How to Persevere in Life’s Wilderness

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Ruth Chou Simons
I’m gathering that possibly you’re in this micro event, this pilgrims perseverance, micro event, because maybe like me, you have felt like a weary Sojourner prior to coming here. And maybe you’re anticipating how it’s going to feel once you return back to the places that God has for you. And my guess is that so many of us came to this conference, seeking some refueling, and wanting to have new energy and new tools and stamina for the road ahead. And as we think about going home today or tomorrow, don’t think about it now. Don’t think about it out. But we have kids to raise ministries just do our problems, to untangle relationships to repair trajectories, to discern diagnoses to pray over. And next steps to take Amen. We’re not alone, right. My goal for this time together is for us to pause for just a little moment this afternoon, pause so that we might think about our pilgrim journey. And consider how we can persevere together individually as we go forth. Go onward from this conference. CS Lewis once wrote in you may be very familiar with this is one of my favorite quotes. He said, If I find in myself desires, which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world. So the truth is, you and I might feel like, there’s a lot we can do to feel more at home. But I don’t know about you, but remodeling my house, or getting new pillows or my kids getting into the right school or having just the right friends. None of those things actually truly satisfy, right, we can try to get ourselves in just the right career path, or everything could feel just right for a little while. But there’s no change in the fact that this world just does not feel like home. You see, we’re on a journey, a life journey that we keep thinking that we’re gonna find some satisfaction out of. And God is showing us that we are not meant for this world. So we’re on a pilgrim journey pilgrims who are heading to what is truly home. So we’re going to talk about how to navigate that life journey together. I am no expert on journey. But I live in a part of Colorado where it requires a lot of four wheel driving. So I see some of my brothers in this room. So it might mean something to you. When I say that 25 years ago, when Troy and I were first married, he bought me a mountain bike for a wedding present, which should have been just a moment where we had a conversation about do I look like somebody who wants to mountain bike? No, but but he taught me the thing called jeeping. Y’all know what I’m talking about? I mean, you need a mountain to do so. So most of the time, you can you can offroad on dirt hills as well. But you can do it in a Jeep or a razor or you can pile all eight of us. I’m a we’re a family of eight. My I have six boys. My oldest is 21. My youngest is 10. And so in the prime years with everyone at home, we did a lot of off roading in our Toyota Sequoia lifted with I think I got this right I wrote it down 35 inch tires means nothing to me, but their real day. Okay. So a lot of weekends we spend off roading, we’re going from one place to another but we’re not taking the freeway. We’re like going over mountain passes on roads that are really bumpy. i It’s an acquired taste. I mean, I didn’t it didn’t immediately resonate with the idea of getting whiplash as a form of entertainment on the weekends. And so what’s beautiful about it is that as an author and an artist, I’m also the founder of Grayslake company, I run online, I spend a lot of time online and so it’s really amazing to spend my times of rest away from the internet. So that’s what it accomplishes. But when we’re feeling extra, extra spicy, we take this one path called BlackBerry path pass. Is there anyone in this room who’s ever taken BlackBerry paths? Okay, no one connects your array Colorado with Telluride Colorado Telluride is where Oprah has a house and Tom Cruise all those folks. This is a picture I painted of Black Bear Pass. Now I want you to know that Black Bear Pass looks serene and lovely. But when you get to the front of the trail, this is what it says if you even look it up on the internet, I should have brought a picture but I’ll read it to you. Big yellow sign says extreme road ahead. Expert drivers with high clearance is short wheelbase four by four vehicles only. Black Bear Pass is a narrow shelf road with 1000 foot plus drop offs with off camber, switchbacks, tight turns and loose shale. Expert drivers only travel at your own risk. I mean, this is like glaring glaring at us and we just keep going Like we just actually drive on. And in laymen terms, let me just tell you, I have endured multiple trips where we’re on two or three tires. Like that’s, that’s my life. Or when we all get out of the car, I mean, I for sure of getting out of her, I say my goodbyes, and I say, Honey, if you if you fall, or you need to be able to like walk down into town and call for help, and so he actually has a really good driver. This is not something you should do if you’re a novice. But there’s a point on the past where a sign tells drivers one way only ahead, it really is one of you. It’s like, Okay, listen, one way only ahead, high clearance, four wheel drive only from here on out. Basically, this is the point of no return. If you go past this point, you can’t even drive back, you cannot leave. So you’re going straight ahead. Are