Former Arkansas governor and 2008 Republican presidential primary candidate Mike Huckabee delivered a sermon today at the Central Wesleyan Church in Holland. Although Huckabee, a best-selling author and host of his own Fox News talk show, has recently been named as a possible contender for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, he served as an ordained Southern Baptist minister prior to his political career.

But politics were not on the agenda today for Huckabee.

“If you came to hear me make a political speech today, then you are going to be disappointed,” he told the congregation. “That is not my purpose here.”

Instead, Huckabee delivered a sermon centered around the theme of undergoing trials and tests of faith, often linking the subject with the nation’s struggle with economic recovery. Huckabee began his sermon by sharing the “three types of people in the world” as he sees it: those who are about to enter a trial, those who are currently undergoing a trial and those who have just come out of a trial.

“Coming to Jesus doesn’t remove all of the turbulence from our lives,” Huckabee said. “…Typically we would think that when we are happy and have no challenges in our lives, we should have joy. But the joy should come from having come out of those challenges.”

Huckabee also shared some of his own personal struggles with the audience, including his wife Janet’s battle with a spinal tumor when she was only 20 years old. Although doctors told the Huckabees they would not be able to have children due to Janet’s radiation treatment, the couple now have three full-grown children and are approaching their 37th wedding anniversary.

“People will say that the reason you’re going through a trial is so that God can find out what’s in you,” he said. “But brother God already knows what’s in you… We are never tested in our lives so that God can find out what we will do. He is clearly cognizant of what we will do. We are tested so that we can find out what we will do.”

Several members of the audience were visibly moved to tears by Huckabee’s speech. But he also managed to fit in some laughs as well.

“I’m a musician and I love to watch other musicians play,” Huckabee said of the church’s full band and chorus, “especially when they’re better than me, which is most everyone.”

But whether through comedy or personal drama, Huckabee continually stressed the importance of perseverance in the face of adversity and a continuing belief in the preserving power of faith.

“Keep practicing forgiving until the forgiving becomes as natural as holding the grudge was,” he said. “…You keep trying until the unnatural becomes the supernatural and the supernatural becomes the natural. That’s the way God wants us to practice it.”

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