The Discipline of the Disagreeable

Oswald Chambers' message on dealing with the disagreeable in life is recorded in Our Brilliant Heritage:

"When Christ is formed in us we have to see that our human nature acts in perfect obedience to all that the Son of God reveals. God does not supply us with character, He gives us the life of His Son and we can either ignore Him and refuse to obey Him, or we can so obey Him, so bring every thought and imagination into captivity, that the life of Jesus is manifested in our mortal flesh. It is not a question of being saved from hell, but of being saved in order to manifest the Son of God in our mortal flesh. Our responsibility is to keep ourselves fit to manifest Him.

"Are we lacking in the things that Peter through the Spirit of God says we must add--the things which ought to mark the life of the saint? For instance, do we exhibit the virtue of self-control, the virtue of godliness, in the letters we write, in the conversations we hold? If not, then we not only give a wrong impression of the Son of God, but we hurt His life in us. If we are lacking in these things, it is because we have become short-sighted; we have forgotten that we have been cleansed from our old sins and are in imminent peril of being taken up with an experience and an illumination, and of forgetting that the life of Jesus is to be manifested in our mortal flesh.

"The only way to keep yourself fit is by the discipline of the disagreeable. It is the disagreeable things which make us exhibit whether we are manifesting the life of the Son of God, or living a life which is antagonistic to Him. When disagreeable things happen, do we manifest the essential sweetness of he Son of God or the essential irritation of ourselves apart from Him? Whenever self comes into the ascendant, the life of the Son of God in us is perverted and twisted; there is irritation, and His life suffers. We have to beware of every element in human nature which clamors for attention first. Growth in grace stops the moment we get huffed. We get huffed because we have a peculiar person to live with--just think of the disagreeable person you have been to God! Every disagreeable person you ever met is an objective picture of what you were like in the sight of God. We have to learn to get in the first blow at the thing that is unlike God in ourselves. We can take in our human nature the blow that was meant for Him and so prevent the tramp of feet on Him. This is what Paul means when he speaks of filling up 'that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body's sake.'

"It is one thing to go into the disagreeable by God's engineering, but another thing to go into it by choice. If God puts us there, He is amply sufficient. No matter how difficult the circumstances may be, if we will let Jesus Christ manifest Himself in them, it will prove to be a new means of exhibiting the wonderful perfection and extraordinary purity of the Son of God. This keen enthusiasm of letting the Son of God manifest Himself in us is the only thing that will keep us enjoying the discipline of the disagreeable. 'Let your light so shine before men. . . .' Our light is to shine in the darkness; it is not needed in the light. It is on earth, in this condition of things, that we have to see that the life of the Son of God is manifested in us, and we must keep ourselves fit to do it."