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Writer's pictureVirginia Ripple

Pressed but not crushed

by Rev. Gina Johnson

 

We are in the second week of our series faith like a mustard seed so I want to go back and first just read through that verse that we find in Matthew 17:20.

 

He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

 

Just sit with that scripture for a moment and wonder what it would really mean if even for a moment of our lives we can hold on to that faith like a mustard seed.

 

I was talking with my best friend the other day and I was talking about how there's always so much more to go. We talk about a journey of spiritual unfoldment to this place of spiritualization. I can feel it. I can sense it. I know it. There's so much more to go and then I think about the teaching there. It says if you have faith like a mustard seed you can move a mountain and so I'm thinking to myself “Well I think I have a pretty strong faith and I still can't make a mountain move.” And that just reminded me of when we think “Yeah, yeah, I'm a believer. I'm a believer. I pray all the time. I attend service. I meditate. I'm reading all these things.”

 

Boy it's really that n-word practice because if every time we're saying the word hopefully, every time that we're seeing a situation and instead of starting with the praises up there we're getting all caught in the chaos right here, that means we haven't even achieved the mustard seed size faith. It just put me in that space of saying “Dang! Okay, well then, I want to start doing the actions more and more to achieve that mustard size faith,” because I believe that when you have that power, that faith, you will be amazed at the things you will be able to do.

 

Sometimes when we're conditioned a certain way for so long it's like “Man, will we ever get there? Will we ever unlearn the things we've learned in order to remember the things we know?” And I don't know, but if you guys have an answer tell me about it. I know I see gurus and teachers and spiritual masters all the time where I'm like they did it. But I don't see them behind the scenes and I don't see them necessarily moving mountains so maybe they're not there either. Just really sitting with that it's like this is about faith. This is about having faith like a mustard seed and recognizing that when we have just that much faith we can change the world. We really can.

 

So I want to start off with a story this morning as we were talking about faith like a mustard seed I want to tell you all about an ancient olive tree and the olive tree’s name was Olivia and Olivia stood for centuries weathering countless storms and seasons. One year there was a severe drought that hit the land and Olivia's roots were stretched and stretched to their very limits she was looking in pretty rough shape so, as the months continued to pass, her leaves withered and her branches cracked under the pressure and the villagers thought surely she's gonna perish so why don't we do what we can with what's left of her and cut her down? Why don't we just figure out something else we could do there?

 

But Olivia dug her roots deeper. When the drought finally broke, Olivia's leaves began to heal and when her branches regained their strength, that strength that was always available, the villagers marveled at her resilience. Some of them felt embarrassed for even making suggestions and for carrying those thoughts of doubt. As she was there in her infinite beauty one day there was an owl flying around and it landed on one of Olivia's branches. It said you have been pressed my dear but not crushed. Your roots have grown stronger and your oil is now more precious than ever.

 

We read in 2nd Corinthians, “We are hard-pressed on every side but not crushed perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not abandoned struck down but not destroyed.” Just like Olivia we are gonna have times in our lives where we face droughts, where we have doubts, and we have fears, whether this is in our personal life, our professional life, our religious life, wherever it is we are gonna have these things take place and sometimes in these storms of adversity with the pressures of life's challenges it's easy to think that this is all I got. I'm done for. Cut down the tree. Close the doors. Sell the house. Any of it because we get so caught up in the illusion that's before us.

 

But like Olivia, if we dig our roots in deeper, we can remember not only who we once were, because we can't go back there, but we can look at who we once were and we can take the lessons and we can take the strength and we can cultivate that faith and we can get back to where we need to be, where the people in our lives, the people in our community, the people who know us and see us are like, “Wow! I can't believe I ever doubted. I can't believe I ever thought that there's no way that place is coming back.”

 

Can we have faith like Olivia?

 

I want to tell you all about two particular individuals, one that I'm sure you're all slightly, if not more so, familiar with and the one you may not be familiar with. The first gentleman is named Victor Herman and Victor Herman has a biography about his life called Coming Out of the Ice. It's one of the first books that was given to me to read by a dear friend of mine when I was starting an upward trajectory. I was like “You know what? The spirit is moving here and I want something to read.” I was given a lot of things and I was like “I want more,” and this one came my way. It's a beautiful story of perseverance and faith. It's a beautiful example of what this scripture is reminding us of.

