Dealing With Life’s Ups and Downs

Philippians 4:10-13

Since we all lost an hour of sleep last night, we’re going to start off this morning with a little exercise. Everyone stand up!

Now, if you’ve ever had major surgery, requiring more than three days in the hospital, remain standing, everyone else sit.
OK, if you’ve ever received a trophy or medal for outstanding performance of any kind, stand, everyone else sit.
If you’ve had a car accident in the last year, stand, everyone else sit.
If you’ve received a promotion, or a raise in the past year, stand, everyone else sit.
If you’ve lost a job in the past year stand, everyone else sit.
If you’ve been told, “I love you” in the last week, stand, everyone else sit.
If you’ve heard some bad news about someone in your family in the last 24 hours stand, everyone else sit.
If you balanced your checkbook, and found extra money in it, stand, everyone else sit.

Do you remember playing Chutes and Ladders as a kid? For many of us, it was our first game. The concept is simple. The game board has 100 squares on it. The goal is to reach square number 100 first. You spin an indicator that tells you how many spaces to move. If you land on a Ladder, you climb up the ladder to a higher level, perhaps from square 14 to 27. If you land on a chute, you slide back to a lower level, perhaps from 33 to 11. Some of the ladders leap you up to great heights, others are shorter. Some chutes are likewise small, while others, especially toward the end, can send you back almost to the beginning. The first person to reach the last square is the winner.

But while the rules and concepts of the game are easily learned, the lesson that it teaches is often difficult to master. In fact, in some lives, it is never fully realized. For Chutes and Ladders teaches our children, at the most basic of levels, that life is full of ups and downs. There are times when we feel that we have the world by the tail, when we have landed on space 13 and jumped to space 72. We’re about as high as we could ever hope to be. Life is good, and there are ready smiles and laughter and even giggles as we skip along at the top of the world.

And then there are times when we are stuck at space 15, and every time we think we’re going to move up a level, we hit a chute, and slide back to square 11. Everyone around us is having a great time - we look at them, and they are all smiles, they are on top of the world - while we feel like we’ve been unfairly left behind. Through no fault of our own it seems that we’ve got more than our share of difficulties and disappointments.

I’ve seen it, and so have you.

I’ve seen it in the eyes of one of my co-workers at school. A woman whose love of life and active lifestyle were an inspiration. She loved to hunt, and fish, and play softball. Then one February morning, while walking in the kitchen, she slipped on a patch of ice. She never fell, never hit the ground at all, but one of the discs in her spine is now bulging out of place, and she is in indescribable pain. She comes to work every day, often fighting back tears, and no amount of pain medication or physical therapy has helped. Add to that the death of father a month ago, and her mother’s diagnosis with Hodgkin’s disease, and you find a person who has tumbled down one of life’s longer chutes.

No doubt you know people in similar situations.

Couples longing to have children, but unable to conceive.
Wives whose husbands have been unfaithful.
Dad’s whose hearts have been broken by rebellious children.
Children paralyzed by fear because of abusive parents.

And at those times, seeing those around us who are experiencing life’s joys and successes can compound the feelings of distress.

So what’s the solution? How are we supposed to deal with the Chutes and Ladders of life? Do we pout, or fight back the tears like we did when we were children playing a board game? Do we suppress the feelings of inadequacy, putting on a brave, stone cold appearance, denying anyone an opportunity to see the pain we feel? Do we succumb to the overwhelming forces around us, and give up? Or is there a way to find joy, if not happiness, in our discomfort? Is it possible to be content, if not satisfied, in our disappointment?

To those who think that the Bible teaches that bad things happen only to bad people, and good people are always taken care of, I beg to differ. On the contrary, the Bible is filled with stories of individuals and entire nations who suffer. Sometimes seemingly undeserved misery and trials are heaped upon Godly people. From the first pages of scripture, when man rebelled against God, and were driven from the garden, much of the Bible reads like a tragedy:

