This road of life we travel will eventually lead us through a place of tragedy, darkness or despair. That journey should lead us to discover what it is that we really desire in our inmost being: to know and be known by God. But sometimes that road is long and hard and extremely painful. We may see no end in sight and find ourselves wondering how we can possibly endure.
I know God is faithful. But is His faithfulness strong enough to see me through to the end of THIS? I believe that He can carry me through anything, yet it seems that not only am I not being carried, I have been abandoned. He has turned His back on me and has left me to struggle through this on my own.
Does that sound like a blasphemous accusation? Of course we must tread that ground carefully, but the faithful, exemplary and inspired prayers of the Psalmists teach us that the Christian experience is not always one of the "victorious Christian life," and we often find ourselves on our knees pleading for God to show His face! "How long, O Lord, will you hide your face from me? Turn again and show favor lest I be like those who go down to the pit!" When you find yourself on this road, you are in good company. Don't lose heart, but engage in actively reminding yourself over and over and over again of the TRUTH. Here are a couple of foundational truths, among many, that we do well to remember.
1 - The deepest darkness is always followed by the dawn. Every single day, God graces us with a visible reminder of this truth...His PROMISE...that He will send the light and bring us into the warmth and joy of the day! The sun does not rise and set by some scientific force that has been set in motion, but by the deliberate and faithful act of God! And it MEANS something! It means that our sure and certain hope, which we must believe BY FAITH (when all evidence is to the contrary), is that He is there and He is working and He will bring us out of darkness into the light. We have no promise about how short or long the night will be, but we do have the promise that the light will come. We must wait expectantly for the advent of the dawn.
2 - Deliverance from despair always comes through a person or other people. Yes. Ultimately and fully it comes through the person of Christ, but in smaller ways it comes through people in our lives here and now. At first glance, this may be a hard reality to accept because, as Crabb points out in Shattered Dreams, the Christian community is often a dangerous place to be when your dreams shatter. We may find some initial support, but we all know that "good" Christians are victorious and not only should our grief be short-lived, but also our battles must be fought privately. Church is too often a place of pretense and therefore a place without hope. When brokenness is disdained, where the real story is never told, the power of God is not felt. Where brokenness is invited and received with grace, the gospel comes alive with hope.
Don't misunderstand. This is not a call for all of us to immerse ourselves in our brokenness by full exposure at all times with all people, or for us to dwell in perpetual sadness. But it IS a call to fully expose our brokenness to a few, as well as a call to be real enough with everyone that they don't fear to have their own less-than-ideal realities exposed. How many Christians believe that everyone else in their congregation has clean houses, fulfilling jobs, loving husbands, gracious wives, intelligent and obedient children? If we project that we have it all together, we are most often living a lie (though we all have times of ease where this MAY be true...and we shouldn't fault or resent those who are in this place! We should pray for them though, because we know it will not always be so!).
Bottom line: we must stop pretending. It leaves those who really are troubled ALONE in their troubles, which is exactly the opposite point of Christian community! Real love, mercy and grace offered in the presence of real sin, real tragedy, real heartache, and real brokenness, is the very heart of The Good News of Jesus Christ. It is our duty, our joy, and our burden as the people of God to offer relief, encouragement, support, sympathy and strength to those among us who need it...and it is also our duty and our joy to receive those things when we are the needy ones. Just as Moses needed brothers to hold up his hands in a time of weakness and weariness, so our endurance and deliverance are bound up in the life-giving support of our brothers and sisters.
3 - God will, by His Spirit, produce fruit from our suffering.
C.S. Lewis, after the death of his wife, Joy, cried out to God and found the door shut in his face. Lewis was acutely aware that God could do something...anything...but He did nothing. At least for a while. Lewis compares the coming of God's presence, to suddenly realizing that the room has been filled with sunlight and warmth. It happens gradually and almost imperceptibly, but all at once he became aware that it had happened. So it is with us. He IS here. The Sun of Righteousness HAS risen with healing in His wings...but sometimes we don't recognize it until we see the fruit of that healing.
Only God has the life and healing that our souls desperately need, and it is in His absence that we come to really believe that. So we wait. We learn to rest. And we learn to long for whatever ultimate good He wants to send. We learn to recognize His blessings in forms which we didn't expect. And we remember. We must always remember.
We remember His dealings with His people in the past...how He always remained faithful and He always delivered them and He always made them fruitful. EVENTUALLY.
We also, fundamentally, remember Christ: in the very moment when Christ, on the cross, was calling out in agony, "Father, where are you? Why have you forsaken me?!" God said nothing. He was silent. He was absent. But it was during that exact time that God was, in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself! From this moment of despair, God has reaped a bountiful harvest!
Remember that harvest. Remember Christ. Remember the Father's love for Him...even in his abandonment. REMEMBER THE RESURRECTION! It is, afterall, The All-Pervasive Truth - of creation, of human life, of the Scriptures - darkness to light...death to life. God is faithful and He will raise us from every kind of death to New Life.