 

Then of course we have, you know some people love him and some people aren't sure about him, but either way, we have the man once known as Saul now the famous Apostle Paul. And Paul, too, is a story of perseverance. Paul, too, is a story of once seeing things a certain direction and through trust and through some humbling moments and through faith, recognizing who he is in order to make a difference.

 

You see both Victor Herman and Paul share remarkable similarities. They were both imprisoned for their beliefs. Victor Herman went over Russia to trace his roots. He was curious about where he had come from. He wanted to know more of his history. He was an American and when he went over there he was accused of espionage and he was wrongfully imprisoned.

 

Then there is Paul. Paul who is spreading Christianity. If you all remember, at first Paul was persecuting the Christians but now he's made a change he's had a reconciliation and now he's spreading Christianity, and he too was in Roman prison camps. And while they were in those camps the things that they had to endure, you know, we only get little snapshots of what it might have been like to be in prison within the Bible. If we go outside of the Bible, then we can learn more about it.

 

Both Victor and Paul had to work hard labor. They had malnutrition. There was disease because of the unkept conditions of being in prison and there was brutal treatment and mockery from the guards. Victor Herman actually spent 14 months in isolation with not only abusive maltreatment but very little interaction with other human beings and then he ended up spending the rest of his time in a Siberian coal mine in extreme hazardous conditions.

 

When you think about these things, we can't even compare our situations. We can't even complain. Sometimes people say, “Oh man, I feel like I'm being persecuted just like Paul was,” or say, “Oh man have you read that story coming out of the ice? I know how he feels.” I'm thinking, do you? Do you? Can we call you names, take away your food, strip your clothing, beat you, mock you, put you in extreme conditions, and then come back and see if you know how he feels because that's the thing. Sometimes we look at our situations and we start to feel pressed and we start to feel crushed, but we're not.

 

We say we're feeling persecution, but when we look at the people that have gone before us, the martyrs that have gone before us, the people who are out there now, how much are we really being persecuted in the whole scheme of things? That would be one of the greatest times to give gratitude for what those who have gone before us have done and I don't mean just in ancient history. I even mean those who went before us last year. Those who have gone before us day in and day out to give us what we have. So when you're feeling persecuted take a look at all those who are being persecuted and who have been persecuted and then say, “You know, maybe not so much. Maybe not so much.” Then give gratitude for what people are doing.

 

Now you may ask, “Gina, if we haven't been persecuted like them, how can we relate to them? How can we take their stories that you're saying are so far off from ours and relate to them?”

 

Well, that's a question for you all. Where in your life have you allow those spaces of feeling pressed, feeling persecuted, feeling in despair, feeling struck down, where have you allowed them to build a prison in your mind? Where have you allowed these feelings?

 

When the feelings come in, welcome them feel them all the way and then let them go because like I've told you before feelings are very much like a wave. It's gonna come in. It's gonna rise up. It's gonna go. IIt's gonna crash and it's gone. But look. There's another one coming in right after it, so when these feelings of being pressed come in, feel it. Feel it. Feel how much it's not enjoyable. Feel how much is uncertain. Feel how much it causes you to wring your hands and wonder, “Oh my gosh! What am I gonna do? How is this gonna happen?” Then let it go. Let it go with a breath, a breath that reminds you that “You know what? I'm not crushed in this. I have all of who I am and I have all of the one who empowers me. I have all of the one that I draw my strength from.”

 

It says in the Bible, if God is for you who can stand against you? If the universe is for you, if the source is for you, if your maker, your creator, the lover of you is for you who can stand against you and if you really know who that is that you're calling God or creator or source or universe or father, if you really know who that is, then you know that in all of the persecution, all of the trials, all of the tribulations, all of the challenges that we will still rise above that. The question is will we really rise above to anywhere or will it just be that we come to a space of finally releasing everything and recognizing where we've always been.

