Stephen Terry, Director

 

Still Waters Ministry

 

 

Setbacks

Commentary for the June 13, 2026, Sabbath School Lesson

 

"Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, 'I find no pleasure in them'" Ecclesiastes 12:1

Sometimes it seems like it was just yesterday, and other times it seems like it was so long ago. When I was young and gave my heart to God as a teenager, I was filled with the energy and zeal of youth. I had great plans and could see my life unfolding with a pastoral call and a life as an evangelist or missionary. I was not entirely sure how this would all take place as I strongly felt the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life but was born with parents who had little to no interest in such things. Nonetheless, I attended church as I was able to through the efforts of neighbors and friends. I learned that the path to ministry included college, but my father made it clear that he would not assist with college in any way. He was so opposed to the idea that when I did finally graduate, he refused to come to my graduation.

Without parental support, it seemed the only course to follow to obtain that education was to risk military enlistment during the Vietnam War, so I would have the support provided by the G.I. Bill to at least cover some of the costs. In addition, I worked at several different student work-study programs to be able to complete my degree in the normal four years of study, even managing to fit in a double major with Theology and Biblical Languages. I also had the support of my wife, Shirley, who also worked to help cover expenses. We met and were married in Alaska while I was stationed there, and we were like two adventurers naively following a dream without financial support from either family, but both willing to trust in God as we set sail in life's sea without a clue of the storms we might encounter. For the most part, college was a sanctuary experience for us. Sequestered within the campus community, the focus was on academics and completing my course of studies with a minimal amount of debt at the end. Life was not free of challenges, but compared to what was to come, they were not so much obstacles as they were means to inure us to some small idea of what pastoral ministry would be like.

During my final year at Walla Walla College and the year I spent in pastoral ministry in the Midwest, two major events happened. The first was a great blessing when my wife gave birth to my son, Seth. Her love for him was constant as mine remains for him to this day. It has been amazing to see him grow and to dedicate himself with his wife, Courtney, to raising three, little, precious girls. It is a joy to see those young ladies echo the same excitement I experienced at that age when discovering how filled with wonder our world is.

The second event was a great challenge. During that year of pastoring a three-church district, Shirley was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, a degenerative disease of the nervous system. The disease was not instantly fatal. Instead, we all had to helplessly watch her deteriorate over a twenty-five-year period gradually losing her ability to walk, to eat and drink, and eventually even to breathe. It still hurts my heart to write and think about it. Death is truly an enemy with an untold number of ways to ravage our lives and challenge any joy we might glean from the passing years. Even though I have been blessed more than some in that God has brought me another wife, Karin, whose heart is knit with mine, I fully know what the future can hold, having already had the heart-rending experience of losing someone I loved before. I cannot fathom the depths of pain it will cause to repeat the experience. Ironically, in case I had forgotten, we recently lost our two Siamese, one to diabetic neuropathy and the other to a stroke. After fifteen years of being part of our small cat family pride, our hearts are also hurting from that loss.

Then as if to remind us of the sadness that can come in life, we face old age with pain and disability that is increasing with each passing year. Television advertisements continually hawk cures for this or that ailment, and truly there are miracles taking place with the aid of genetic engineering. Even Multiple Sclerosis has new interventions not available to Shirley since she died too soon to see them. But reality is even with all the new developments, the bodies that once ran and now limp through life cannot last. We are destined to an end, and for too many that end is not pleasant but painful and depressing. Solomon pondered the vagaries of life in Ecclesiastes and concluded that all is vanity, so he said find what joy we can in life. Some might feel he had everything with his hundreds of wives and concubines and his vast wealth and power, but all that only brought him to understand more deeply the futility of setting his heart on such things for life quickly passes and there is no enjoyment of those things in the grave.

So, what then is the point? If life is transitory and short, and "God is love" (1 John 4:8), why is there so much suffering, separation, and loss? Why could I not hold the hands of my loved ones, my family, and walk right into heaven with them like Enoch of old? But then I realize despite Enoch's blessing, even Jesus was unable to do that. I cannot even begin to imagine the pain in his heart to die as an innocent on the cross while the woman who nursed him at her breast looked on and wept. It brings tears to my eyes even now to think about it. If Jesus could not escape suffering, pain, heartbreak, and death, their purpose must be deeper in our lives as well.

Could it be because humanity was created in God's image? (Genesis 1:27) Since "God is love," we were purposed to love as well. But we chose to walk away from that purpose and to walk away from that love. It has become so ingrained in mankind that ever since we have chosen far too many times to walk away from those we love. Instead of finding purpose in the sufferings we endure, we blame others for our pain and disengage with them. Who has not received the "silent treatment" at some point in their lives. Love requires that we communicate, even when it is painful. Could this be why we are told to love even our enemies? (Matthew 5:43-45) If one walks away who is left to re-establish communication but the one compelled by love? And who is better suited to do so with understanding than one who has also suffered? If we have not suffered and overcome that pain and loss through love, how can we ever guide others through the grief and anguish tearing their hearts apart? It is in walking the path of suffering that we become the gems of hope the world needs to see more of that light might overcome darkness and love might ease the pain that so easily besets us now.

"If received in faith, the trial that seems so bitter and hard to bear will prove a blessing. The cruel blow that blights the joys of earth will be the means of turning our eyes to heaven. How many there are who would never have known Jesus had not sorrow led them to seek comfort in Him! The trials of life are God's workmen, to remove the impurities and roughness from our character. Their hewing, squaring, and chiseling, their burnishing and polishing, is a painful process; it is hard to be pressed down to the grinding wheel. But the stone is brought forth prepared to fill its place in the heavenly temple. Upon no useless material does the Master bestow such careful, thorough work. Only his precious stones are polished after the similitude of a palace." (Thoughts from the Mount of Blessings, pg. 10)

Jesus knew that we would all face a crucible of suffering that would worsen through the ages. He told us that because of such suffering we would be tempted to let our hearts grow cold. But he also assured us that enduring despite the suffering was vital and would grant us the salvation that he made possible through his own suffering. (Matthew 24:10-13) There are all sorts of fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit. But there is only one Pearl of Great Price that we must pursue at any cost. The Apostle Paul identified it in his first letter to the Corinthian church. "Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears." (1 Corinthians 13:10-13) What is in part is incomplete. It is not perfect. But we are called to be perfect even as God is, to love as he loves. (Matthew 5:48)

As old age encroaches, pain, suffering, and loss reminds of the cost that love drove Jesus to endure. That suffering is why he understood what we all must endure when he wept at the tomb of his dear friend, Lazarus. May God give us each a heart capable of loving like that.