Believe this and be at rest.
I know God is faithful. But is His faithfulness strong enough to see me through to the end of THIS? I believe that He can carry me through anything, yet it seems that not only am I not being carried, I have been abandoned. He has turned His back on me and has left me to struggle through this on my own.
Does that sound like a blasphemous accusation? Of course we must tread that ground carefully, but the faithful, exemplary and inspired prayers of the Psalmists teach us that the Christian experience is not always one of the "victorious Christian life," and we often find ourselves on our knees pleading for God to show His face! "How long, O Lord, will you hide your face from me? Turn again and show favor lest I be like those who go down to the pit!" When you find yourself on this road, you are in good company. Don't lose heart, but engage in actively reminding yourself over and over and over again of the TRUTH. Here are a couple of foundational truths, among many, that we do well to remember.
1 - The deepest darkness is always followed by the dawn. Every single day, God graces us with a visible reminder of this truth...His PROMISE...that He will send the light and bring us into the warmth and joy of the day! The sun does not rise and set by some scientific force that has been set in motion, but by the deliberate and faithful act of God! And it MEANS something! It means that our sure and certain hope, which we must believe BY FAITH (when all evidence is to the contrary), is that He is there and He is working and He will bring us out of darkness into the light. We have no promise about how short or long the night will be, but we do have the promise that the light will come. We must wait expectantly for the advent of the dawn.
2 - Deliverance from despair always comes through a person or other people. Yes. Ultimately and fully it comes through the person of Christ, but in smaller ways it comes through people in our lives here and now. At first glance, this may be a hard reality to accept because, as Crabb points out in Shattered Dreams, the Christian community is often a dangerous place to be when your dreams shatter. We may find some initial support, but we all know that "good" Christians are victorious and not only should our grief be short-lived, but also our battles must be fought privately. Church is too often a place of pretense and therefore a place without hope. When brokenness is disdained, where the real story is never told, the power of God is not felt. Where brokenness is invited and received with grace, the gospel comes alive with hope.
Don't misunderstand. This is not a call for all of us to immerse ourselves in our brokenness by full exposure at all times with all people, or for us to dwell in perpetual sadness. But it IS a call to fully expose our brokenness to a few, as well as a call to be real enough with everyone that they don't fear to have their own less-than-ideal realities exposed. How many Christians believe that everyone else in their congregation has clean houses, fulfilling jobs, loving husbands, gracious wives, intelligent and obedient children? If we project that we have it all together, we are most often living a lie (though we all have times of ease where this MAY be true...and we shouldn't fault or resent those who are in this place! We should pray for them though, because we know it will not always be so!).
Bottom line: we must stop pretending. It leaves those who really are troubled ALONE in their troubles, which is exactly the opposite point of Christian community! Real love, mercy and grace offered in the presence of real sin, real tragedy, real heartache, and real brokenness, is the very heart of The Good News of Jesus Christ. It is our duty, our joy, and our burden as the people of God to offer relief, encouragement, support, sympathy and strength to those among us who need it...and it is also our duty and our joy to receive those things when we are the needy ones. Just as Moses needed brothers to hold up his hands in a time of weakness and weariness, so our endurance and deliverance are bound up in the life-giving support of our brothers and sisters.
3 - God will, by His Spirit, produce fruit from our suffering.
C.S. Lewis, after the death of his wife, Joy, cried out to God and found the door shut in his face. Lewis was acutely aware that God could do something...anything...but He did nothing. At least for a while. Lewis compares the coming of God's presence, to suddenly realizing that the room has been filled with sunlight and warmth. It happens gradually and almost imperceptibly, but all at once he became aware that it had happened. So it is with us. He IS here. The Sun of Righteousness HAS risen with healing in His wings...but sometimes we don't recognize it until we see the fruit of that healing.
Only God has the life and healing that our souls desperately need, and it is in His absence that we come to really believe that. So we wait. We learn to rest. And we learn to long for whatever ultimate good He wants to send. We learn to recognize His blessings in forms which we didn't expect. And we remember. We must always remember.
We remember His dealings with His people in the past...how He always remained faithful and He always delivered them and He always made them fruitful. EVENTUALLY.
We also, fundamentally, remember Christ: in the very moment when Christ, on the cross, was calling out in agony, "Father, where are you? Why have you forsaken me?!" God said nothing. He was silent. He was absent. But it was during that exact time that God was, in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself! From this moment of despair, God has reaped a bountiful harvest!
Remember that harvest. Remember Christ. Remember the Father's love for Him...even in his abandonment. REMEMBER THE RESURRECTION! It is, afterall, The All-Pervasive Truth - of creation, of human life, of the Scriptures - darkness to light...death to life. God is faithful and He will raise us from every kind of death to New Life.
Believe this and be at rest.
No comments:
Post a Comment