 

It’s coming to a space of really recognizing that you are one with the father. It is a journey without distance and it's a journey to a place you've never left. When you fully remember who you are, when you have a faith like a mustard seed, then you will recognize that you are never separated from God no matter what is around you. You will navigate that storm. You will persevere like Olivia. You will persevere like Paul and Victor.

 

Where in your life are you allowing these situations, these challenges, maybe some harsh words that were said, maybe something you don't agree with whether it's in politics or religion, in the way the economy is, in the way the government's going, maybe it's something there, where are you allowing it to cause separation and duality? Where are you allowing it to make a prison? Where are you allowing these circumstances to cause you to be in hard labor and how bad is it getting? Are you clinging to these things so you're not sleeping well, not taking care of yourself, not carrying the same motivation? That's where I'll tell you, if you recognize those things, let's put them down.

 

How did Victor and Paul get through their time? Well Victor was unwavering in his faith. He had a commitment to his beliefs, a commitment to Christianity, and Paul was the same. Once Paul had this remembrance of who God is and who Jesus is in his life, he did the same. Both of these men found solace because they really immersed themselves in their faith and in who they are. From this there came a time where they both were freed.

 

That reminds me of another scripture that's in Psalm 35. It says for his anger lasts only a moment but his favor lasts a lifetime. Weeping may stay for the night but rejoicing comes in the morning and, as we hear it in the song “Trading My Sorrows”, although the sorrow may last for the night the joy comes in the morning and that's exactly right. Both of these men could have chosen to give in to their situation because they were in an actual physical prison and enduring that, but imagine what prisons they could have built in their mind. Imagine if they would have given in to what they saw around them, discounted their Jesus, discounted their God, discounted who they were before they came into that place, and how resilient and strong they are now.

 

If they would have let go of all of those truths, all those things they knew, they could have easily started to wallow, stopped eating, stopped caring to do anything. They could have just laid there and taken the beatings. They were received knowing that they were hoping for death, but they didn't. They didn't let those prison walls build in their mind. They had sentries around their mind that kept out what wasn't supposed to be in there.

 

And from that Victor Herman went on to use his experience to expose how inhumane things were going on, how Soviet human rights were being abused. And we all know what Paul did. He continued to build the church, the church as it once was, the church as it's going to be again, that church that was really built on the teachings of Jesus Christ. When they emerged from those situations, they both had a renewed sense of purpose.

 

That's my question for you to ponder today: where do I need to emerge? If I have built this prison in my mind, what do I need to do to tear it down so I can recognize that I am pressed but I am NOT crushed. I may feel persecuted, but I am NOT abandoned. Although I've been struck down, I will stand up and declare I have not been destroyed and not only is my joy gonna come in the morning, my joy is gonna come right now because I'm gonna choose that.

 

So, as your homework, please go home and ask “Do I have these prisons in my mind?” and “Is it time to tear them down?” I bet you it is. And what this is, is community, so maybe there is something you're finally facing you're like “Yeah, you know, I think I do want to deal with this, whatever it is.” Maybe it's just an old grudge with a dear friend who you haven't talked to in years and you're wondering why. Maybe it's a frustration with someone that you go to school with, a roommate. Maybe it's a frustration with your boss. Maybe it's a frustration with your pastor. Maybe it's just something that you need an extra person to listen in on and help you break out of that prison and help you emerge into a new purpose.

 

Well look around. If you need anyone, there's someone who wants to help you build up your faith, who wants to walk alongside you as you have your Victor Herman and the Apostle Paul moments. Everyone needs someone and everyone is a beautiful space for someone, so let's remember together: we are pressed at times, but we are definitely never crushed and even in the times that we perceive persecution we are never abandoned and although whatever we decide is going to take up residency in our feelings, in our mind and in our physical bodies, although those sorrows, although that anger, although that perceived suffering may last for the night, the joy comes the moment we choose to put it down and have faith.

 

Please pray with me. We are so grateful that throughout our life we've been given teachers, we've been given guides, we've been given community to help us move through this life and we are grateful for Jesus, his presence, his teaching, his love for us. May we take the things that we needed to hear, may we apply them to our lives, and may we have faith that things will continue to grow, things will continue to transform, things will continue to break us out of those perceived prisons. We give you thanks and we give you our devotion and we take hold of who we are in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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