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You are those who have stayed with me in my trials … -- Luke 22:28

Jesus commended His disciples who had made His trials, up to that point, their trials.  The Lord has made all of our trials His trials. 

We have a choice, and it is not whether or not we will experience suffering and temptation, fears and uncertainty in life.  We can choose our trials or His trials.  We can choose to go through life’s pain becoming embittered by its meaninglessness, randomness, and purposelessness. 

The other option is to go with God.  He will lead us into times, not of temptation, but of tempering.  The blade of the sword passes through fire, goes between hammer and anvil, is quenched in oil or water.  It is not destroyed but perfected.  It becomes sharp but not brittle, flexible yet unyielding. 

God created the cosmos, and He sustains it.  He can move heaven and earth, but He loves us and leaves us free to love Him.  Or to reject Him.  The will is ours.  Will we stay with Him through His trials?  Or will we pick up our sack of suffering, and, doubled over by the load, stumble off on our own? 

When I stand before the Lord, I think it would be good to hear Him say, “You stayed with Me.”  Sometimes it is hard.  We go through things that make us question our faith and doubt our worth and God’s goodness.  Yet these are His trials, and, as we go through them with Him, He also goes through them with us.  I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Going Long

But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap.  For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth.  But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man. – Luke 21:34-36

I am what is sometimes called a partial preterist with regard to much of Matthew 24, Luke 21 and similar passages.  The siege and destruction of Jerusalem and the temple and the expulsion of Jews and Jewish Christians from the region by Rome, along with other horrors that accompanied the prolonged conflict and judgment partially fulfilled the prophetic words of Jesus.  

In the verses above the Lord is warning both 1^st Century and 21^st Century hearers.  Those whose eyes would see the temple destroyed needed to heed His words as have many throughout the intervening years, and people for many years in the future should listen as well.  History is like a wild river, rapids and falls of turmoil and terror between rare and welcome pools of peace. 

The conflicts may not always devolve into open, armed battles.  Despite the fact that Americans have been mostly spared from wars on our own soil for the last hundred years, we have not been spared from violence.  Calamity may fall upon an individual just as it does upon a nation or a people. 

At 4:48pm on Tuesday, February 19, 2014, a ten-year-old girl named Hailey Owens was walking back home from a friend’s house.  She was grabbed off the street by an abductor who was captured by police less than four hours later. 

Too late.  Hailey, who looks a lot like one of my granddaughters, was dead. 

Neighbors witnessed the abduction, tried to intervene, and attempted to pursue the vehicle into which Hailey was dragged.  They weren’t able to stop what happened.  Craig Wood, a 45-year-old school employee, has been charged.  The details are too disheartening and gruesome for me to relate.  One of the local television stations has a page dedicated to the various elements of the story, including the community’s shock and heart-broken response. 

Tragedies can be big or small, major or minor, widespread or personal.  They are still tragedies, and, as Jesus said, they “will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth.”  No one escapes trials and troubles, pain and suffering.  The innocent suffer with the guilty.  No one ever said it was going to be fair. 

It is hard to imagine how a young child could somehow deserve inhuman torture and murder simply on the basis of being born a fallen creature.  Good or bad thought patterns seem hardly adequate.  We mostly have to believe that justice, retribution, and rewards transcend our visible, physical lives.  I am deadly serious when I say that nobody would want to live in a world where people like me start embracing nihilism. 

Jesus calls us to endurance, to live and to stand despite all the boiling wickedness of the world, all the irrational injustice and vicious persecution. By your endurance you will gain your lives (Luke 21:19). And I have my doubts that He is talking about your life here in the material world.  He speaks of persevering to gain eternal life, His kind of life – abundant and everlasting. 

The unfathomable part:  that life is available to both persecuted and persecutor, oppressed and oppressor, victim and victimizer.  There stands the strait gate and the path beyond, frightening in how little room it offers, what it demands we leave behind in order to pass through.  It’s time to choose. 