you ready, you’re committing to this, you see, they put these signs along the road so that you and I would know what to expect on this road ahead, and how to succeed, how to get through it, how to pass on through and make it to the other side. On the journey of life. So often we do the same, right, we’re looking for those signs, we’re looking for the signposts that say, if you just turn here, you’ll end up fulfilled in life. If you just make these church choices right here, if you get equipped with these tools, if you have the right tires, you’ll basically make it to where you want to go as a recovering Stryver. I am that person that is always looking for what is the quickest and best way for me to get where I want to go. And I love those signposts. I’m always looking for something that’s telling me that if I just choose to do it a certain way, I won’t fail anyone else in here like that. And sometimes we also look to signpost and think somehow, society has signposts that tell us where we ought to have come already, like, Okay, at this stage in life, you probably should have 2.5 children, or you should have this kind of house or you should be here in your career, or you should be this far along in your walk with Jesus. You see, there are so many ways in which throughout life, even as followers of Christ, we spent a lot of time looking here and there hoping that we’ll find some sign post some roadmap that will tell us, we’re doing the right thing, we’re gonna get where we’re gonna go. You see a few years ago, actually, in the midst of writing this full color devotional, the Simon’s family was going through a lot. We had recently moved to Colorado. After two decades in our hometown, we were starting all over, we’re talking like, we knew no one didn’t have a home church yet, didn’t have friends, we were experiencing all the things where we needed to learn how to have new friends, for our kids, how to educate our children, honestly how to run a business and a remote ski town. And if any of you moved during COVID, or after or up rooted in an adult time of your life, it sounded really like a wonderful adventure until you realized, like, moving when you’re an adult is really really, really hard, right? We were asking questions like,

how do we fix these problems? Get us the desired destinations of peace and subtleness. That’s all we want. We just want everything to be like settled and instant community and we want our church to feel right, with all things are we exactly where we want it to be? We were asking God show us how to navigate this. I was saying, Lord, I don’t think I can run Grayslake if you don’t help me find employees, I can even hire. I don’t know how to do this here, equip us for what we need to make it here. And over and over again, that my request before the Lord our family’s requests were, Lord, could you just show us the way to where we want to go, which is friends, peace, comfort, life being exactly where it needs to be. And just get us through the discomfort of the situation we’re in right now. And you and I don’t need to have the exact same same circumstances for you to imagine. For any family. There are seasons when there are just a lot of problems that you can’t quite solve, right. But as we were looking to God’s word over and over again, we would see that God, yes provides a way through, think read, see, you think so many ways in which God has provided a way through, but every single time he provides a way through his actual desire is for his people to know Him, to see him to know His character to know the God that provided in the first place. It wasn’t really about the provision is about the one who provided right. And so over and over again, we were noticing that when we’re looking for the roadmap to difficult parts of our journeys, God wants us to see his character he wants to be our way through not to to provide the way that he wants to be the way he wants to be the actual one we look to the road you’re on. And the road I’m on even now, is really meant for us to need Jesus more. And so those few years ago when I was trying to write this book and going, why is is so hard? Why can’t I just, you know, the funny thing is sometimes as an author, I’m like, if I could just get through some of these problems, I could do a really good job writing this book for you, Lord. Isn’t that hilarious. But instead, what God was showing me was, the very message I was trying to write was the message that I really needed, that he could provide solutions, easy solutions to all my questions, all the things that I needed, he really can and he has, in some ways, but what I needed to learn and what my family needed to see, was ultimately the character of the one who was going with us through the various circumstances we were in. When we read Paul’s letters in the New Testament, have you noticed, I love it changed my life when I saw this pattern, but a lot of times when you read these letters that he wrote to be read to the churches? Have you noticed that he always starts with a character of God, he’s writing to Believers who knew about their salvation. I mean, they were saying, but he doesn’t ever start with, Hey, listen up, you guys. I’ve got a letter for you. I love you all. But you need to start doing this. You never starts there. He always starts with who God is, what he’s done, how he’s saved them. In Colossians, you see how Paul goes on and on about how Christ is