Most people conceive of God as a miraculous problem solver. Believers have faith he will solve their problems as they come, unbelievers don't believe such a wondrous person exists since there are so many problems in the world.
In Scripture we do see God miraculously solving problems. We also see God leading people into problems, and using problems to refine them. God can suddenly lift a problem out of my life, but also (and I think this is more common) he gives me the courage and hope to carry on in the face of the problem.
How can we better celebrate God the giver of peace in the midst of problems?
Thorns: faith in really trying circumstances
I've just watched the video of Steve Saint talking about having hope in his recent paralysis.
He recited a poem called "Thorn" by Martha Snell Nicholson who apparently lived for years with four different chronic diseases, but kept hope in God.
That reminded me of another video by Jennifer Bute who has Alzheimers and considers it a gift of God. I have a hard time imagining finding contentment while losing your memory, but she shows it's possible.
This makes me think I've only begun to scratch the surface in learning to find joy and contentment in God in difficult circumstances. But I suppose I should find hope in that. Life isn't always pleasant, but I can find joy. Life could get a lot worse, but I could still find joy. May I remember that.
Jennifer Bute Introductory video, Website
The Thorn poem
Steve Saint's recent testimony
He recited a poem called "Thorn" by Martha Snell Nicholson who apparently lived for years with four different chronic diseases, but kept hope in God.
That reminded me of another video by Jennifer Bute who has Alzheimers and considers it a gift of God. I have a hard time imagining finding contentment while losing your memory, but she shows it's possible.
This makes me think I've only begun to scratch the surface in learning to find joy and contentment in God in difficult circumstances. But I suppose I should find hope in that. Life isn't always pleasant, but I can find joy. Life could get a lot worse, but I could still find joy. May I remember that.
Jennifer Bute Introductory video, Website
The Thorn poem
Steve Saint's recent testimony
The dangers of a single story
Video: The danger of a single story
We watched this video presentation a couple of days ago at work. Chimamanda Adichie, a Nigerian novelist, tells how the first books she loved to read were about British schoolchildren with blue eyes playing in the snow and enjoying ginger beer, and then tells how when she went to the US to study, her roommate assumed she wouldn't know how to use a stove because all she'd heard about Africa was the story of famine and poverty. She says just knowing one single story about another country or another people is a great weakness.
I wonder if in church we aren't guilty of presenting a single story. The story that we've all arrived, we're all OK now. The story that God has solved all our major problems because we're mature Christians.
But Scripture celebrates people who reached the end of their lives believing God would do something, but hadn't yet seen it:
So let's present all the stories God tells in our lives. The stories that even now we may struggle, wonder what God is doing, but don't go away because there is nowhere else to go. The stories how we have not arrived yet, but we're still traveling in hope, trusting that God will do great things even when we don't know when he'll do them.
We watched this video presentation a couple of days ago at work. Chimamanda Adichie, a Nigerian novelist, tells how the first books she loved to read were about British schoolchildren with blue eyes playing in the snow and enjoying ginger beer, and then tells how when she went to the US to study, her roommate assumed she wouldn't know how to use a stove because all she'd heard about Africa was the story of famine and poverty. She says just knowing one single story about another country or another people is a great weakness.
I wonder if in church we aren't guilty of presenting a single story. The story that we've all arrived, we're all OK now. The story that God has solved all our major problems because we're mature Christians.
But Scripture celebrates people who reached the end of their lives believing God would do something, but hadn't yet seen it:
Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.
These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, Hebrews 11:36-39Scripture tells the story of Peter, who one terrible day asserts that he'd never known Jesus, but then Jesus forgives him, not just forgives him but restores him to leadership. Or the story of John, who before writing inspiring verses that God is love, wanted to call down fire from heaven on people who didn't want to listen. Luke 9:54.
So let's present all the stories God tells in our lives. The stories that even now we may struggle, wonder what God is doing, but don't go away because there is nowhere else to go. The stories how we have not arrived yet, but we're still traveling in hope, trusting that God will do great things even when we don't know when he'll do them.
Gospel conflict
Some thoughts about conflict in light of the Gospel:
The world seeks status and power. “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them." (Luke 22:24).
How people lord it over others:
Compel: force others to do your will
Silence: forbid others to speak.
Expel: drive opponents out of the organization, out of the country
Shame: who are you to question? All of us, all right thinking X people agree”
Maneuver: steal the election, time the vote, be the last one to edit the document, see the boss, or be the first one to see the boss.
The powerless also have fleshly reactions to their leaders. These consist of:
Bitterness, scorn or sarcasm
Ignoring directives, avoiding contact
Passive-aggressive sabotage: deliberately implementing something in a way you know won't work, while saying it was what you were asked to do.
We are not to use the weapons of the world: (2 Cor 10:4)
- “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you.” Matthew 18:5
- if you are offering your gift at the altar and remember that your brother has something against you, … go and be reconciled to your brother Matthew 5:23
The Gospel method: go, in humility listen to your brother, and in humility and gentleness explain.
