Embrace the Suck

By Matt Watson

The Suck

The military has some advice for soldiers in crappy situations: “Embrace the suck.” The suck is every bad situation that we have no control over, which is a lot. Rather than be defeated by it, fight it by embracing it. Lean into the suck.

Life on this side of the fall of man sucks sometimes. The sin of our first parents brought upon us all toil and hardship thereafter. Whether it's the horrors of war, having to take that shot, 2nd Lieutenants, or getting the worst MRE from the box, soldiers have to embrace the suck. For the rest of us, whether it's a diagnosis, taxes, or toddler tantrums, life is often not pleasant. The choices, however, are simple. We can either complain about it or deal with it. But here’s the thing, how we deal with it matters.

While the stoics would say “The obstacle is the way through,” the leftists might cast blame on anyone not currently in the suck but offer no real solutions to it. The Christian has another option altogether, which is to worship God in the midst of the suck.

The Christian knows that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever (1 Cor. 10:31; Rom 11:36; Ps 73:25-28) and that our only comfort in life and death is that we are not our own but belong body and soul to Jesus (1 Cor 6:19-20; Rom 14:7-9; 1 Cor 3:23; Titus 2:14). The Christian knows that Jesus leads through the valley of the shadow of death and that we need not fear any evil. Yet, through the valley we must sometimes go.

Hesed

One of the glorious truths of Scripture is God’s covenantal faithfulness expressed through his steadfast love or hesed. After the Exodus, during which there was much complaining and golden calf worshiping, God renewed his covenant with his people and identified himself this way:

The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin …
Exodus 34:6-7a ESV

Philip Ryken says “The words that God first spoke to Moses became Israel’s confession of faith, the people’s working definition of God,” and were repeated or referenced throughout the Old Testament. This is the very nature and character of God, to be steadfast in love for all of his people to whom he is covenanted.

God never changes and never lies, so when he makes a covenant, he sticks to it even when we don’t. And though we may not feel it, he continues to love us through the suck. Joseph was sold into slavery by his older brothers, falsely accused of rape, and imprisoned for years. That’s the suck. Ruth and Naomi were widows who survived a famine. They were vulnerable without the protection and assets of their husbands. That is the suck. In both situations, God remained faithful. God didn’t just rescue Joseph, he used Joseph’s situation to rescue his people from famine (Gen 41-50). He didn’t just get Joseph out of prison, he made him the prime minister of Egypt.

Likewise, by God’s providence, Ruth just so happened to end up in a field owned by the one person who could help her and her mother-in-law. In Ruth 2, Boaz went above and beyond the requirement of the law in his generosity. He made sure Ruth was safe, told his workers to leave behind more barely and wheat than normal for her to have, and gave her weeks' worth of food. And all of this without any expectation from Ruth. It was pure God-reflecting generosity. That is God’s faithfulness in the suck.

The Wedding at Cana

Here is another example of God’s steadfast love and overabundant grace, the wedding at Cana. Baptists hate this passage, while it’s the life verse for Presbyterians. In John 2:1-12 we read that Jesus and his followers attended the wedding of a family friend. The wedding party ran out of wine and therefore risked disgrace. Jesus’ mom said “I know a guy” and voluntold her son to help. Jesus then converts anywhere from 120 to 180 gallons of water into grape juice wine. Not just any wine, but the best dang wine this side of Bordeaux. The wedding master of ceremonies complimented it so highly, it would have been as if the bride’s parents served boxed Franzia wine until it ran out, then dusted off the vintage bottles in the cellar.

That is the kind of overabundant grace our Lord gives. He doesn’t just solve the problem, he solves the problem so completely that it's as if there was never a problem at all. It’s not just a fix, it’s new birth.

And that is one way God shows hesed to his people in the suck, by pouring out grace upon grace to them. His steadfast love for his people at times looks like being rescued from slavery and prison and becoming the prime minister of the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world. It looks like being a hungry immigrant widow without any prospects suddenly finding herself with weeks of food and a future husband. It looks like going from disgrace to honor while drinking the best wine .

The interesting thing about the miracle at the wedding of Cana, other than it being Jesus’ first recorded miracle, is that Jesus’ earthly ministry begins with a wedding feast with the best wine to the Last Supper where it seemingly ends with his most precious blood being poured out on the cross as a sign of the new covenant with his people (Luke 22:20). But then it continues into the new heavens and new earth where his people enjoy the marriage supper of the Lamb who was slain (Matt 22:1-14; Rev 19:6-9). Imagine a Brazilian steakhouse that keeps bringing out grilled meats and the best vintages of wine, that is what it will be like at Our Lord’s table and board.

Evidence of God’s Grace

It is important to remember how God has been gracious to you in your day-to-day life. It’ll encourage you and keep you going when you’re in the suck, knowing that God has shown his steadfast love to you without you deserving it. Here are two suggestions for remembering God’s hesed in your life when it gets hard.

Make it a rhythm

At a previous church, whenever we gathered for a meal, we would ask each other for evidence of God’s grace. Big or small, how has God been good to us? Sometimes that was hard to answer, often it wasn’t. It allowed our church to speak into each other’s lives with the gospel, reminding each other about how good God is.

My wife and I still do that with our toddler. At dinner, we ask each other for one thing we can thank God for today. That simple time of reflection helps reset our hearts. Whether you make it a rhythm of your small group, or part of your family worship, consider taking the time to reflect and thank God for his grace.

Write it down.

We used to keep a composition notebook labeled “evidence of God’s grace” and would update it whenever we could. We are out of that habit now, but we still journal privately and reflect on the things we are thankful for regularly. Consider setting aside a notebook or using an app to track evidence of God’s grace.

In elementary school, I was constantly in trouble for my attitude. My mom made a notebook for me, and throughout the pages, she wrote “List five things you are thankful for today,” and then numbered off five lines for me to fill out. I hate to admit that worked, but it did, and inevitably I’d adjust. It helped me detach from the suck, and see it with a better perspective, though I didn’t have that language to describe it.

Doing this will not just guard against nihilism or quitting your faith, but it will help you embrace the suck in a way that honors God and benefits your soul. When things get bad, you ought to choose to remember that God is good and look for the evidence, rather than despair over the darkness of the valley. God is not only with you, he is taking care of you with abundance. Our cup runneth over (Psalm 23).

Charles Spurgeon said about our Lord, “Let us magnify the liberality of our glorious Boaz.” Embrace the suck by thanking God for what he has done in the past, especially through the atoning sacrifice of his Son, and then trust there will be a future when it doesn’t suck.

1 Philip Graham Ryken and R. Kent Hughes, Exodus: Saved for God’s Glory (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2005), 1042.

2 C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening: Daily Readings (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1896), March 19, Evening.

This article was originally published by Matthew Watson with Awake! Put on strength!, and is used under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.