Interesting quote from this weekend's sermon went something like this: "if you are a true follower of Christ, you never have a legitimate reason to panic." is there a scenario that disproves this idea?
I have one that might kinda qualify. A friend of a friend's 2 year old got sick and in two weeks went from being a normal baby to being pulled off life support yesterday. She got meningitis from a tick bite. And this then poses the question to my heart, what if my niece Jordan was in that situation? Would I not panic?
The knee-jerk pious/Christian response of course, is to say that I will trust God in all situations because He is God and He is good. That's of course what we learn to say, what we are taught to say. To translate Sunday School to real life. Well.
Let's talk about real world situations. Let's say that your husband/wife cheats on you. Divorces you. Let's say that your parent gets cancer, or brain tumors. Let's think about infertility and SIDS and car accidents. Or leaving our relatively normal American tragedies, let's talk about 8 year olds being raped and sold in other countries. Let's talk about wars so brutal that women and children are violated in ways that I cannot even write down.
The list of wrong that exists in the world is unending. So do we as true followers of Christ have a reason to panic? Ever? In this life we walk out every day?
I guess this is where faith gets off the couch.
God says He is love. And He says that all things work out for good in the lives of the people that love Him. What He doesn't say is that life is going to be awesome, easy and pain free. Those things, the divorces, the tumors, the senseless deaths...are going to work together for good. That He is going to take our pain and make it worthwhile.
One of my favorite descriptions of Jesus is the Man of Sorrows.
Subtitle: Acquainted with Grief.
I have walked this road with Jesus for a while now. From my personal experience with a few deep griefs and pains I can say this, that God has redeemed each situation. Walked through it with me, and I can see His hand molding each experience for a purpose. Am I terrified sometimes of the burdens of this place? Absolutely.
But then I have moments where I talk to a friend who was divorced and abandoned and has turned that pain into passion and God is using him to reach other divorcees. I listen to him talk about his life and the path God has him on and I see the image of Christ all over his life. And pain turned into restoration and hope.
And I have seen children rescued out of brothels in foreign countries and brought to a place of healing and hope in the name of Jesus. I have listened the story of a man who killed for a living, and now ministers to broken women because his life has been redeemed and changed by God.
So we may have reasons to panic. To fear. But we have God on our side. A God who cries with us. Acquaints Himself with our grief. And turns pain around into redemption if we let him.
"Jesus now spoke again, 'Mack, I don't want to be the first among a list of values; I want to be at the center of everything. When I live in you, then together we can live through everything that happens to you." ~ Paul Young, The Shack.
"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." ~ Paul, the Letter to the Ephesians.
O. How He loves us. In our messy and needy lives. When we are clinging to faith with bloody fingernails and knees. God loves us with a love surpassing knowledge and cares for our pain.
How He Loves : A Song Story from john mark mcmillan on Vimeo.
2 comments:
I've been itching to read this one since you posted it, but in my helter-skelter day-to-day, I haven't gotten to it until just now. I feel like we get to the same place in different ways on this one, but I always love your perspective. Loved the vid too. My brother told me the original line was "wet sloppy kiss" ...haha...he was right!
well, Jeffrey, you should obviously read my blog first, before all else. (=
That song is close to my heart. I love it. I like the Jesus Culture version and the David Crowder version.
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