Here comes the Judge.

Passing Through the Valley of Baca

Blessed are those whose strength is in you,

in whose heart are the highways to Zion.   

As they go through the Valley of Baca

they make it a place of springs;

the early rain also covers it with pools.

-- Psalm 84:5-6

This has been a busy week.  I have to burn a bunch of vacation time before the end of the year.  I can only carry over forty hours.  It would have been hard to imagine on some jobs I have had that I would have trouble finding time to take time off.  I am working extra hours this week, trying to get everything done so I won’t have to work on my vacation days over Christmas.  It seems kind of stupid, but such is my world these days. 

As much, sometimes, as life may seem to be a drudge, it is a pilgrimage with a glorious terminus.  The way to that destination lies within each of us.  In John 14:5, Thomas asks, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”  Jesus insisted that they did indeed know the way – not only the Way, but the Truth and the Life as well (v. 6). 

The highway that leads to Zion is in our hearts, and though the path is close at hand, the journey is not an easy one for it passes through the Valley of Baca – the vale of tears.  Weeping comes with the territory, true enough; nevertheless, our tears do not fall in vain.  As they soak into the thirsty ground, they seek the like that lies below.  Where you have had to stop and sob, a spring bubbles forth.  The dry road you trod is, behind you, well-watered and lush. 

I think that family and friends can lead us by the known paths to a point.  There are plenty of waterholes until we get to where we must go on alone.  We may find the way on easier because we are sustained by springs where others have suffered.  Perhaps the same will be true of those who follow us. 

I Want to See the Manager

What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? -- Romans 8:31

Who, indeed? I have thought it was the devil, but the devil is merely a tool. He does nothing without God’s leave. He may be a mighty impressive creature, but he is a creature. He may be a roaring lion, but if the Lord says, “Scat”, the devil flees. James says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Such a thing could not be true of an omnipotent evil being.

“If God is for us” – but what if God is not for me? This is a question I have to settle. John’s first epistle tells us that God is love. The Gospel of John contains perhaps the best-known verse in the Bible which states that God loves the world so much that He gave His only and unique Son so that anyone who believes in Jesus might not perish but have everlasting life. David, in the other contender for best known passage, says, “The Lord is my Shepherd”. There should be no doubt that the Lord is for us in total and individually. This is the reason there is a Bible. A revelation is required for humanity to understand the Divine. Apart from revelation, we may get bits and pieces as mythologies show us, but we will also get a lot of things wrong. God reveals Himself to us so that we may know the truth of His love and care: Yahweh is for me.

The Lord is the Source, the Fountainhead of life. All things that come to me come by the hand of God. Normally we see intermediaries, agents, “second causes” for things that happen. If a cop pulls me over for speeding, I may blame the cop and the radar gun for my ticket. The officer is not acting as an independent agent. He has a system and laws behind him. We’ll ignore, for the moment, the fact that the cause of my ticket is my own heavy foot. A traffic cop is merely the agent of enforcement.

It’s the same when we have troubles and trials in life. If we focus on the immediate agent, we are only seeing the secondary cause. It is hard to accept some humiliating defeat from the hand of man. Fires, floods, and storms all seem unfair when they strike us or someone we love. Mechanical failures and glitches are frustrating. Diseases, physical handicaps and weaknesses may be hard for us to accept. As long as I am considering the second cause as the source, I am going to be unhappy and probably angry. I have trouble trusting God in my trial because I am not seeing it as ultimately from His hand. I may say, “Why did You let this happen?” What I may be thinking is that if God were really good and all-powerful, this wouldn’t have happened to me, or it wouldn’t have happened unless I “deserved it”. I wind up dealing with guilt – though I can’t see what I did wrong – or anger and frustration.

