vexations

Jesus is warning us about the true character of life: it is not an easy fight. As John Trapp puts it in his Commentary on John:

“There is no avoiding of it [tribulation]; it is not a paradise, but a purgatory to the saints. It may be compared to the Straits of Magellan, which is said to be a place of that nature, that whichever way a man sets his course, he shall be sure to have the wind against him.”

Vexations may very well be the means God uses for our spiritual formation.

Imagine you are a young person raised in a family that gave little attention to spiritual growth. You may have seen your parents drinking alcohol or using drugs, and heard them speak openly about matters far too heavy for a child’s ears. Later, as you gained independence, you likely began to imitate their patterns. Perhaps you became vain, proud without substance, even two-faced.

But when God takes over your education, He does not teach as the world does. He alternates good and bad experiences, for both are His instruments. The bad—what spiritual authors call vexations—may already be at work in your life. He may have allowed defects of body or mind to humble you. Poverty, poor health, rejection—these may all be on the divine syllabus designed to bring you back down to earth and teach you reliance on Him.

When God decides He wants to re-form you, He will have to do a gigantic work of bringing you back from a wrongly understood sexuality, from a lack of courage to say and enact the truth, and so on.

In such a situation, fighting back with illegal or ungodly means may, in fact, mean you are fighting against God Himself and His purposes for your soul.