This Is Only a Test

Hey, Charlie. Remember those old emergency broadcast system commercial interruptions on TV? The buzzing noise, then the "This has been a test of the emergency broadcast system. Had this been an actual emergency ..." You remember. Your first instinct was to change the channel to stop the awful noise.

Well, sometimes God conducts those tests on us. He wants to see if you have faith. He wants to see if you'll remain through the test or if you'll change the channel.

Here's a good one: Two men prayed for rain. One just prayed. The other prayed and prepared the fields. Guess which one God was pleased with? He wants to see faith in action. It has to be an intentional, daily commitment to taking action, not changing the channel.

This chemo, your cancer, is a test. He wants to see that you believe in your tools. He wants to see whether you have faith in your treatment. And some people get a test, and they have a testimony. Some people get a test, and they just have a bad case of the moanies. Faith is believing in things you have not seen and the reward you get. With as little moaning as possible.

For the next sixty days, you will be experiencing a test. Don't change channels because this is just a test. A test of your faith in your tools, in your doctors, and in your family. And in Jeremiah 29:11. Remember, God has a plan for you. Don't change the channel.

— The Sender

If The Sender is built on a bedrock Scripture, it is Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

The problem is that it's easy to either forget this promise or to live in ways that ignore its power. Can you constantly and willfully focus on this promise? Do you organize your life and your hope around this certainty? Or do you, like many of us, get bogged down and clogged up in our thinking that focuses on the pain and the troubles and not the lesson? Then do you get tired and just flip the channel?

Most of us forget to stay focused on the promise, and it's the cause of a lot of pain. Rather than complain about your pains and troubles, try this: Take a closer look at the pains in your life. Write them down in this journal. Pick the top three. The really bad ones. Then consider the idea that your pain is a pointer. It has a purpose, a message, a power to bring you back to a very real, very big promise: Jeremiah 29:11. Maybe that's what Paul meant when he spoke about being happy for his trials (Romans 5:3–5).

Think on that. See the pointers. Then come back to your life. Live big. No more moanies. Very few people can demonstrate staying on the promise quite like John the Baptist (see Mark 1:6–8). Jesus said there was nobody ever born who was greater than John the Baptist was. Use him as your guide on how to meet your challenges.

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John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And this was his message: "After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

Mark 1:6–8

Expect Life to Be Tough/Align Yourself with Reality

Hey, Charlie. The lesson today is simple: Align your expectations with reality. Someone once said, "Life's really hard." Once you really understand that, the pain of life doesn't matter anymore. You expect it. Because that's what it is. See, I've come to understand that people don't get freaked out because something happens to them; they get freaked out because they thought it would be easier and that bad stuff wouldn't happen to them and they take it personally.

Align yourself with reality; it's not about you.

A team I was once working with was playing for the national championship. The leader of the team stood up and spoke. He didn't yell about how great or tough he was. He didn't thump his chest and brag about how he was going to crush the opponent. No, he was smarter than that. He said simply this: "I expect this game to be the hardest game of my life tomorrow. I expect the guy across from me to be the toughest guy I know. I am going to bring the best me."

Charlie, keep bringing the best you.

What was the difference between those people whom Katrina blew away, including their lives and homes and possessions, and those whom Katrina blew toward a better life? Some are still walking around going, Why? Why did this happen to me? That's the wrong question. The bigger question is always, What am I going to do with it? That's always the bigger question. Align with reality: The storm hit, and it's not about me, so now what am I going to do with it? Align yourself with reality.

Expect life to be tough. And then it doesn't matter anymore. It is what it is. And the question is never, Why? It's always, What am I going to do with it? I love you and I expect it to be tough. But it's not tougher than you.

— The Sender

Life is a wonderful gift — a years-long sequence of scenes filled with happiness, hope, disappointment, fulfillment, peace, wrenching pain, and surprises, both good and bad. It's typically the bad surprises, though, by which we measure the worth of the gift of life we've been given.

That's a really silly measuring stick. As this letter points out, we are all most often crushed by the life surprises that we don't deserve or by times when we feel personally cheated.

But that's not realistic, and that's the point of this letter. Here's the truth: Bad things happen to all of us, all the time. Problems are an integral part of God's plan for you and for me and for everyone, and that is not a bad thing. Stop fighting it or taking it all so personally. When your life is not going so great, it pays to remember that it's part of the plan, and rather than fight it, take a moment to realize it's not personal. It is part of our reality that we need to pursue and...