preeminent. Like, don’t be confused, he holds all things together, he was always there, he was the beginning. Like, you need to know there’s no one higher, no one greater, no one better. Why? Because then he Paul goes on to say, well, because of who God is, now you can know who you are chosen, forgiven, loved, adopted, free, right? I think our culture is so obsessed with starting with, like, what you need to make it through your heart season right now is to have a greater sense of self worth, purpose and identity, that you and I and those around us will never ever trust. Actually what God says about who we are, in first not starting with becoming true students of who God says He is in the first place you see in the New Testament pattern over and over again, is always that God starts. Paul, the New Testament writers always starts with who God is. And from there, we always find that from believing who God is, we can trust and know who we are in our new identities in Christ. And then we get to the parts. I mean, I’m telling a roomful of folks who I’m sure you’ve seen this pattern, but I just want to remind you again, that we all love to jump to the part where we put on and put off and we’re like, Okay, this is what you’re supposed to do. And you shouldn’t do this anymore. And stop being this way and be this way. And sometimes we want to just prescriptively like hand, somebody that little to do list of like this is how to live the Christian life. And you and I know there’s no power in that. There’s absolutely no power in changing just this. The lifestyle part of things if you don’t actually find your power through the transformation in Christ because of who God is first. And so stick with me while I read a potentially familiar passage of a quote from AW Tozer, from the knowledge of the holy and this gets a tiny bit lengthy, so bear with me, but I really don’t want to cut this out. He says, what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. Worship is pure or bass like it’s exalted or as low as the worshiper entertains high, or low thoughts of God. Think about that, that your worship is going to be dependent on whether you had high thoughts of God, or casual, mediocre, low thoughts of God. For this reason, the gravest, most important question before the church is always God Himself. And the most pretentious fact about any man is not what he at a given time, may say, or do, or I’ll just add where we go. But what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like, did you ever think it was that important to consider what is going on in your mind when you think about God, and he continues, we tend, by a secret law of the soul, to move toward move toward we we journey toward our mental image of God. This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that composes the church. Always the most Feeling thing about the church is her idea of God. This is why it’s so important what we’ve done here the last few days that gospel Coalition for us to think on who God is. This is why the women’s conference next year is going to talk about the I am statements, right? We care deeply, because we cannot even go out and fulfill the Great Commission unless we know the God who sent us. You see, we focus on the circumstances of our pilgrim journey. And I don’t even know the circumstances you’re in. But I’m sure if we were having coffee, we would trade stories. And those are really important decisions that you’re facing. Those are really important things that you’re trying to navigate. And hopefully you talk to some folks and accept some counsel. But we focus so much on the circumstances of our pilgrim journey, when, where we’ll go, what we’ll do, how we’ll do it, I will build it. But God wants our attention. He wants our eyes fixed on who he is, as we journey with him. He see He wants us to find him, faithful, sovereign, good, merciful, immutable, meaning he doesn’t change. You and I can wake up on the wrong side of the bed. But God never changes. He wants us to find them trustworthy. He wants us to know Him, as deliver. sanctifier. Savior Sustainer. Creator, Shepherd, we’re not talking about just word studies here. He wants us to know it intimately intimately, by his character and his ways, by His attributes, by the plans he has in the way he follows through. So how do we align our understanding of who he is with what is true? I mean, do you just take my word for it? No, of course not. Right? You remember Romans 120 says that His invisible attributes, that is his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, meaning God puts his attributes on display and creation. So one way to know God’s ways is to go see how he puts himself on display in the world around you in nature, in what he’s created. But nature itself can’t save. And we won’t understand the gospel just by going and catch a sunrise or a sunset, which is a really good idea to catch up anyway. Because it really helps you grow, you’re off for the Lord. But Psalm 119 reminds us that we must meditate on the Word of God, that we need to fix our eyes on Him. Remember, Psalm 119, nine through 60, I won’t read the whole passage. But how can a young man keep his way pure, and ultimately, the Psalmist points to I will meditate on your precepts, and fix my eyes, on your ways. I will delight in your statutes. I will not forget your word. You see, he’s talking about how can my journey ahead, be pleasing to you God? How?

