Discussion Guide

NOTE: This song’s lyrics are EXPLICIT – we don’t condone them, or recommend that kids listen to this song – but we know that many of your students are familiar with it, and want to give you a tool to help them think Bibically about it.

Teaching Point
Everybody experiences times of difficulty and/or struggle. During these times It can be easy to feel overwhelmed. While we are never promised an easy life, the Scriptures do offer us hope to persevere and overcome or trials.

Opening Question
It’s not “if” but “when” we will experience hardships in our lives.

• What are some of the difficult times you have already lived through or others you know, have endured?

Discussion
It has been said, “Life is not fair.” Nobody wants to hear this and believe it yet we will experience surprising challenges, tragedies and hard seasons. These may not be tied to anything we have or have not done. They just come and we must respond.

SB19 offers us a song and video portraying them as fighters against the difficulties the world brings us. They are visualized as fighters and this is bolstered by words like “roundhouse” and “kung fu” to show the group fighting the hardships coming their way. The fighting metaphor is further explained as they sing, “Every day, I think the load gets heavy, Throw it away, the world unloads hostility, Is there a way to break the curse and stop this now?”

God will ultimately break the curse but until then we are given the perseverance, we need to endure no matter what seeks to “hit” us or try to knock us down.

In the Scriptures, we see a way forward in responding to the rough spots of life.

James 1:2-4 (NLT)
“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So, let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”

From experience we know it is easier to encourage someone else than for us to fight the good fight and persevere in difficulty. We are not promised easy times in the here and now but ultimately our endurance will be fully developed and we will be perfect and complete through Christ. As we “fight” together we are better.

Conclusion

• How can you be better prepared to “fight” the difficulties that will inevitably come your way?
• What is one thing you have learned and could use for the future from an earlier struggle?