbers, “Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.”

Turbulence.
A bumpy night.
Rough Road Ahead.

What do we do when we see a sign, “rough road ahead?”

We:
Slow down.
Hang on.
Stay the course.

A simple strategy for rough times.

Rough times were coming for David.
The affair with Bathsheba …
The murder of her husband …
Yes, he’s still king …
But Nathan the prophet tells the truth:
The die is cast.
No reset button.
No way to reboot.
It is what it is.
Rough road ahead David.
Fasten your seatbelt.

Sure, David did it to himself;
We all do, from time-time-time;
Sometimes, we ARE our own worst enemy.
And sometime things just go haywire.

How many of my Michigan friends have lost their jobs … is it their fault? Was it something they did?
Victims they are … victims of huge social and financial systems … board-room decisions made on the 40th floor of a Wall Street skyscraper … policies framed in government offices far away from the factory floor; political decisions made by big money and powerful people …

Things change …
Patterns break down …
Social upheaval …
Rough road ahead.

Slow down.
Hang on.
Stay the course.

Let’s talk about slowing down.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to slow down.
When there’s a problem, I wanna solve it.
Get it behind me.
Done and over with.

But slowing down is a faith issue.
God promises to be at work in all things for good.
ALL things …
So maybe we can slow down a little bit.
Sure, who wants to be in a tough place.
But God is there, in all tough places.
Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.

We can only walk sometimes.
No running, no speeding, just a slow walk.
It’s dark;
It’s hard;
It’s scary.

Haste makes waste …
Slow down in the dark places.
God is there.
At work in all things for good.

In David’s psalm of repentance, David asks of God:
Teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
Go deep LORD.
Go into my secret heart.

Like drilling an oil well in the Oklahoma panhandle … it takes time to drill deep … layers of ancient rock and primeval sediment

It takes time to learn.
Wisdom is a slow process … like cooking chili … simmering for hours … a little stirring; add a little more chili powder, some salt … more stirring, more simmering … a good pot of chili takes time …
And so does wisdom.

Slow down when the going gets rough.
Trust God.
Because God is there.

David writes:
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And put a new and right spirit within me.

St. John of the Cross, a 16th Century mystic, wrote a small book to young monks, entitled, “The Dark Night of the Soul.”
When the joy of the Lord wears off …
When spiritual delight becomes daily drudgery.
When God seems far away …
Prayers feel useless …

St. John counseled his young monks:
God is doing a might work in the dark night of the soul.

It has to be dark sometimes for God’s mighty work.
If it were all sunshine and light,
We’d rush in and muck it up.
We’d start advising God.
Telling God what to do.
“Here God, try this; work at that.”

So God veils his work from our eyes,
In the Dark Night of the Soul.
God disappears from sight.

Like an artist creating a sculpture for the town square,
The work is hidden from view by scaffolding and heavy tarps …
The public can hear a little bit of the work …
But no one can see the work underway …
Until the artist is ready to pull the tarps away …
And take down the scaffolding …

Then, and only then, can we see what been
Wrought by the artist.
Only then, can we say,
“Ah hah … so that’s what you were doing?”
“I had no idea.”

There are great promises in the Bible,
I am with you always.
I will never leave you or forsake you.
I am work in all things for good.

Rough road ahead.
Slow down.

There’s another part of the strategy here:
Hang on … don’t let go.
Hang on to your dreams.
Hang on to your love.
Hang on to God.

Don’t let go.
Don’t give up.

Here on the LORD's Table, one of my favorite Remington pieces – “Wicked Pony” – the rider has been thrown …
But the rider grabs the pony’s ear …
Hanging on with one hand …
That’s all he’s got … one hand, one ear … but he’s hanging on.
David hangs on …
To his faith, hope and love.
Chastened and wiser …
Battered and bruised.
But David hangs on.
David doesn’t let go.

Paul the Apostle says to his friends,
Pray without ceasing.
Don’t give up on God.
Don’t give up on yourself.
Don’t give up on your life.

And prayer doesn’t have to be eloquent or long-winded.
The shortest prayer in the Bible uttered by Peter sinking beneath the ways, LORD, save me.
Sometimes that’s all we can say.
But say it.
And say it again.
Again and again, if that’s all you can say, LORD, save me.

Maybe your dreams need revision.
Maybe your heart needs an adjustment.
Maybe the whole house needs to come down.
And something new be raised up.

But hang on to your heart.
Hang on to God.
Hang on to your faith, hope and love.

One more piece of the strategy: stay the course.

David slows down.
He hangs on tight.
And he stays the course.

David says of his life before God:
The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;
A broken and contrite heart.

Not money.
Not power.
Not influence.
Not achievement or glory.

But a broken spirit.
A contrite heart.
A place for God.

Sometimes we’re just so full of ourselves.
So full of everything.
We have to be empty to make room for God.

Life will empty us out now and then.
Hard knocks and swift kicks …
Sometimes of our own making …
And sometimes just the way it is …

Stay the course with God!

John the Baptist said it, and said it well:
He must increase; I must decrease.

Something has gotta give in the spiritual equation …
Full of ourselves, there’s no room for God.

Tough times: a time to pull the plug and drain the junk away … so that God can grow larger in our lives.

This is what life is all about.
To make room for God.

And the rest will fall into place.
It always does.
It always will.

Jesus said it well:
Seek first the kingdom of God, and all the other things that can otherwise occupy our thoughts and distract from the reality of life, will come our way as well.

Stay the course with God.
Trust God.
Trust yourself.
Because there’s a lot of God and a lot of good in you.

More than enough to carry the day.
More than enough to get you through the rough times!

David made it.
So will you.

Amen and Amen