The first person said to have been obedient and dedicated to God was murdered by his brother, who was angry and jealous.
Joseph was, by every account, a wonderful young man. Devout, honest, hardworking – but he was betrayed by his brothers, falsely accused by his boss’s wife, and wrongly imprisoned for years.
The people of Israel suffered cruelly as slaves in Egypt, and later as captives in Babylon.
Job was a “righteous and upright man in every way,” but lost all he had, possessions, children, health – and never knew why!
David was a “man after God’s own heart,” and yet, as a young man, was chased mercilessly by king Saul.
Elijah, Jeremiah, Daniel and a host of prophets were mocked, imprisoned, thrown to lions, or threatened with death for speaking truth.
Each of the disciples faced unspeakable cruelty as payment for their testimony about Christ. All but John died a martyr’s death.
Paul, the great church planting missionary, tells of all he suffered for the gospel, and he, too died at the hands of an executioner.
And of course, Jesus, Himself, suffered unjustly for our sins. One of his teachings state, “blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
If all that were not enough, the Bible makes it clear that “all who live Godly lives in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution…”

Each life has its chutes and ladders. Each one of us has had those moments of joy and happiness. Each of us has suffered pain and endured disappointment. Often those distressing times seem to be grossly unfair. We can’t imagine what we may have done to deserve the pain we bear. And yet the pain is there nonetheless.

So how do we take the lessons that we first learned playing a child’s game, and apply it to adult life? How can we - how should we – respond to the disappointments and pains of life?

In answering this difficult question, I want to take you to one of the stories I mentioned earlier.

Let’s go to the Old Testament, to the first book of the Bible, Genesis. Once there, let me direct you to one individual whose story is given more print than Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He is Joseph.

His story begins in Genesis chapter 35, verse 22, and goes all the way to the end of Genesis, chapter 50. If ever there was anyone in the Bible who suffered unjustly, it was Joseph. He was born the first son of his father’s favorite wife. Because of that, he was doted over by his father, there was no doubt he was the favorite of Israel’s twelve sons. He was given a beautiful robe of many colors as a testimony of his fathers love. Obviously a “ladder.” This was an “up” time. But his brothers didn’t appreciate it at all. Joseph didn’t help the situation either. He told them about dreams that he had, in which the other eleven, and even their father were depicted bowing before him. I don’t think he did it to rub their noses in it by any means, but it had that affect on them.

So one day, when the older brothers were out tending flocks some distance away, Joseph was sent out to bring them supplies. The brothers attacked him, and were going to kill him, but one of the brothers convinced the others to spare his life. They threw Joseph in to a pit while they decided what to do with him. I guess this would qualify as one of the “chutes” in Joseph’s life! I can’t imagine what must have been going through his mind. He was seventeen years old. Here he is in this dirty, dark pit, perhaps an old well. “Did I hear them say they were going to kill me?” He must have been terrified as they debated his fate. A slave trader happened by at that time, and the brothers sold him as a slave. They took his beautiful coat, covered it with a lamb’s blood, and told their father that his favorite son was dead. Tied to the back of some slave trader’s wagon, or perhaps in a chain gang with other slaves, Joseph is dragged off into slavery across the desert sands.

This is fair?! As chutes go, this one must have seemed to take Joseph back to square “minus 234”! Lower than low.

Joseph was taken by the slave traders to Egypt, where Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, purchased him. Joseph was a young man of incredible integrity. He worked hard for his master, even though life in Metropolitan Egypt was nothing like the sheep herding he had done all his life in rural Canaan. The Bible tells us that everything Joseph did prospered, and Potiphar took note. In Genesis 39:3, we read,

“His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all he did to prosper in his hand, So Joseph found favor in his sight and served him. Then he made him overseer of his house, and all that he had he put under his authority.”

Things were definitely looking up for our Joseph, this was definitely one of those “ladder” times. He was still a slave, but all in all, he had landed on a “ladder” space, and climbed up. But then things got ugly. Potiphar’s wife began to sexually harass Joseph. Actually, “harass” is too kind a term, she was obsessed with him. In Genesis 39:7 she came to him and said, “Come sleep with me!” But Joseph refused. On and on it went. The Bible says, “day by day” she came to him, and every time Joseph refused. He would not betray his master or sin against God. He was truly a remarkable man! To resist such temptation daily and maintain his standards shows the depth of his character.

