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Productive Struggle · The Holy Pause

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: A reading from Scripture, Romans chapter 5.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: But not only that,
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: We can even take pride in our problems because we know
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  SPEAKER_00: that trouble produces endurance,
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  SPEAKER_00: endurance produces character, and character produces hope.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: This hope doesn't put us to shame because the love of God has been poured out
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: While we were still weak at the right moment, Christ died for ungodly people.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: It isn't often that someone will die for a righteous person.
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  SPEAKER_00: That maybe someone might dare to die for a good person.
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  SPEAKER_00: But God shows his love for us because while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
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  SPEAKER_00: So now that we have been made righteous by his blood,
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  SPEAKER_00: we can be even more certain that we will be saved from God's wrath through him.
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  SPEAKER_00: If we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son
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  SPEAKER_00: while we were still enemies,
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  SPEAKER_00: now that we have been reconciled,
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  SPEAKER_00: how much more certain is it that we will be saved by his life?
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  SPEAKER_00: And not only that,
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  SPEAKER_00: we even take pride in God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: the one through whom we now have a restored relationship with God.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: When my daughter started middle school, we had a parents' night at her school.
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  SPEAKER_00: It was a couple weeks before school started and it was so we could meet her teachers
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  SPEAKER_00: and walk around the school and see where all her classrooms were.
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  SPEAKER_00: They gave us a copy of her schedule and we literally walked from classroom to classroom.
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  SPEAKER_00: But the first thing that they did was have all of the sixth grade parents
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  SPEAKER_00: and students meet in the cafeteria while the grade level principal talked
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: about some Ideas,
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  SPEAKER_00: some important concepts that we were going to need in order to be prepared
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  SPEAKER_00: for school this year.
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  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things he talked about was productive struggle.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Productive struggle.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: You see, it's tempting as a parent to leap in and fix things.
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  SPEAKER_00: When your kids are small,
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  SPEAKER_00: toddlers,
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  SPEAKER_00: and they fall down for the first time,
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  SPEAKER_00: our initial reaction is to leap up and say, are you okay?
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  SPEAKER_00: And hug them and pat them down and check everything
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  SPEAKER_00: and make sure their knees are not all scraped up and all of the things
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  SPEAKER_00: because they fell for the first time.
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  SPEAKER_00: But I remember very strongly learning that if I didn't react, they were just fine.
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  SPEAKER_00: They'd often look to me to see if they should be afraid.
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  SPEAKER_00: They would often look to me to see if they should be hurt.
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  SPEAKER_00: They would often look to me to see if they were supposed to be crying.
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  SPEAKER_00: And it goes on and on and on throughout life.
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  SPEAKER_00: This idea of productive struggle.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now there is a little bit of a misnomer here in the idea that you need to find trouble.
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  SPEAKER_00: That you need to create situations of trouble.
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  SPEAKER_00: That you need to make life harder for yourself.
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  SPEAKER_00: That in fact the harder your life is the more righteous you are.
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  SPEAKER_00: But that's not what the scripture is saying here.
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  SPEAKER_00: Instead it's saying that when we face obstacles When hard things come our way,
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  SPEAKER_00: when we learn to productively struggle through difficult times,
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  SPEAKER_00: when we ask the hard questions, that is when we begin to build perseverance.
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  SPEAKER_00: That is when we begin to learn to trust.
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  SPEAKER_00: That is when we begin to grow closer to God.
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  SPEAKER_00: We don't have to go looking for it.
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  SPEAKER_00: Trouble will find us.
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  SPEAKER_00: That first math test will find us.
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  SPEAKER_00: But it's important to productively struggle,
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  SPEAKER_00: to learn how to reach out to God in those moments when life is hard and when we have
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  SPEAKER_00: the big questions.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's important to remember that in the midst of those inevitable times that come,
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  SPEAKER_00: asking and seeking Struggling to overcome the obstacle in our way is
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  SPEAKER_00: the most important thing we can do.
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  SPEAKER_00: And it does, over time, develop character.
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  SPEAKER_00: The kind of character that learns to trust God in those moments.
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  SPEAKER_00: The kind of character that is humble enough to remember we cannot make it on our own.
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  SPEAKER_00: The kind of character that learns to seek and to ask and to find.
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  SPEAKER_00: So try it on today.
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  SPEAKER_00: I invite you to consider the last time that you had a productive struggle
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  SPEAKER_00: or maybe it's the last time where you had to struggle with something.
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  SPEAKER_00: You had a hard question that you didn't quite know the answer to or you had
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  SPEAKER_00: to say something and have a hard conversation with someone or you got
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  SPEAKER_00: a diagnosis you didn't like.
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  SPEAKER_00: When was the last time that you had to productively struggle with something?
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  SPEAKER_00: What did you do?
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  SPEAKER_00: How did you go about beginning taking the steps to overcome this obstacle?
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  SPEAKER_00: And in what ways could you turn to God?
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  SPEAKER_00: Could you ask?
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  SPEAKER_00: Could you seek help?
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  SPEAKER_00: Could you find resources?
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  SPEAKER_00: What can you do to begin the productive part of the struggle?
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Join me in prayer.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: God, we give thanks this day that when the inevitable moments come,
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  SPEAKER_00: when we feel uncertain,
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  SPEAKER_00: when the inevitable times come when we feel alone,
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  SPEAKER_00: when the times come when we feel overwhelmed,
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  SPEAKER_00: help us to remember that you are with us in the suffering.
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  SPEAKER_00: That you offered yourself for us in times and before we can do anything.
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  SPEAKER_00: And so in this time and in this day,
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  SPEAKER_00: when the struggle comes,
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  SPEAKER_00: we ask you to help us take the steps to allow that struggle to be productive
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  SPEAKER_00: and not destructive.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's your holy name we pray.
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  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
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  [music]