Ephesians 4:1,2
… “I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”
Be ready to forgive. “Forgive your brother seventy times seven times”.
Why listen and explain?
- If you are right, you might persuade your brother. Chances are he won’t be persuaded if he is compelled, silenced, shamed or maneuvered. If you expel him, are you sure God did not call him to this task as well as you?
- If you are wrong: a private conversation is the least stressful way to find this out.
Remember, God calls fallible people to fulfill his purposes. That’s why you are involved. We are to have confidence not in who we are but in who we are in Christ. Who Christ can make us to be. Have confidence also in who your brother and sister are in Christ.
Do not compel, silence, expel, shame or maneuver within the body. Listen and explain. Pray for one another.
Two Scriptural examples:
Jethro visits Moses (Exodus 18)” He says to Moses “What you are doing is not good” (17) “Appoint men to be judges, they can solve the simple cases (v 21)”
How Moses did not react:
- Were you there when God spoke to me in the burning bush?
- Were you there when I threw down my staff and it became a snake?
- Were you there when God divided the sea?
How dare you tell ME what I’m doing is not good!
No, Moses listened and in humility adopted Jethro’s advice.
The Twelve heed a complaint (Acts 6:1-7) “the Grecian Jews complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the distribution of food”
How the Twelve did not react: “We’ve been with Jesus since the beginning. Who are you to question US?”
They said “Maybe they have a point. Besides, distributing food isn’t what we should focus on. Let’s get help.” And they appointed SEVEN GREEKS to distribute the food. They were willing to trust the frustrated minority with the task.
Do not compel, silence, expel, shame or maneuver within the body. Do not shun, write off or ignore. Listen and explain. Pray for one another. In all humility and gentleness be patient and bear with one another. Believe that the God who called you to this task also called your brother and sisters. It may be obvious to you how unqualified they are. But God has called unqualified people before and enabled them to do his work. Its actually one of his specialties.
Forgiveness stories -- Corrie Ten Boom
A very dramatic forgiveness story from Corrie Ten Boom's book The Hiding Place. She was a Dutch woman who was arrested by the Nazis during World War II for hiding Jews. She and her sister were in a concentration camp together, her sister died and then she was released. Two years after the war she is touring Germany speaking on how God forgives. One day she meets one of her guards from the concentration camp.
I appreciate her conclusion:He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. “How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein.” he said. “To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!”His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often to the people in Bloemendaal the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him.I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness.As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.
And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.
Forgiveness stories -- Robert E. Lee
One of my personal heroes of the Civil War is Robert E. Lee. Not because of what he did during the war, but for what he did afterwards. After surrendering to Grant, he wondered what to do with the rest of his life, and actively discouraged people from attempting to continue the struggle for southern independence as guerrillas in the wilderness. A former governor of Virginia was angry with his son when his son took the oath of loyalty to the United States, but when the son replied that General Lee recommended it, the father withdrew his objection.
Lee was offered the job of president of Washington college (currently named Washington and Lee University) in Virginia. After Ulysses Grant was elected President, one of the students made some public remarks insulting Grant. Lee summoned the student to his office and said if he didn't withdraw his comments about the President of the United States, "either you or I will leave this university." I can easily imagine a different speech. "You think you have a problem with Ulysses Grant? I had to surrender to him!"
Even during the war Lee showed signs of a forgiving spirit. At the end of the battle of Gettysburg, a wounded Union soldier saw Lee riding nearby, and shouted (to taunt Lee) "Long live the Union!" Lee got off his horse, went to the man and wished him a full recovery from his wounds. The man wrote that the compassion in Lee's eyes made quite an impression on him.
Perhaps the most dramatic story of Lee's forgiving spirit is a story we aren't quite sure really happened, or if it happened, how to interpret it. The story is that in 1865, between the time of his surrender to Grant and his taking the job at Washington College, he was in church one Sunday. The congregation was shocked when a black man came forward to take communion at the end of the service. Blacks were expected to take communion in the balcony, not at the front altar. The minister hesitated, Lee went forward, and the congregation were relieved, thinking he'd put this black in his place. But instead Lee knelt beside the black man, and the minister was obliged to continue serving communion, accepting the black man's presence at the main altar.
This story is it is missing from the four volume biography of Lee written by Douglas Southall Freeman, a famous Virginian historian. It is also missing from Robert E. Lee Jr's memoir of his father's life. The oldest source for it was written in the early 1900's, 40 years after it happened. In that version, Lee's action wasn't interpreted as welcoming the black man to the front altar, it was depicted as a superior white gentleman ignoring and shunning the black man who didn't know his place.
Lee was offered the job of president of Washington college (currently named Washington and Lee University) in Virginia. After Ulysses Grant was elected President, one of the students made some public remarks insulting Grant. Lee summoned the student to his office and said if he didn't withdraw his comments about the President of the United States, "either you or I will leave this university." I can easily imagine a different speech. "You think you have a problem with Ulysses Grant? I had to surrender to him!"
