I
gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive
it. Indeed, even now you are not able to receive it.
—I Corinthians
3:2
We are
born. We get married. We raise kids. We pay taxes. Then we die.
*~*~*~*~*~*
From
Seventh Dimension — The Door, a Young Adult Christian Fantasy quoted from Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest.
All
the world’s a stage.
And
all the men and women merely players
They
have their exits and their entrances
And one
man in his time plays many parts
His
acts being seven ages.
—Mrs. Wilkes, chapter two
*~*~*~*~*~*
Sounds
depressing, doesn’t it? While the above statement is an exaggeration, at times
I have felt like life is far too woeful with little reward. But without God,
life would be a hundred times worse.
Goodness in the world is an extension of
God’s love. Hardship is an extension of his grace. How much darker the world
would be without God’s presence. Would we even know the difference between good
and evil without the Holy Spirit? I am thankful for absolutes. God does not
change, and when I feel threatened, I am comforted by knowing that God holds
everything together.
You lose your job, your home, your health—God
allows it. An accident lands you in the hospital—God allows it. Sorrow is part
of the human condition—all over the world.
Hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and
floods ravage and destroy property. The toll on human life is difficult to
comprehend. “Why, God?”
Randomness is universal to us. God causes it
to rain on the just and unjust.
I used to think I suffered because I was bad.
I thought bad things happened because I deserved it. Some Christians will tell
you that if you get a disease, it’s because there is sin in your life or you
don’t have enough faith. If you had more faith, you would be healed of your
disease.
Or if you suffer economic hardship, you must
have done something to cause a reversal in your fortunes—something you did
displeased God.
Perhaps, when I was young, this is where I
got the idea that I was born under a cloud. You shouldn’t make that correlation
because it’s not true.
Bad things happen to good people. Good things
happen to bad people. Why? We live in a fallen, sinful world. Although God is
in control, he allows events to happen. While life might seem random to us, it’s
not random to God.
Why do bad things happen? I don’t know. I
don’t know the mind of God. I have often said, when I get to heaven, I want him
to tell me why he allowed this thing to happen or that thing to happen. Then I quickly
remind myself, when I see him, it will no longer matter. He will wipe away my
tears.
Besides, God already knows the outcome. The
process is for our benefit—to reveal what’s in our heart. How much do we really
love God? Do we only love him when we receive good things from him and not hard
things? How well do we know ourselves?
God cares about the process. If the process
of suffering draws us nearer to him, then God can be glorified in our
suffering. When I feel that I can’t take “it” anymore, God reminds me that my
momentary afflictions will not be remembered in heaven. One of my favorite
expressions is, “this, too, shall pass.”
Besides that, where else can we go? If we hit
rock bottom, where will we turn? Who holds the answers? Who understands us? If
we can glorify God despite hardship and loss and suffering, then we know we
love God—not because he gives us good things, but because we know he is with us
in the hard things.
Throughout history, Christians have suffered
at the hands of others. Corrie ten Boom and her sister Betsie were taken to a
concentration camp during World War II after helping Jews to escape the
Holocaust. Betsie died while in the camp.
Foxe’s
Book of Martyrs shares the testimonies
of Christians who have died for their faith. I tried to read this book with my
older daughter when we homeschooled. I couldn’t quit crying.
An average of 159,960 Christians worldwide
are martyred for their faith each year (http://christianity.about.com/od/denominations/p/christiantoday.htm).
While you may never suffer persecution, there
are other forms of suffering. There’s disease, hunger, disability, hardship,
and death. God never promised that Christians wouldn’t suffer. A student is
never above his master. Jesus suffered unimaginable pain and separation from
God when he died on the cross. If God
wanted to spare the death of his son on the cross, surely he could have avoided
the process, but he chose not to.
Jesus asked for the cup to be taken from him,
but it didn’t happen. Jesus willingly chose to die. Thousands of angels would
have come to his rescue had he asked. He didn’t. Jesus willingly died for you
and for me. That was his passion, and God has given you yours.
It’s in the process that we choose how we
shall live—what our attitudes will be and what choices we’ll make. Are we
willing to sacrifice and toil and labor for the God whom we claim we love, or
will we succumb to our sinful nature?
Life is about the process. We’re born and we die, but it’s all the stuff
in between about which God cares.
When you enter college, you meet with a
guidance counselor who will create a plan for your four-year academic career. For
example, if you want to be a doctor, you must take calculus. At the end of the
semester, you must take a test to see if you have mastered the subject. You
can’t graduate from college if you don’t pass all your tests and complete the
requirements laid out for you by the counselor.
If we never faced challenges, we would never
be tested. God tested Abraham when he asked Abraham to sacrifice his son,
Isaac. God knew what Abraham would choose, but did Abraham himself know? The
process of becoming reveals to us who we are in Christ.
In the same way, God has a plan. His plan is
to help you become more like Jesus. Our sanctification, the process of
becoming, will not be completed here. In Pilgrims
Progress, Christian overcame many obstacles along the way, and as the name
of the book implies, he progressed in his faith until God called him home. We
are becoming Christian.
God gives us times of rest and times of work,
times of war and times of peace, times of tearing down and times of building
up, but in everything under the sun, we are becoming.
We need Christian leaders, peacemakers, and
prayer warriors. These heroes of the faith aren’t born that way—they have
become that way. While God gives us gifts to become, it’s up to us to use the
talents he gives us. If we misuse our gifts or pride puffs us up, God may take
away our gifts and give them to someone else.
In the low points of our life, we feel the
depth of God’s love. Oh, the Deep, Deep,
Love of Jesus Samuel Trevor Francis wrote in his well-known Christian hymn.
Years earlier as a teenager he had contemplated suicide. Perhaps a better
question to ask is not why I have suffered so much, but how much more would I
have suffered without God’s grace?
Only when we arrive home will we be made
perfect in Jesus Christ. Until then, we are becoming—and suffering is part of
that process—our passion.
Dear
Jesus, when bad things happen, you are with me. Even if I am fearful, I will trust
in you; and if I trust in you, who can separate me from your love?
