Over the weekend, floodwaters filled the Murphy's home to a depth of several feet for the second time in less than a year! A team of men from the church went yesterday to help them start the clean-up. As we stepped through the front door, we stood surrounded by ruin. Imagine a home filled with 4-5 feet of muddy water which swirled and churned like the inside of a washing machine for 24-36 hours. Wooden furniture was warped and ruined. Carpets were squishy and muddy, refrigerator and freezer were overturned and full of filthy water. Every electrical device was destroyed and books soaked. All we could do was carry the stuff of their lives out for disposal in a dumpster!
Jamie, a young wife and Mom, called me later that evening to talk about her meeting with the medical doctor who had described her coming ordeal of chemotherapy treatment for her cancer - hair loss, nausea, weakness. Waves of anxiety were flooding through her mind, and understandably so! We talked and prayed together for about 30 minutes.
Earlier in the day I had spent some time talking with a wife whose husband has spent the last 2.5 years unable to speak or walk because of a stroke which turned him from a strong man into a completely dependent one literally overnight! He had another stroke 8 days ago, has not regained consciousness, and appears to be in the last days of his earthly life!
I could not help the sting of tears that overcame me for a few moments last night as I thought about these dear friends who were carrying such heavy burdens. "Oh, God," I groaned, "why must life be so hard for these who love You?" Some have looked at the kinds of circumstances that I describe (and worse, much worse!) only to conclude that either God does not exist or that He is not present or that He does not care! We are, these cynics insist, on our own on this small planet. We can only be brave as we do our best to cope with absurd and meaningless moments in this thing we call life. In that view of life there is no 'why' and to even ask the question is a fool's game.
I am not one of them! God exists, He is here, and He loves us! There is an answer for our 'why' though it sometimes hides in the folds of the blanket of eternity that wraps 'round us. The Bible says, "It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak... Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." (2 Corinthians 4:13, 16-18, NIV)
To attempt to tell the Murphy's that they should rejoice despite the fact that God allowed the floodwaters to devastate their home, to tell Jamie that the cancer that appeared in her body is useful in the purpose of God, or to insist that June be glad that she and her husband have had to walk such a difficult road for many days would be the height of arrogance and insensitivity. We must weep with those who weep, mourning their losses. And we must hold the line of faith for them while their grasp is weakened by hard times. We pray for healing and restoration, give ourselves to help, and love! When they waver or wobble, we embrace them. When they regain their footing we draw inspiration from their courage and their faith.
Together we trust God and we wait! ... and we wait, and wait some more until the revelation of His kingdom purposes. When reveals the meaning of life's suffering to us, it warms us like the bright light of the sun when it slides up and over the eastern horizon in the morning! God's declaration to us is that 'it means something.' I am holding tightly to His Word that "not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye..." The Message 2 Cor. 4:17
_________________________
If you've knelt beside the rubble
Of an aching broken heart.
When the things you gaveYour life to fell apart,
You're not the first to be acquainted
With sorrow grief or pain,
But the Master promised sunshine after rain.
Hold on my child,
Joy comes in the morning,
Weeping only lasts for the night.
Hold on my child,
Joy comes in the morning,
The darkest hour means
Dawn is just in sight.
To invest your seed of trust in God,
In mountains you can't move.
You have risked your life
On things you cannot prove.
But to give the things you cannot keep,
For what you can not lose,
Is the way to find
The joy God has for you.
© 1974 William J. Gaither, Inc. ARR UBP of Gaither Copyright Management
CCLI License No. 810055
No comments:
Post a Comment