There is an old song that says, "Under His wings, I am safely abiding, though the night deepens, and tempests are wild." It's a good thought, but is it true? Last month, I read Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking. In it she tells the horrific story of the grief she experienced when both her beloved husband and her daughter died quite unexpectedly. The title comes from her attempts to keep them "alive," by refusing to face the truth. In that she is not so uncommon. But it is the last line in the book that breaks my heart - "No eye is on the sparrow." She concludes that our attempts to make sense of life with faith, that believing in God's care, are just choices we make to avoid sliding into despair; nice, but untrue, mere magical thinking.
In one sense, Ms. Didion is right. Even some Christians indulge in magical thinking and call it- faith. If we think that God will give us a pass from the sorrows of life, that we will somehow miss the inevitable appointment with death, or that we will not experience the ravages of aging with the passing of time, we are deluded! The fact is that your body is not immortal nor invincible. It is being destroyed, day by day. Time is passing quickly, at least in the way we measure it here on this earth. (Aren't you happy you are reading this?) But what Ms. Didion does not grasp is that God is greater than our life experience and even time itself. Apparently she does not understand how genuine faith allows us to trust Him with the not-so-great developments as well as to thank Him for those days when all things are bright and beautiful.
Many Believers sing songs like the one quoted in the opening line of this thought and wrongly conclude that God will not let them be sad, grow old, experience disappointment, or go through temptation! He does not say we will waltz our way to Heaven! He says that we must go through the fiery trials for the maturing of our faith and He says that we will never walk alone! I am safely abiding, at rest, if I let God be God in my life, by surrendering my delusions of control. The book of Ecclesiastes reflects the disillusionment of the person who can only view life from this side of eternity! "For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered; in days to come both will be forgotten. Like the fool, the wise man too must die! So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 2:16-20, NIV)
True saints who are full of genuine faith reach out to take hold of the eternal rule of God and their lives become links that allow eternity to flow into time. Heaven in their hearts give life the meaning and purpose that the Bible promises. Such saints are at rest even in the middle of the storm. They are not angry at the Lord for permitting their pain. Instead they pray He will break their stubborn will and make them useful for His Kingdom, right here, right now. Such surrender does not lead to resignation or apathy! It empowers them to go bravely into each new day, defying death and Hell. They are, at once, angry enough to resist the Devil and his attempts to wreck the works of God, and joyful enough to avoid cynicism.
Take a look at Paul's affirmation of God's purpose, even as he was growing through a time of terrible difficulty as a result of his ministry. "All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.... We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead." (2 Corinthians 1:2-4, 8-9, NLT)
Those are words to live by! They are not 'magical thinking.' They are Truth that allows us to face days, good and bad, head on; take strength from the Lord Jesus Christ, and make a Kingdom difference. Let's stop asking God for easy, stop whining about how hard life is, and thank Him for giving us the privilege of making His glorious goodness known by putting "this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." (2 Corinthians 4:7, NIV)
No comments:
Post a Comment