DEVOTION

“Are you hurt or are you injured?”

One of my high school basketball coaches, Coach Kelly Clarke, asked me this question during practice or during a game when I would come over to the bench with a twisted ankle or some other common basketball body damage. His message was clear: if you are hurt, you get back in the game; if you are injured, you can sit down. He was teaching us how to endure pain, how to persevere, and how to stay in the fight. Needless to say, we quickly learned that we were rarely injured.

To this day, when I am running and I feel a small pain, I am so tempted to stop. I am so tempted to walk back home, get on the couch, and call it a night. But every time, I hear Coach Clarke in my head: “Are you hurt or are you injured?”

In 1 Peter 3:13, we see this guidance: "Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?"

At first, this passage seems incorrect. We are told all throughout Scripture that we will face trials and tribulations of many kinds. We are told to pick up our cross and follow him. We are told we will suffer for his name. So, what is Peter saying to us?

The key word is “harm.” Who is there to “harm” you? In high school basketball, there was a difference for me in being hurt and being injured. As Christians, there is a difference in being hurt (or going through times of trials, tribulation, and suffering) and being harmed. When we put our faith in Christ, we are cloaked in his righteousness. He intercedes on our behalf; he has made the way; he has paid the price; he, in fact, died for us.

For those of us in Christ, not even the greatest fear of all—death itself—can truly harm us. Why? Because he conquered that, too. Death itself cannot harm a follower of Christ.

There is incredible freedom in this truth. Nothing can truly harm us. So we face the trials, the pains, the suffering of this world, knowing full well that God will use it. We don’t walk over to the bench; we get in the game, in whichever way he commands us to.

He tells us he will use the trials of life to build our character, refine our faith, make our reliance on him stronger, and strip away the distractions that get in between us and him. Is not all of this happening before our eyes?

So, as we stare down this crazy time in which we live, let us be reminded we will not be harmed. If our Lord defeated death and promised to bring us with him, then we have nothing to truly be afraid of. I now pray more for what he will do with us during this time, how he will bring us closer to him, and how he will move in our church, our city, our state, our country, and our world.

On the other side of this, I pray we see more baptisms, more students reading their Bibles, more adults reading their Bibles, more parents teaching their kids the ways of God, more people in our community serving each other, more people giving, and more people walking with God.

God will no doubt use this time. The question is: what role will we play? We must be in the game, with the understanding that we may suffer, we may have pains, we may get hurt...but because of him and what he has done, we can never be harmed.

Blake Bastin

Director of Finance and Administration

bbastin@crossings.church