Then one day, when no one else was in the home, she grabbed his robe, and tried to seduce him once more, but Joseph ran away, and as he did, she pulled his robe off. She was so angry that she kept the garment, and when Potiphar came home, she accused him of attempted rape. Potiphar had Joseph thrown in prison.

This is how we get paid for our integrity?! Imagine the out of control chute Joseph finds himself on! He did the right thing, and still he is unfairly treated!

Imagine what must have been going through Joseph’s mind as he sat there in that prison. Not knowing if in the next moment Potiphar, who was after all military officer, would come and execute him. Not knowing if he would ever get out of that prison. Knowing only that once again he is being unfairly treated. THE MAN IS INNOCENT! Yet here he is. And remember, he couldn’t turn a couple of pages and read chapter 41 – he didn’t have any idea how this was going to end!

While in the prison, Joseph again prospered because the Lord was with him. After a seriously long chute had brought him to a low point, another ladder appears. The chief jailer – the warden – noticed that Joseph was a good man, and eventually he placed Joseph in charge of all the prisoners. While there, he had an opportunity to get to know two men who had worked as servants to Pharaoh himself. One was the personal cupbearer of the Pharaoh, for whom Joseph interpreted a dream. But the cupbearer forgot about Joseph when he was released from the prison. After two more years the Pharaoh had a dream, and then the cupbearer remembered Joseph in the prison, and Joseph was brought before the great leader of Egypt. Joseph was able to interpret the dream, warn Pharaoh of a coming famine, and allow the Egyptians to prepare by storing grain for seven years of plenty that were to precede the seven years of famine. Pharaoh was so impressed by this godly man, that he made him second in command of the entire nation!

Joseph oversaw the construction of huge storage bins, and the harvesting of the grain when it was plentiful, and when the famine came, Egypt not only had food to eat, they were able to provide food to the surrounding area. The news that Egypt had food to spare made it all the way to Canaan – to a shepherds tent, and that shepherd sent 10 of his eleven remaining sons to get grain for the family and the flock – which is how Joseph found himself face to face with the same brothers who had sold him into slavery.

Joseph was 30 years old when Pharaoh promoted him to second in command. He had been in slavery or prison for 13 years! Another seven years of good harvest had passed, and the famine has been raging for some time, so Joseph is now approaching 40 years of age.

Over the course of those years of separation and discouragement, abuse and false imprisonment, chutes and ladders, God had been shaping Joseph to be the man he needed to be at this time. Those who had once sought to kill him were now bowing before him asking him to save their lives! God had used all those difficult times of his life to groom Joseph to be the man that he now was, and in the position he now held. So that when the children of Israel faced starvation, one of their own would be in a position to help them.

I want to direct your attention to Genesis 50:18-20.

Then his brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” But Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in God’s place? And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.”

Do you hear those words of Joseph? “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good…” I don’t know what struggle you face right now. I have no way of knowing all the chutes you have tumbled down in your life, but I do know that most of us, at one time or another, have been mistreated by someone. When that happens, we can’t forget the evil that has been done to us. There is no escaping the unfairness of life. It is not something that we can cover up with some trite little phrase like “Oh well, Praise the Lord, anyway!” Joseph doesn’t do that – he calls a spade a spade – “You meant to do evil against me…”

There is no whitewash of their motives, or of the wrongness of their deeds…

“…BUT…”

Joseph does not stop there. He says, “You meant evil against me, BUT GOD meant it for good…” There is no escaping the pain that has been endured, or the years that have been lost with his father and family, but Joseph chooses to recognize that God has been, and always is, Sovereign. There are no mistakes with God. There are no surprises with God. There are no “premature deaths” with God. Chuck Swindoll writes, “Here is where Joseph allowed his theology to eclipse his human emotions and bad memories. An excellent trade-off.” Did you catch that? You see, when we choose to really believe what we say we believe about God, it changes the perspective of our circumstances even when we don’t understand the reality of our circumstances.

If we really believe that God is sovereign, if we truly believe that He cares about the intimate, day to day activities and events of our lives, then that belief needs to shape our attitudes toward and our responses to the “chutes and ladders” of life. Does it erase the pain? No. I’m sure there were times of intense pain, and doubt for Joseph. He does not say to his brothers here, “Aw, forget it, I forgive you!” Rather he acknowledges their evil intentions, but He recognizes God’s care and presence through the ups and downs of his life. He sees the pit, the slavery, the separation, the false accusations, and the prison as the testing and proving grounds of life so that he could be where God wanted him to be, both spiritually and physically.

