The Day of Adversity
Imagine a life where you wake up in your own bed. You get your kids off to school and get yourself to the gym. You make it to work on time, attend Bible study, partake in ministry, and pay the bills. This is relatable for many. Then imagine one day you get a letter. The kind of letter that changes everything. This letter is one that you sit down for, one where you hold your face in your hands. This particular letter came to Paul only a few months before his life would change forever, forcing a reckoning with his demons and squeezing the parts of him that hadn’t quite become whole. This reaping took hold of everything that was built, reeling him back into a nightmare of sowing that he had hoped to evade.
Paul Fyffe is a father, a son, a brother, a born again blood bought son of the most high King. A sinner saved by grace. A faithful friend. A manly man of the wilderness resembling your favorite fictional character who could survive the elements of any frozen tundra. The person you want on your side in any altercation especially when the warfare is spiritual. His burly exterior is only outmatched by his heart of solid gold. This man is my friend.
A life of substance abuse in Paul’s younger years was now resurfacing through a pending federal investigation involving a sting operation that he was present at. This despairing association has come with terrifying allegations and incalculable consequences. With lamentable action to bypass pretrial detention, on February 19th of last year, Paul’s brother James, dropped him off at a federal building so he could surrender himself to the Court Marshall to be taken into custody to await trial. Paul prepared himself for a sixty-one day incarceration. This was extended by the tsunami wave that swept our planet we have now come to know as COVID-19. This novel virus brought our world, the justice system, and Paul’s life to a screeching halt. Sixty-one days turned into two hundred and twenty-four days, and months later this was protracted to a deafening four-hundred and twelve day delay where Paul is awaiting a trial. The initial under taking of a two month stay has devolved into over a year of isolation. A year without embracing his children, without opening the word of God with the local body of believers, without lifting his voice and hands in worship with the saints. A year without walking the woods surrounding his childhood home. A year without casting a line into the waters. A year without seeing what critters have found their way into his traps. A year of waiting to hear how his past will determine his future.
“The day of adversity is not a solo mission. When one of us is squeezed, we all feel it.”
Paul’s days are spent in a cramped dank concrete cell, often alone, with a small window that looks out to the yard. Paul finds solace in his time in the word, praying, writing, receiving letters, and the infrequent calls he gets to make to loved ones. The pandemic has compounded his isolation with quarantines in addition to having no outside visitors. Paul looks forward to reprieves such as a game of chess, listening to the radio, and the promised relief of an hour of exercise out in the yard. This privilege has been withheld for months due to the prison’s lockdown in attempt to control the chaos of contraband and a recent stabbing in the Pod Unit where Paul stays. This leads to long days staring out the window watching birds and planes float by with an occasional critter digging that reminds him of home.
Our beloved Paul is in the throws of adversity. The kind of adversity that can push you to the brink of your faith. The kind of hardship where you aren’t sure if you can keep standing. The kind of torment that our enemy thrives on.
And it is from here that he writes to me. Envelopes packed with loose leaf wide margin paper, meticulously numbered pages covered front and back with a script evident of one with conviction. Paragraphs littered with citations of scripture written with proof that this is what is holding him together. He writes to me from his heart, reminding me of times that we have had together, the prayers he has for my family, how he wants to take my son fishing, and how he is viewing his time incarcerated as his first missions trip. Despite all of the loss; his rights, his time with his family and friends, his jobs, his retirement, he shared with me his solemn conclusion, its all worth it to gain Christ. Paul writes:
“ He is my first priority. He is drawing me close, Jesus is enough for me. God is not done with me.”
