STRIFE, noun [see Strive]

1.) Contention in anger or enmity; contest; struggle for victory; quarrel or war.
“I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon” (Judges 12:2).

2.) [Archaic] Earnest endeavor.

You see George, you really had a wonderful life. Don’t you see what a mistake it would be to throw it away?
—Clarence, It’s a Wonderful Life

Before I settled into the profession of teaching, I worked for a number of years in the world of concrete. Prior to grinding out lessons plans and pounding due dates into the heads of students, I was pounding and grinding concrete. Indeed, before I was—hopefully—shaping students, I was shaping concrete.

Shaping rock, shaping students; I’d be hard-pressed to say which is more difficult. Rock is less resistant to change and fights back far less often, but again, it’s just rock in the end. Students, while tough as granite at times, are well worth the effort—well worth the strife.

This is all to say that whether one is working with rock or with students, the work can be hard and the temptation to complain ever so easy. In my concrete days, my co-workers and I would load up our truck and trailer with supplies in the early morning hours. While we worked, a whiteboard with only a few words scribbled on it hung above us, watching as though it were a sentinel. Day by day, we were greeted with the same daily reminder written upon the board: “Do all things without grumbling.” My boss had taken the phrase from the book of Philippians, “Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world” (2:14-15).

Do not grumble—simple enough, and yet so incredibly hard to do (or not do) at times.

Have you ever heard someone begin a sentence with the phrase, “In our fallen world…?” For example, “In our fallen world… sin and sickness run rampant.” I must admit I draw issue with this phrase, though only because of the word “our.” If we are in Christ, having been delivered from this present kingdom of darkness and adopted as sons and daughters into the Kingdom of light (Colossians 1:13), then this present world is not truly “our” world, now is it? No—our inheritance is in Heaven, where Christ is; we are merely passing through this world.

And yet, for the time being, this world is the only one we have. As it stands, Earth just so happens to be the only world we can physically inhabit. And, to finally come around to my point, in this fallen world the temptation to grumble is ever so strong. All the day long we are battered, bruised, beaten, and bereaved, fighting sin within and without until the moment we are called home.

O where is the haven of rest for the soul / The peace and contentment it seeks for its own / Can no place be found on this earth free from sin / No city of refuge, where safety we win? / No, no, no, no, not here below.
(Zion’s Harp, number 263)

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