By John Bryson
Fellowship Memphis

In Stephen Pressfield’s classic “War of Art”, he mentions that the high performers, the creatives, those who produce, those who are effective, etc. eventually have to learn to “be miserable”.

“The artist must be like that marine. He has to know how to be miserable. He has to love being miserable. He has to take pride in being more miserable than any soldier…because this is war, baby. And war is hell.” (68)

I believe this is a powerful idea and one every man, every leader and every change agent must learn in order to perform and push through tough seasons of life and leadership.

Navy Seals teach this...one of my friends at dinner mentioned how two-a-days football practices taught him this...another friend added how Medical school Residency taught him this...I threw in how that was my greatest lesson in training for and running a marathon…you can be miserable, and still move forward, produce and thrive.  God teaches this…see Abraham, Moses, Joseph, David, Paul…take your pick.

What a powerful lesson we should all live!  Could there be a greater gift, on a practical level, to invest in our kids?  How can we train emerging leaders or church planters with this reality?

In our age of spoiled kids, privileged kids, over-indulgence, helicopter parenting, and the lies we tell kids and young men and women that they “can be and do anything they want to be and do”…many are launching “soft” young adults into the world who have no idea how to struggle well or thrive through misery…so they pout and quit and remain a taker, not a giver.

Couple that with ridiculous expectations that a perfect job is waiting on them along with a perfect boss in exactly the city they want to live in along with a paycheck that is more than they’ll need and you have a recipe for a disaster…check most 20-somethings.

The few truly understand, theologically, that we live in a fallen world, this is not heaven (thank God), life is hard, there is much pain, disappointment and misery…but in the midst of that, by God’s grace, we can learn to cultivate and create in the midst of circumstances that will rarely, if ever, be ideal.  

A friend once told me to pinch Gen 1 and 2 in one hand and Rev 19 and 20 in the other.  Those 4 chapters are perfection.  The other 1,185 chapters in the Bible teach us to contend in the midst of a fallen world.

Don’t be a whiner, quitter, or baby and quit pouting or being surprised about “how hard” it is to do what you are doing.  Of course it is.  You are limited as a fallen human in a fallen world.  Learn to cultivate and create…all the while, being miserable.  If you can thrive and stay on mission, especially through the worst of circumstances, you are preparing to be a game changer, a true leader, who can adapt, adjust, and endure.  

Jesus is still our perfect rescuer and our relentless pursuit of Him is still our greatest joy.