Scripture tells us in Proverbs 24:10 that it isn’t if we will have adversity but when. That when can come in a twinkling to take hold of you, and will compress you, challenging your faith and exposing all of what you truly believe. We have determined that it is true that when you squeeze a lemon, you get what’s inside a lemon. But, will it be true, that when adversity presses you, what comes from your mouth will be “its all worth it to gain Christ”? When your day of adversity comes, will your heart be settled? Will you have God’s eyes to see that your suffering is a mechanism to make you perfect like Christ (1 Peter 5:10); that your audacious belief draws God’s Glory into focus (John 11:40); that your adversity renders your solutions useless left only with his power (Ephesians 6:10)? It is here we can know him and faint not (2 Corinthians 4:1).
The day of Adversity is not a solo mission. When one of us is squeezed, we all feel it. My heart aches as I carry Paul in it. I think of him when I see the type of vermin Paul would always trap, when I see a man with exceptional facial hair and I instinctively default to rating it to Paul’s imperial beard, or when I watch my son springing up now being one year old and has yet to be held by my friend.
We are to remember them that are in bounds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body. – Hebrews 13:3
We have a responsibility to remember. To intercede by crying out to God on his behalf (1 Thes 1:2, 2 Tim 1:3). We petition like we are imprisoned in the same cramped dank concrete cell, looking out the same small window, out into the same prison yard. We weep because he is weeping. We suffer because he is suffering (Rom 12:15, 1 Cor 12:26). And this isn’t some stretch of the imagination because we are just like him. A father, a son, a brother, a born again blood bought son of the most high King. A sinner saved by grace. One misstep away from falling (1 Cor 10:12). O wretched man that I am! Thanks be to Jesus Christ (Rom. 7:24,25). This is how it is supposed to be. While we lift him up, he also reciprocates. Here Paul writes to you;
I want to thank Life Fellowship for your prayers, love and support. Thank you for taking the time to write to me. I love receiving letters and I feel like I’m connecting with many on a personal level. You all lift my spirit and bring me joy. With all of my heart, thank you. I am praying for our fellowship, our pastor, and all the requests from the letters. Oh magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together – Psalm 34:3. My message to you from these walls are simple, but profound, and that’s the gospel. The message has not changed for over 2000 years. There is a universal need for the message we have. It can change a persons eternal destiny. All of us who have believed in our hearts and confessed with our mouth the Lord Jesus Christ have this message. People are waiting for us, you and me, to open our mouth’s and tell them of Jesus. I have really been convicted of this and God is showing me how important it is that we share our faith with a lost and dying world. It’s sad to think how little I have shared my faith. I’m making sure that changes. Every time we witness, it is a winning situation. When we get rejected in the name of Jesus, the Bible says we have rewards waiting in heaven (1 Peter 4:14
Luke 6:22-23). We need to be planting seeds. God will give the increase. Jesus says there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth (Luke 15:10). Charles Spurgeon said “I would sooner bring one sinner to Jesus Christ than unravel all the mysteries of the divine Word, for salvation is the one thing we are to live for”. If you have the opportunity today, I just want to encourage you to speak truth in love to somebody. I love you Life Fellowship, but if our gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost (2 Corinthians 4:3).
LET’S BE BOLD.
– PAUL
Paul’s charge is clear. It’s all worth it to gain Christ. And when Christ transforms our life, it is our mission to share this with others. This is how it is supposed to be. While Paul lifts us up in truth, we reciprocate. We pray for him, we write to him, we bare his burdens. And he does the same. Paul is just one of many that are in their day of adversity, and if not you, your day will come. Our mission is to reach out; to Paul, to another in need, to the ones who have not met Jesus whom God puts in our path. This is what LIFE|LINE is for. To extend a line to connect with people for the purpose of knowing Jesus Christ our savior and walking together as we follow him. This is the way it is supposed to be.
If you would like to write to Paul, send your letters to LIFE Fellowship, and we will have them sent directly to him.
Jonathan Kindler is a leader of LIFE Fellowship, a husband, and a father of two. He is also a Bible study leader, and overseer of the LIFE|Line ministry.
LIFE|Line is a ministry of Life Fellowship, a fellowship of Midtown Baptist Temple.