I mean, isn’t that what we’re talking about when we talk about our pilgrim journey? At least just saying, Lord, how do I, if heaven is my true home? How do I get from here to there, without losing my way without being totally discouraged? Without feeling like I’m failing all the time, without constantly thinking that I need to sign up for some seven week course to figure out what the best strategy is, Lord, what do I do? And the psalmist says? How do you keep the way ahead? pleasing to God? I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways, which really just means that because of who God is, he will be the reason why we can persevere, which is why Philippians one six, beloved, verse says, He who began a good work and US will complete it. It’s not up to me and you to figure out how to persevere and push on through and make it. You see how important and how connected it is. This idea that Tozer is putting, putting before us that the most important thing about me and you is what we actually think about God, because if you believe and you move towards this image of God, will you know that He is holy, and just, and he is your sanctifier. He’s not done with us yet that he will finish the work he began in us that He is the deliverer and the provider. If you have this rolling around in your head, then the next time things aren’t working out in your life, what happens? Do you immediately go, Oh, I’m such a good fixer of all problems. I will trust in myself. I’m so great at it. Root assignments is really the best person to figure all this out. You see, I start thinking that when I keep rehearsing again and again, the narrative like it’s all up to me, I hold all things together. I’m the hero here. If I don’t do it, no one else will. You see how that narrative I will be moving towards the trajectory Have Ruth saves the day, reusable hold it all together. And some of us in this room are moms and dads, husbands wives who are leaders were people over others who are, we feel a weight. I mean, maybe you took three days off and didn’t feel so much weight here, but you’re about to go back. And there’s the weight on your shoulders where you feel like if it’s if it’s not me, then who will do this? Like, I gotta, I gotta carry this whole thing. God’s never called you to be the answer. Fix your eyes on him. If you want to endure if you want to persevere. It’s really focusing on who God is and what He says He will accomplish. And you see that Psalm 119 passage with the Sama saying, I will fix I will meditate on your precepts, and fix my eyes, on your ways, makes me think of Hebrews 12. Right. If you have your Bible, you can turn there. But you know this, the first two verses really well. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which cleans so closely. And let us run with endurance with perseverance. The race that is set before us, not somebody else’s race, not the race that we wish we had. But the race that God has set before us, looking to Jesus, isn’t it so clear right there in verse two, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God, that is not so much. This passage in Hebrews is not so much about what we can do to run the race well, but how we can set our eyes and fix our eyes on Him who is worthy of us. Continuing on when it is about God is about his faithfulness. It’s about how he’s always been faithful from beginning to end. You know, interestingly, again, I mean, over and over, we’re just seeing that we might focus on the circumstances, maybe your prayer life is filled with the question of God, I need these things. How do I get these things that I need for accomplishing even good tasks, even good ministry things? And maybe what God wants you to ask instead is, show me yourself. Show me you, Lord, even if the ministry doesn’t grow, even if we don’t make our profit goals, even if such friends though, and so, chooses not to be in relationship with me anymore. Even if I try to reconcile and I can’t come to a perfect solution with somebody I’m struggling with, even if my children aren’t obedient and not perfectly doing what they need to be doing. Even if we’re still working through communication in my marriage. Can we say instead, God, in the very circumstances you have me on in my pilgrim journey, I want to see you I want to know you as provider, I want to know you as sovereign and good. Do you see how it changes our trajectory? When we think about who he is, we’ll be moving towards our picture of who God is. Ironically, Nietzsche, who was rejected Christ said, He who has a why as an why he who has a why to live, can bear almost anyhow. I mean, he rejected Jesus. And yet, I find that really, really poignant. Because ultimately, you and I have the ultimate right, you and I have the ultimate why. As we read in Hebrews, we know exactly what our Why is our ultimate why, and therefore we can persevere. And so when Hebrew says, we run with endurance, the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, we know that that’s not just where we’re going, but it’s a fuel for how we’re going to get there. Perseverance is God’s work in our lives as we fix our eyes on him.

