Do you ever feel like your life is like an ongoing sound check: Testing, testing… Just when you think you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, you discover it’s an oncoming train. Put another way, You know it’s going to be a bad day when…
-You see a 60 Minutes news team in your office
-You call suicide prevention hotline, and they put you on hold.
-You turn on the news, and they’re showing emergency routes out of the city.
-Your twin sister forgot your birthday.
-Your car horn goes off accidentally and remains stuck as you follow a group of Hell’s Angels on the freeway.
-Your boss tells you not to bother to take off your coat.
-Your income tax check bounces.
-You both contact lenses in the same eye.
OK, so chances are none of those things is in your immediate future, but what about others, such as...
-You are 23, and despite a commitment to Christ, the earnest prayers of hundreds for your healing, and the love and support of a wonderful family, you succumb to cancer (Jonathon Pound—Sunday at 5:30 am)
-You remain unemployed after months, if not years, of seeking work
-Your home feels increasingly unsafe due to emotional or physical abuse
-Your childhood innocence was shattered by sexual abuse
-One of your parents abandoned you just when you needed them most
-You are drowning in debt and see no way of escape
-Your prayers for deliverance from addiction seem to go unanswered
-You are facing retirement with uncertainty and financial instability
Where is God then? Is He on a break? Does He still care? What about God’s promises, like the one we are singing in “The Lord Is My Light”? In the time of trouble…he will keep you safe. I don’t pretend to understand God in all of these circumstances, but he has clearly stated in His word that my ways are not His ways, my thoughts His thoughts (Isaiah 55:8,9). And He pointedly doesn’t just declare His thoughts and ways to be different…He says that they are HIGHER. They ultimately lift us up! That is encouraging!
As we are learning in Hebrews 11, faith is the conviction of things not seen. Not clear. It is not faith if God can be figured out using our mind and senses alone. It involves a trust leap. In Psalm 27, David reminds us of the need for tenacity in our faith.
My heart says of you, "Seek his face!" Your face, LORD, I will seek. Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me. I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.
I experienced this literally years ago when I left the Lutheran Church, in which I was confirmed, to go on staff at Willow Creek Community Church in northwest Chicago. My dad treated me as an infidel and a prodigal and did not speak to me for 6 months. I was devastated, but waited on the Lord to change him and restore our relationship. Eventually, God brought him to a place of wanting what God wanted for my life more than what he wanted. Before he died, we enjoyed a sweet reunion. Though this story had a happy ending, it did involve my trusting and obeying and leaving the rest to the sovereignty of God. Ultimately, where I want to live is not only trusting in the God of the Happy Endings. Rather, I want the assurance and conviction of the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk, who concluded:
Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights.
Indeed, his ways are higher than mine. For whatever I am facing right now, I can trust Him. After all, whom have I in heaven but Him? Choir, can I get an Amen?
-tad
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