Merriam-Webster defines adversity as a state or instance of serious or continued difficulty or misfortune while the Oxford Dictionary simply defines it as a difficult or unpleasant situation.
A Christian scholar explains it as God’s way of getting our attention. He notes that adversity includes trouble, opposition, pressure, chastening, illness, anguish, testing or tribulation. It is a circumstance that is greater (or that feels greater) than our ability to resolve and can even involve multiple trials at once. It can be a motivation for spiritual growth or a means of discouragement. What makes the difference depends on our understanding and acceptance of God’s purposes through trials.
The life of James Cash Penny is a great example of going through and ultimately conquering adversity through God. Nothing in his early life indicated that his name would one day become a household word in homes across the United States. Born in 1875, he was raised on a small farm in Kentucky, the son of a minister in the Primitive Baptist Church. Both of his parents were faithful Christians who instilled a deep a faith in their children.
When Penney was a teenager his minister father was removed from his position through church politics resulting in financial hardship for the family. Penney had to leave school, taking a job to help support the family. He began to work as a clerk in a local store, not realizing that this modest start . Although he didn’t realize it at the time, this modest start would propel him into an illustrious career in the world of retail.
After working in various stores, Penney purchased an interest in a dry goods store in Wyoming. Penney and his wife lived in a tiny attic apartment above the store using dry goods boxes for a table and chairs. Their furniture consisted of a large empty dry goods box for a table and smaller boxes for chairs. Their first child slept under a counter while he and his wife stood beside it, serving their customers.
From that humble start J. C. Penney would go on to preside over 1,700 stores bearing his name. However, despite his incredible wealth, his life was not free from adversity and hardships. In fact, beginning in 1929, events happened that nearly cost Penney his life.
When the Great Depression struck, his stores continued to do well, but Penney had been adding outside interests that were proving to be extremely costly. He had to borrow heavily to finance these interests and had been giving generously to organizations and people as a philanthropist. The Depression prompted banks to request repayment of his loans sooner than anticipated. Suddenly it was difficult to meet payment schedules and constant and unrelenting worry began to take a toll. He said, “I was so harassed with worries that I couldn’t sleep, and developed an extremely painful ailment.”
Concerned about his failing health, Penney checked himself into the Kellogg sanitarium at Battle Creek, Michigan (the Mayo Clinic of its era). There, Dr. Elmer Eggleston examined Penney, declaring that he was extremely ill. None of the prescribed treatments helped, Penney recalled. He was attacked with hopelessness and despair so much so that his will to live was rapidly wearing down. Penny became weaker and weaker, broken, mentally and physically, filled with despair. He believed that he had nothing to live for and that his friends and family had turned against him. He was losing the battle with ADVERSITY!
Alarmed by his swiftly deteriorating condition, Dr. Eggleston gave Penney a sedative, but the effect wore off quickly. Penny was convinced that he was living the last night of his life. He said, “Getting out of bed, I wrote farewell letters to my wife and to my son, saying that I did not expect to live to see the dawn.”
Penney awakened the next morning, surprised to find himself alive. As he started down the hallway of the hospital, he heard singing coming from the little chapel where devotional exercises were held each morning. The words of the hymn he heard spoke deeply to his situation. Going into the chapel, he listened wearily to the singing, the reading of Scripture, and the prayer. Then he recalled, “Suddenly something happened.” “I can’t explain it. I can only call it a miracle. I felt as if I had been instantly lifted out of the darkness of a dungeon into a warm, brilliant sunlight. I felt as if I had been transported from hell to Paradise. I felt the power of God as I had never felt it before.”
Penny recognized the life-transforming event in which he knew instantly that God was there to help him. He describes the event as the most dramatic and glorious 20 minutes of his life and declared that from that day, his life was free from worry. In a life-transforming instant Penney knew that God, with His love, was there to help. The words from the hymn that spoke so eloquently and miraculously to J. C. Penney were “God will take care of you.”
The hymn was written by Civilla Durfee Martin in 1904. The opening lines read:
Be not dismayed whate’er betide,
God will take care of you;
Beneath His wings of love abide,
God will take care of you.
God will take care of you,
Through every day, o’er all the way;
He will take care of you,
God will take care of you.
God did take care of J. C. Penny and He will take care of you and me through adversity. And notice that even with his Godly upbringing, his faith from childhood, and relationship with the Lord, he had moments of weakness. So do we but praise God we do not stay there. Thankfully, mercifully, something brings us back from the feeling of helplessness and giving up. These are a few scriptures that could encourage you when going through adversity:
[2 Corinthians 4:8] We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
[Philippians 4:13] I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
[1 Peter 5:10] And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
[James 1:2-4] Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
[Romans 8:28] And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
[Joshua 1:9] Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
[John 14:27] Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
[1 Peter 5:8-9] Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
Don’t give up on God; He never gives up on you.