A searchable, downloadable PDF of the original review appears below. Roma E. Bryant is a member of St. Paul’s Church, Ottawa.
More Than Coping by Elizabeth Skoglund. World Wide Publications, 1987.
Elizabeth Skoglund is a marriage, family, and child counselor, practising in Burbank, California. She has found lasting encouragement in both her private life and in her practice from the testimonies of the lives of four giants of the faith, Charles Spurgeon, Amy Carmichael, Hudson Taylor and C.S. Lewis, and their respective abilities to serve God to the utmost despite their own weaknesses and pain. In his foreword Stephen Tchividjian says, “More than Coping gives us the adulterated message of the triumphant Gospel of Christ in which He suffered the pain of the cross — before He experienced the joy of the resurrection.”
We tend to equate pain, either of an emotional or physical nature as a weakness in ourselves. We cannot “handle” a problem, we cannot “bear” the pain, and we think we would be closer to God if we could only over come and be free of this pain. Not necessarily so! Read how these four people “more than coped” under very difficult and trying circumstances such as physical pain, discouragement loss, and depression.
Charles Spurgeon coped with depression. A common misconception among many Christians today is that we ought to be free of depression if we were really “good” Christians. God does not promise that our faith will free us from all discouragement and “downs”, but he does promise the peace and power of his Spirit to enable us to weather any afflictions of body, mind and spirit. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, that “prince of preachers”, suffered from terrible bouts of despair and depression. He was, also, far ahead of his time in perceiving the important relationship between emotion and the body. Spurgeon suffered from a painful form of arthritis arising from an overabundance of uric acid in his system. In his physical weakness and pain he often slumped into depths of despair. He, nevertheless, trusted his Lord to “see him through”, and recognized through all his earthly days, overshadowed by black clouds of depression, that God was enough, “the true source of all consolation.”
Amy Carmichael coped with suffering. From her early days as a young girl in Belfast, to her last years of total invalidism, she sought to know God’s approval, and she is an example of dealing with suffering. After a physical breakdown when she was a missionary in Japan, Amy Carmichael became a missionary in south India. She took on Indian citizenship and melted into Indian culture. Her goal was to do her work as Christ had done his work on this earth. She gave us an example of coping with being misunderstood, of coping with physical illness, for she suffered chronic physical pain. She also coped with disappointment, extreme loneliness, and repeated trials. Her fear of death was not of death itself, but the possibility that she might linger on and be a burden to others. She had written in her journal, “Lord, teach me how to conquer pain, and grant this, my earnest request, when my day’s work is done, take me straight Home. Do not let me a burden to anyone … let me die of battle wounds, O my Lord, not of a lingering illness.” However, for years before she died, Amy Carmichael was totally bed-ridden, and even then, she was not dismayed, and triumphed, in a deep way, with God, and some of her special insights in writing came during those years. In all of her endeavours Christ was her motivation, her source of power, her lifetime goal. That made all the difference in her suffering.
Hudson Taylor coped with human needs. We are all so anxious about our own particular needs, and again and again we are reminded of Jesus’ admonition “be not anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink…” (Matt.6: 25-34). Hudson Taylor almost single-handedly opened up the interior of China to Christianity. He learned, as a very young preacher in England, a principle of God’s provision: “God’s work, done in God’s way, will never lack God’s supply.” Would that we could all operate this way! He was greatly influenced by George Muller who built orphanages in England which excelled all others. He went to China – transformed in dress and appearance – so that he could “fit in” with the Chinese, and he lived and worked the basic belief that God would supply. The means came, but only little by little, as the need demanded.
On a personal level he suffered much hardship. Mrs. Taylor died of cholera after giving birth to a son, who also died. Two other children were sent back to England for health reasons. It seemed that all earthly comfort had been taken from Taylor. He, himself was almost destroyed physically with a liver, and then, a lung, ailment. Yet work went on. Taylor went on. He found his comfort and refreshment playing and singing a favourite hymn. “Jesus, I am resting, resting in the joy of what thou art, I am finding out the greatness, of Thy loving heart.” Hudson Taylor learned to “roll the burden on the Lord.”
C.S. Lewis coped with imperfection. While the theologians and philosophers might find their examples in the utterance of ancient thinkers, Lewis could find depth of expression in the simplicity of a child’s story. The man Lewis was intellectual but human, fearful yet honest, questioning yet believing, human and imperfect as we all are. He could accept imperfection for what it was: neither virtue nor sin, but human frailty. In his book The Problem of Pain. C.S. Lewis reiterates, again and again, that to be afraid of pain, and despisers of pain, makes us no less believers and trusters of God.
He was realistic about himself, and he was equally aware of the frailties of mankind in general. C.S. Lewis saw that Christians are not always “nice”, they are sometimes downright “nasty”, yet he recognized our frailties and his own, and saw that nasty people might be expected to turn to Christ in greater number than the “nice” ones. Lewis saw us all, the little, the low, the timid, the lonely, the rich and poor, all lost sheep whom Christ came to save. Lewis was a man of great contrasts. There is no doubt he was one of the great intellectuals of the twentieth century, yet he wrote in his letters about simple, everyday things — his cats, his loneliness, his pain, his illnesses — things that are relevant to all of us at one time or another.
He had great respect for “ordinary” people, and saw them not as “ordinary” at all, but very special to God, and each with spiritual potential.
He struggled, as many of us do, with routine prayer. Do we have “dry” periods, do we feel that God was withdrawn, do we ever just wait? C.S. Lewis thought long and deeply on this subject. He recognized all these imperfections — and more — in himself, and his struggle en route to the perfection to which God is leading.
The whole book helps us to realize that we can cope, that those we think of as giants of the faith still struggled as we do through terrible odds, and still coped.
It’s a book for everybody’s bookshelf — but not to be left there. It is worth being read and referred to many times over.