I’m really grateful that you all are here, just allowing me a moment here. Thanks to my publishers to even just share the heartbeat of this. If we’ve not met, just know that I’m an artist as long as an author and when I wrote pilgrim 25 ways God’s character leads us onward. My desire was that somebody might go to the front counter at hobby lobby with their ModPodge and find the doctrine of God instead, and see the beauty of God’s creation because again, God puts his character on display in creation. So it doesn’t matter when our eyes are looking at something beautiful, but ultimately, you will be saved and fueled when you study the character of God through His Word and Both things come together in this buffet. I have a hard time calling a devotional because in some ways, my hope is that you wouldn’t spend five minutes in it, my hope is that you would linger long, and that the artwork and the words would serve as a platter for which you would feast on the Word of God. You see, ultimately, our goal in this pilgrim journey, our goal in studying the 25 not even exhaustive, there’s so many more of God’s ways, but our goal in understanding even 25 of God’s ways 25 as attributes and His, the ways he interacts with us, the goal is that we might be like the psalmist in Psalm 23, right? Y’all know, the Psalm, but I’m going to read it over as again, because listen, I just as I was praying for you coming into this last micro event before our last session, I was thinking about you coming into the session and thinking, I wonder what you’re coming in with, I wonder what you’re feeling and what is burdening what’s burdensome for you. And as we talk about knowing who God is, and following his lead, the whole goal is that we might be able to say, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, that we would know this about him, He leads me beside still waters, He restores my soul. This is his character. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me, you prepare the table before me in the presence of my enemies, You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. You see, we want to be a people who don’t just have that in a pretty painting on the wall. But that we would, we would echo that we would know him, we would know him as the Good Shepherd, we would know him as the one who leads. And as you saw in the little video at the start, I included hymns, any other hidden lovers in this room. I love hymns. Because as a little girl who started to be started as a church church accompanist. Before my family was even truly saved. I was going to VBS and started playing in the church, I started learning all these lyrics, in hymns. And then later on in life when things got really hard, guess what was playing in the back of my mind. Really good hymns that are based on gospel truth, have the opportunity to be the soundtrack that play in the back of your mind, reminding you of the truth. So remember, think on what it is that you’re going to have playing over and over again. So if we are to be those who follow his lead, find him to be the Good Shepherd. Remember the lyrics to this hymn? That we might be able to say, all the way my savior leads me. What have I to ask, beside? Can I doubt His tender mercy, who through life has been my guide? All the way my savior leads me tears each winding path I tread gives me grace for every trial, feeds me with the living bread. All the way my savior leads me. Oh, the fullness of His love. Perfect rest to me as promised. In my Father’s house above, that’s where we’re going friends. When my spirit clothes immortal wings, it’s flight two rounds a day. This my song through endless ages. Jesus led me all the way. That’s our song friends. This my song through endless ages. Jesus led me all the way. And I finish in this chapter and I write we need not fear life’s winding path. The trials that may come in the darkest valleys are the unknowns yet to be faced on the journey ahead. Like a shepherd who will not leave any of his flock, but will carry those too weak to continue on their own. Our Good Shepherd doesn’t just lead us out of danger. He carries us to his father’s eternally lush pastures. You see, he leads us all the way home. So friends, don’t walk alone. Walk with those that God’s put right before besides you walk reminding one another, that we’re not alone on this pilgrim journey, and that God can be known. He wants to be known that not one circumstance that you’re going through right now is meant for you to just simply fix and find your way through If he wants you to find him instead, his character his ways, and to trust him more, let me pray for us. Father, I thank you for just bringing us together these couple of days. Lord, thank You that You have shown us again and again that we are pilgrims. This is not our home, that we were meant for a land in which there will not even be need for light because you shine so bright, there will be no tears, no suffering, no pain, no sin. And Lord until that day that we get to experience you and know you, face to face, Lord, you have left us with your spirit, you have left us with Your Word, you have given us displays of your character, everywhere we look, Lord, would you just cause us to look up from things that don’t matter? And fix our eyes on you? Would you cause us to set aside that endless machine in which we scroll and the device in which we are so distracted with and caused us to turn to you look to you find you worthy and faithful in every circumstance in every winding path of our pilgrim journey for my brothers and sisters in this room who are returning home to so much Lord, you know what’s in this room, you know, the, the burdens and the pain and the fears? Lord, You You You also know the excitement and the opportunities, and maybe even the new relationships that were built in the last couple of days. Lord, would you just cause us to enjoy and and pain to not let our worship be affected by our circumstances? Because as to worship you because we have a high view of iRobot Almighty God. Lord, could you make us worshipers? Who, every day, every moment, work closely with you letting you be the leader of the shepherd, and the guide for our pilgrim journey. In Jesus name, Amen.