I have seen this story lived out in dramatic fashion in the last week.

Over a year ago I had the God-given privilege of leading a former Chief of the Latin Kings in Chicago to Christ. Over the course of a few months he went through the chutes and ladders of life. Some of the chutes were unfair, most were chutes he chose to go down. But there were some ladders, too.

Because of his background and because of the strong lure of the lifestyle that he had been a part of, Rick has spent a lot of the time I have known him behind bars. While there he has studied his Bible and grown. His parole was revoked, and he was sent back to prison in Illinois. He has continued to grow, and led people to Christ. Last week he was brought back here, to Dodge County, to face trial for a drug crime he committed before he gave his life to Christ. He was going to plead guilty, knowing that he had done the crime, and was willing to face whatever the sentence might be. We were praying that God would grant him a shorter sentence, maybe 3 to 5 years, not the max of 15.

During the course of praying and talking with Rick about his sentence, I had him memorize the second half of Philippians 4:11, “I have learned in whatever state I am , to be content.” When Paul wrote those words, he was in prison. One of the first verses I had Rick memorize were the verses that appear on our pulpit. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and he shall direct your paths.” If we are trusting in Him, and seeking Him, He will direct our steps, even if it seems that we are tumbling down some huge chute.

Rick got 10 years. Those of us in the courtroom were disappointed. Some were angry. I could not believe how Rick reacted. I saw him just after the sentencing, and he said, “I understand. If I had been the judge, and had a guy with my background in front of me, I would have done the same thing.” Here was a guy who just had at least 5 years of freedom taken from him, and he was OK with it, because he believed that God was doing what He knew was best.

Now in many, many ways, Rick’s story doesn’t fit with the story of Joseph or Paul, they did not deserve the treatment the got, Rick actually did the crime. But the change in heart is still the same. The attitude is the same. Their theology has been allowed to shape their reality.

So here are some life lessons from Chutes and Ladders:

You never climb a ladder by accident. I’ve never seen anyone accidentally go up a ladder. Joseph’s times of elevation, his rising to the top wherever he was, occurred as a result of his godly character. He was a faithful son, a hardworking servant, a humble man of God, and a forgiving, compassionate ruler.
When your sliding down a chute, you are out of control. If you’ve ever been on a water slide, you know what I mean. Once you start down that slope, there’s no controlling where you go. The one who designed the twists and turns and length and rate of descent is in control. Gravity is in control. You’re just along for the ride.
God is the one who designed your chutes and your ladders. But unlike the guy who designed the water park, He’s always there with you for the ride. He will be with you through the slippery, sometimes dark passages as you slide down the chutes of life, He will be with you as you climb the ladders.
We often times do not understand the chutes in our lives until years after they have occurred, and sometimes never do. Until that moment when his brothers showed up in Egypt, I don’t think Joseph had any idea why God had brought him through the ups and downs of his life. Over twenty years of abuse. Job never knew why he suffered his losses. Paul asked three times to be relieved of some “thorn in the flesh” that tormented him, but never was delivered.
When we allow our theology to affect our reality, we see God’s hand at work in both the chutes and the ladders of life. It is then that we are able, like Paul, to find contentment in any circumstance.

Chutes and Ladders. A child’s game, with adult life lessons. May God grant us the wisdom to learn the lessons well.

“Father, grant to each of us the grace that will be sufficient to allow us to find contentment in whatever circumstance we face. For those of us here today who have suffered untold abuse, gross unfairness, false accusations, or any of life’s disappointments, Father, grant us the assurance of Your presence in our lives. Help us to rest in the arms of the one who said, ‘It is I, be not afraid,’ and, ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.’

“Help us, Father, to allow our beliefs about You to affect our attitudes about life. May we never be so overcome by the world that we forget the One who rules the universe. Help us to remember that ‘in this world we will have trouble, but we can be of good cheer, for you have overcome the world.’

“Thank you, Father, for Your never-ending love, Your never-lacking presence, Your all-sufficient grace. Amen.”