In this world, you will have locks

Navigating a tight space

As usual, I am up before others on this ship, leaving to me the beauty of the early sunlight and the calm waters of the Rhine River. This morning, though, I am also watching a wall with a dramatic warning triangle slowly raise up, allowing the ship entrance to a lock. Even from this distance, it looks like an impossibly tight fit.

We slowly slide in. A crew member secures us to the float in the lock. I glance back along the side and whistle softly – a few inches stand between the ship and a grinding scrape along the concrete wall. How could the captain be so precise at the wheel?

This quickly connects, in my brain, to another tight space I came across in the Gospel of John. In John 16, Jesus sees that “his hour” has come and his death is imminent. So, in his great love for his disciples, he comforts them with a Kingdom view of what was about to happen. In verse 33, he says:

“In this world you will have trouble. But be of good cheer! I have overcome the world!”

The word for trouble paints a fascinating picture. It describes a narrow, constricted place with great internal pressure, when one feels that there are no options available.

I watch the great gate lower behind us, cutting off retreat. And I consider times in my life where I would have turned around and retreated from a trial but found the gate lowered. Those experiences felt very much like the confinement of this lock: no room to maneuver, no way forward or back, a seemingly impossible situation.

Suddenly, around the ship, the river seems to boil. This turbulence is simply the influx of water to raise us, but it speaks to me of the internal response that Jesus calls us to in difficult times. He says, “Be of good cheer!”

The Greek word tharseo means “to have courage.” More specifically, the root, thar, describes being bolstered by an inner warmth resulting in an outward boldness. This is a “heartwarming” that bubbles up hope and resolve to move forward in faith.

I watch the float in the wall slowly rise, the external indicator that all this turbulence is actually affecting change.

What is the truth that should bolster us? I have overcome the world. Perhaps, says one commentator, defeated or conquered might be better translations, since a battle is implied. And the I is strongly emphatic: “I, myself…”

On the cross, Jesus personally defeated the forces of sin, death and disbelief that hold this world hostage. They would, if they could, crush us in a time of constriction. But Jesus has stripped them of their power to destroy us.

Finally, when the water matches the higher level of the upper river, the forward gate submerges. It reminds me of how the Spirit uses these times of trouble and change to bring us to a higher level of faith. They’re not simply something to endure.

They shape us to be more like Jesus.

We could never navigate the river of following him in this world without them.

Jesus, thank you for your bolstering words. How we need them when we’re in a time of constriction! Let the truth of your victory stir our hearts to courage and action.

Reader: How has God navigated you through those tight times of trouble?