No, I need to forget the second cause. The virus, the cancer cell, the hurricane, the drunk driver, the Democrats, the economy, my wife, my neighbor, my kids – none of these are the Cause. I can surrender and fully accept what comes to me when I see that the Lord Himself has ordained and arranged it. My defeat is His will, and it will lead to my ultimate victory. I do not need to worry about revenge because vengeance belongs to the Lord; He will repay. All I need to do is accept the situation as being completely under God’s control. In weakness and loss, I can trust the Lord because these are according to His will. Whatever happens, whether I live or die, the Lord is for me and with me. I can trust Him.

Surrender is not passivity. I need to face my trials and troubles, fight through them and deal with them to the fullest extent possible. Nevertheless, I do all with the full assurance that the outcome is up to the Lord. I may witness a miracle or things may get much worse. Regardless, I still trust God because it is all from His hand. As the song says, God is good – all the time. God on the mountain is still God in the valley. Actually a miracle is guaranteed, even if it is only that I can still smile through tears. Surrender does not mean I won’t feel pain, or that I don’t need to grieve. Stoicism is not required. I will be much better able to deal with my emotions when I understand God’s place in my situation.

In a couple of weeks we will begin a new year, and it will be like no other for some of us. Some of us will see answers to prayers. Some will see troubles carry over from the past. Some will face unimagined challenges. Whatever comes, the Lord is in it. Look past the agents and focus on His hand. You will find that the all-powerful, the gentle hand of God holds your trial, and you are sheltered in His arms.

The Flesh is a Strange Armor

Then Saul had his own military clothes put on David. He put a bronze helmet on David’s head and had him put on armor. David strapped his sword over the military clothes and tried to walk but he was not used to them. “I can’t walk in these,” David said to Saul. “I’m not used to them.” So David took them off. Instead, he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the wadi and put them in his pouch, in his shepherd’s bag. Then, with his sling in his hand, he approached the Philistine. -- 1 Samuel 17:38-40

Leading up to this point, the Israelite king Saul had disobeyed God and been rejected. The Lord had sent the prophet Samuel to anoint a successor and He had selected the youngest son of Jesse of Bethlehem, David. As it typically fell to the youngest son to look after a family’s flock of sheep, David was the shepherd. Generally it was not too demanding an occupation but there were many predators in those days and so the shepherd had to defend his flock. The shepherd’s staff was not only helpful in herding, it served as a weapon as well. In addition to his staff, however, David had perfected his prowess with the sling.

Saul’s army was camped on one side of a wadi and the Philistine army was on the other side. The Philistines had a champion, Goliath, who was somewhere around nine feet tall and made quite an impression. He came daily and challenged the Israelites to send someone out for single combat against him. No one was willing to go. It is worth noting that Saul himself was the tallest man in Israel yet chose not to meet the giant on the battlefield.

David is sent up to the encampment by his father with food for his older brothers and the leader of their regiment. While there he witnesses the Philistine’s challenge and asks why somebody doesn’t go out and kill the big guy. He keeps asking questions and irritating those around him until he is finally taken to see Saul. When Saul has doubts about David’s fitness to take on the giant, David assures him that he has killed both lions and bears in defense of his flock – not, by the way, with his sling. “If it reared up against me, I would grab it by its fur, strike it down and kill it.” (1 Samuel 17:35). Saul finally agrees to allow David to take up the challenge and even offers the youth his own armor and equipment.

David goes along with trying on the king’s outfit but finds it strange. In some translations he says, “I haven’t proven them.” He had proven the sling and the staff. He had confidence in his own tools and equipment but not in the strange armor of Saul. Moreover David’s trust and confidence were not, ultimately, in his weaponry but in his God. It was God, he said, that delivered him from the lion and the bear.

When I face a challenge it is tempting to say that I’m not really up to it; it is beyond me. I look at my meager abilities and think they are insufficient. David had to face an armored giant with spear and sword. David had a stick and a handful of rocks.

I need to remind myself, and sometimes those around me, that I have faced difficult situations before this. David rehearsed his victories over dangerous predators. He knew that he had gotten through those trials, and he had learned that God was with him.

