But, are you ready for the chaos?

But, are you ready for the chaos?

She came to faith in Christ from a life that many would envy;  a tenured professor, owning two homes, respected by her peers, doing good work in her  community. But, as a lesbian professor who dealt with Christians who superficially used Scripture and bashed others thoughtlessly, she came to despise Christians. She says, “The word Jesus stuck in my throat… those who professed His name commanded my pity and my wrath. …  Stupid. Pointless. Menacing. That’s what I thought of Christians and their god, Jesus.”  Rosaria Champagne Butterfield (CT, 2/2013)   Then God moved into her life, creating chaos and desperation from which grew a living faith in the loving Lord!  She writes, “Conversion put me in a complicated and comprehensive chaos. I sometimes wonder, when I hear other Christians pray for the salvation of the “lost,” if they realize that this comprehensive chaos is the desired end of such prayers.”  Today, she is a deeply devout Christian, a pastor’s wife, and the author of The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert.

Do you have friends and family members that do not know Christ? 
Are you praying for their salvation? 

The most likely way that they will become aware of the One who offers living Water is to become terribly thirsty. That thirst often develops only when the comforts of this present life are stripped away!  I wonder if we actually hinder the process of God’s calling when we pray so hard for smooth paths and untroubled days? Better that we should pray for the Spirit to break through the darkness with His blazing splendor, so that the “things of earth grow strangely dim in the Light of His glory and grace.”  it may be that you’re reading those lines and thinking that I am heartless. No, I take no joy in the troubles of life, my own or those of others. I am neither a sadist nor a masochist! But, I am a realist and know that most of us will take what comfort we can find from food, sex, or pleasure.  If there is no crisis, we will drift further away from God each day, content with our creature comforts, unwilling to ask the harder questions of ourselves about the meaning of our lives.  We are unlikely to look for God or His Heaven as long as we think we have a little ‘heaven on earth’ for ourselves.

I hasten to add, please do not tell your suffering friend, “God sent these circumstances your way so you would turn your heart toward Him!”  That is not wise. Better to be prepared with bandages and  listening ear, with compassion and intense prayer for them behind the scenes. Our prayers are for the Spirit to give insight, to bring faith, to draw that person to the arms of their loving Father.  Even then, we must not imply that if our friend ‘gets right with God,’ all the problems of his life will somehow disappear into thin air! This is the great lie that causes so many of us to doubt God.

Rosaria Butterfield’s phrase, “Conversion put me in a complicated and comprehensive chaos,” is so very true. When she acknowledged Christ as Lord, He turned her life upside down.  She is learning a whole new way to live, her old career, loves, and life gone. Our evangelistic fervor sometimes leads us to tell others that the peace and assurance that is truly found in Christ also means that life will be comfortable and that is most generally an untruth. Disciples swim against the current of their world. They choose to serve. They challenge the call of Self and choose to die with Christ. That is not, by any stretch of imagination, an easy life.

Here are words from the Word. Mediate on them.  May they lead us to drink deeply from wells that can actually quench the thirst within us. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled. " (Matthew 5:6, NKJV)  "Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:14, NKJV)

____________

Satisfied

All my lifelong I had panted

For a draught from some cool spring,

That I hoped would quench the burning

Of the thirst I felt within.

Poor I was and sought for riches,

Something that would satisfy,

But the dust I gathered 'round me

Only mocked my soul's sad cry.

Well of water ever springing,

Bread of life so rich and free,

Untold wealth that never faileth,

My Redeemer is to me.

Hallelujah, I have found Him

Whom my soul so long has craved!

Jesus satisfies my longings,

Thro' His blood I now am saved!

Clara Tear Williams | Ralph E. Hudson

Public Domain