Audibility 3.10: Thankfulness in Suffering

Happy Thanksgiving! (and Happy Winter Break college students!) Yikes, 2020 has been a crazy year; Fall semester was a crazy semester. We're all grateful here at The Audibility Podcast for Rest and Fellowship with friends and family this holiday season. Join us this week as we sit down and have a chat with another old friend and familiar face...or well, a familiar voice: Ian Morel. We have a heart to heart with Ian about what it means to be Thankful for things through tough times like these, no matter your circumstances. In the first part of the episode (4:10-8:40), we talk with Ian about who he is and we recap some of the craziness of this year. In the second part of the episode (9:05-24:05), we talk through the story of King David lamenting and mourning for his dying son in 2 Samuel 12, and we look at how he reacts to that hard situation as an example for how we should react to hardships in our life. We discuss Job and talk about how our present-mindedness sometimes gets in the way of us seeing past the hurt of our circumstances to a better future, one that we may not even be able to understand in the moment. In the third and final part of this episode (24:28-44:25), we look at the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes as a model for enjoying the Good things God has given us, despite being in the midst of all the nasty smoke of life. Jae compares us to rhino's: we're so short-sighted that when we get startled, we run through life and can't find our way through our situations so we often end up doing more harm than good. We look at a quote by C.S. Lewis from his book, The Great Divorce, describing the beauty of hindsight on our lives and on difficult times of suffering. He likens it to being able to see that a barren and harsh desert, once we've left it, was really a lush rainforest teeming with life abundant. It serves as a testament to many hard things being truly Good; to God working all things out for the Good of His Kingdom. We talk a little about—you guessed it—Rest. We discuss how it is important to remember to take time to Rest and be Mindful even in times of trouble; that it often helps take away some of the weight of a hard situation. We close out by talking about caterpillars and precious metals. As cliche as it is, a caterpillar undergoes a truly spooky process to become a butterfly (one that is no doubt very unpleasant for the caterpillar). Peter writes in 1 Peter that our suffering here on Earth is like a precious metal being burned up and refined in a furnace so that the impurities can rise to the top and the Good stuff sinks to the bottom. That pure gold can now be processed and made into something beautiful. We go into that cocoon, or through that furnace, and by the Grace and Power of God we come out better than when we went in. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Hang in there. For more information on what we're all about here at The Audibility Podcast, go ahead and check out our website https://audibilitypodcast.com, and to get connected with us, follow us on Instagram, @audibilitypodcast.