Smaller trials and tests ready us for bigger trials and tests. They give us confidence. Lao-tzu speaks of the fighting rooster that does not even look at his opponent. That is the champion, so supremely confident that nothing can break his calm. So, too, David paid no attention to the giant; he did not dwell on his size, his strength, or his skills. He kept his attention on God.

Rather than look at the giant and what it against me, I will look to God. Instead of being worried about what I am lacking, I will remind myself that those who trust in the Lord lack nothing they need. What God has given me, I will use. I will not be seduced by the world’s strange armor. I have no need of it and it is unproven. I will carry into this battle what I know is mine and I will go in the power of God.

Finally, David did pick up fresh ammunition. He chose five smooth stones from the bottom of that dry gulch. He placed them in his shepherd’s bag, all five apparently. When he approached the giant, he put his hand in the bag and drew out one to load his sling. It is a little like the priest drawing the sacred lots, the Urim and Thummim, to determine God’s will.

We make our best preparations based on our experience. The Lord expects us to do that. But in the end we allow the Lord to choose the stone that will fly perfectly true.

A Garment of Light Woven in Darkness

He had sent a man ahead of them -- Joseph, who was sold as a slave. They hurt his feet with shackles; his neck was put in an iron collar. Until the time his prediction came true, the word of the Lord tested him. -- Psalm 105:17-19

Joseph was the favorite son of Jacob. He was also the chosen of God -- in many ways a type of Christ -- who was to provide the means for establishing Israel as a nation under the protection of the world power, Egypt. Joseph was his father's favorite by birth -- the eldest son of his beloved wife Rachel. Beyond that, Joseph was gifted with prophetic understanding and wisdom, a genius of sorts. Having to deal with him as the father's favored would have been bad enough for his brothers, but his gifts made him even more insufferable. The air of confidence, the sense of knowing, it would have come across as arrogance even if it wasn't -- and Joseph was only human. After all Joseph had a vision of God's plan: his brothers would bow down to him. He would rule over them.

Then the word of the Lord began to test him. Joseph had to learn that the ways of God sometimes pass through darkness and through pathways hidden to the sight of man.

Abused by his brothers, sold into slavery in Egypt, Joseph did not lose faith. He made the best of it and did well. But the path led further down, as he was falsely accused and wrongly imprisoned. The word still tested him. What was in him? Even in the dungeons, his wisdom and integrity puts him in a place of trust and leadership. It doesn't seem like exactly what he had in mind, to be number one -- at the prison. Yet Joseph still shows no sign of bitterness, resentment, or any lack of forgiveness. He clings to God as that exalted vision tries him to the utmost.

When, at last, his gifts seem to give him an opportunity for a glimmer of hope, nothing comes of it. He continues to languish for two full years.

Then "the time" came. His prediction came true. God lifts Joseph. The path emerges into bright light and full view. Joseph is "suddenly" prime minister of the richest, most powerful nation on earth. His wisdom delivers not only the Egyptians, but his own family. Through Joseph, Israel and his descendents find favor in the court of Pharaoh. To his fearful brothers Joseph says, "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good."

I see that I do not measure up to this attitude. Too often I hold onto things that should be released. I doubt God in the midst of trials and become depressed and hopeless, yes, even bitter. A brief trial is one thing, but something that drags on and on for years, how can that be God?

I need to remember that darkness is the time of rest. Rather than fretting and worrying in a trial, that is the time to take it as it comes and trust in God. If the path leads down – well, going downhill has advantages. As Jake Hess used to say, “Things will get better, get worse, or stay about the same.” When the night comes and no man can work, I will rest in the Lord. God means it for good.

Suffering, loss, and pain are not good things. Betrayal is not a good thing, yet the betrayal of a Judas brings salvation. God means it for good.

The shadowed path down, the road of testing and trial leads to the light. The word of the Lord will try me as He weaves my way in the dark, as He leads me to the light. God means it for good.