Even during the war Lee showed signs of a forgiving spirit. At the end of the battle of Gettysburg, a wounded Union soldier saw Lee riding nearby, and shouted (to taunt Lee) "Long live the Union!" Lee got off his horse, went to the man and wished him a full recovery from his wounds. The man wrote that the compassion in Lee's eyes made quite an impression on him.
Perhaps the most dramatic story of Lee's forgiving spirit is a story we aren't quite sure really happened, or if it happened, how to interpret it. The story is that in 1865, between the time of his surrender to Grant and his taking the job at Washington College, he was in church one Sunday. The congregation was shocked when a black man came forward to take communion at the end of the service. Blacks were expected to take communion in the balcony, not at the front altar. The minister hesitated, Lee went forward, and the congregation were relieved, thinking he'd put this black in his place. But instead Lee knelt beside the black man, and the minister was obliged to continue serving communion, accepting the black man's presence at the main altar.
This story is it is missing from the four volume biography of Lee written by Douglas Southall Freeman, a famous Virginian historian. It is also missing from Robert E. Lee Jr's memoir of his father's life. The oldest source for it was written in the early 1900's, 40 years after it happened. In that version, Lee's action wasn't interpreted as welcoming the black man to the front altar, it was depicted as a superior white gentleman ignoring and shunning the black man who didn't know his place.
Forgiveness stories
I have a warm spot in my heart for stories of people who forgave others. Here are three that impress me.
Peggy Covell
In the 1930s an American missionary family working in Japan decided to move to the Philippines because Japan felt dangerous for westerners. Their daughter Peggy moved back to the US for college, then World War II broke out and Japan invaded the Philippines. The Covells withdrew into the interior but the Japanese found them almost two years later, and executed them as suspected American spies. Peggy heard the news and struggled with bitterness, but realized her mom and dad in their last hours probably prayed to forgive their executioners. How could she do any less?
She volunteered at a prison camp for Japanese prisoners, befriended the prisoners and did many kindnesses for them. When they asked why she was kind to them, she told how her parents had been killed and she wanted to show love, not seek revenge.
Jacob DeShazer
Jacob DeShazer was in the US Army Air Corps and volunteered for the Doolittle raid on Tokyo in 1942. His plane crash landed in Japan and he was captured. His anger against the Japanese grew during his time in prison, until he was given a Bible, read it, and gave his life to Christ. He promised God he'd come back to Japan as a missionary after the war if he survived. In 1949 he was back in Japan distributing tracts about how he'd learned to forgive during the war.
Mitsuo Fuchida
The Japanese naval pilot who led the attack on Pearl Harbor lived through the war, then wondered what to do with the rest of his life. A friend of his had been prisoner in the US and known Peggy Covell, and in 1948 he saw DeShazer's pamphlet about forgiving his captors. He began to read the Bible, and saw Jesus' words "Father, forgive them, they don't know what they do" as the inspiration that had moved both Covell and DeShazer. He became a Christian, served as an evangelist, and became good friends with DeShazer.
Read more:
Peggy Covell: http://www.potsdam-naz.org/sermons/covell.htm
Jacob DeShazer: http://jacobdeshazer.com/
Mitsuo Fuchida: http://www.biblebelievers.com/fuchida1.html
Peggy Covell
In the 1930s an American missionary family working in Japan decided to move to the Philippines because Japan felt dangerous for westerners. Their daughter Peggy moved back to the US for college, then World War II broke out and Japan invaded the Philippines. The Covells withdrew into the interior but the Japanese found them almost two years later, and executed them as suspected American spies. Peggy heard the news and struggled with bitterness, but realized her mom and dad in their last hours probably prayed to forgive their executioners. How could she do any less?
She volunteered at a prison camp for Japanese prisoners, befriended the prisoners and did many kindnesses for them. When they asked why she was kind to them, she told how her parents had been killed and she wanted to show love, not seek revenge.
Jacob DeShazer
Jacob DeShazer was in the US Army Air Corps and volunteered for the Doolittle raid on Tokyo in 1942. His plane crash landed in Japan and he was captured. His anger against the Japanese grew during his time in prison, until he was given a Bible, read it, and gave his life to Christ. He promised God he'd come back to Japan as a missionary after the war if he survived. In 1949 he was back in Japan distributing tracts about how he'd learned to forgive during the war.
Mitsuo Fuchida
The Japanese naval pilot who led the attack on Pearl Harbor lived through the war, then wondered what to do with the rest of his life. A friend of his had been prisoner in the US and known Peggy Covell, and in 1948 he saw DeShazer's pamphlet about forgiving his captors. He began to read the Bible, and saw Jesus' words "Father, forgive them, they don't know what they do" as the inspiration that had moved both Covell and DeShazer. He became a Christian, served as an evangelist, and became good friends with DeShazer.
Read more:
Peggy Covell: http://www.potsdam-naz.org/sermons/covell.htm
Jacob DeShazer: http://jacobdeshazer.com/
Mitsuo Fuchida: http://www.biblebelievers.com/fuchida1.html
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)