Category Archives: God’s plans for us

In the Face of Suffering

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Most of today’s news reports included breaking details of the Boston bombings. One interview I heard featured a psychologist named Jeff Greenberg whose specialty is studying people who’ve been forced (by events) to face their own mortality. It might be a terminal disease or something like the 9/11 attacks… or the bombs at Monday’s Boston Marathon.

This morning he said, “When these things happen, it reminds you of the fragility of life, and that death is something that can happen very suddenly and unexpectedly.”

Boston Marathon bomb

He detailed specific, predictable thought patterns people have as they try to cope with what just happened. One of the first things everybody thinks is, “How vulnerable am I?” This goes for those in the Boston area as well as the rest of us who’ve been following them on national news.

Immediately after the question about vulnerability, Mr. Greenberg says we move into firm mental denial: “Most likely I’m safe.”

We might begin blanketing our heightened concerns with a new level of attempted control: locking our doors more carefully, driving with greater care, avoiding crowds, gathering supplies for emergencies. By putting safety measures in place, we’re trying to make sure nothing unexpected gets to us. We think, “Because I’m proactive, I’ll always be safe.”

In the light of day and with intelligent thought, however, we know this isn’t true. None of us are immune to adversity.

This morning I also heard the story of two brothers and their friend, a trio of pals waiting together near the marathon finish line. After the explosions, the brothers had each lost one leg, and their friend had lost both. Their anguish must have been crushing, and the agonies ahead for all three of them can’t even be estimated.

Yet as the newscaster reported, once these young men were in the hospital, they were far more concerned about the welfare of each other than themselves. During the weeks and months to come, they’ll be cheering each other on while trying to share the burdens of their buddies, rejoicing together at every recovery milestone. Their futures will be different from their pasts, but the prognosis for all three is bright, partly because they have each other.

God wants to partner that same way with every person injured during the bombings. He offers himself as encourager, sustainer, leader, and friend. His desire is to “stick closer than a brother.” (Proverbs 18:24) Not one of those injured on Monday needs to suffer through recovery alone after an offer like that.

Honoring the victimsJeff Greenberg described how people become newly sensitive to their belief systems whenever they “look death in the face.” Monday’s bombings are another reminder, he says, that death is coming, and there’s no way around it.

Because of that, isn’t this the perfect time to say yes to God?

“After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.” (1 Peter 5:10)

Gettin’ Old

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Recently I bumped into some friends Nate and I had known in our early days of marriage. They were older than us by about a decade, and we always admired them greatly.

Handshake

I could tell the husband didn’t recognize me, so I said, “It’s Margaret Nyman,” as I shook his hand and smiled.

But nothing.

“From Moody Church?” I added. But he needed more.

“You sent an encouraging letter to me after Nate died.”

And finally it clicked.

“Oh yes! Margaret!” he said, folding me into a hug.

But what he said next was a bit unsettling, though spoken without the slightest tinge of malice. Studying my face he said, “Oh my! It has been a long time since I’ve seen you!”

Not sure how to respond, I just chuckled and turned to greet his wife.

Sometimes the truth arrives as a smack, and I thought about this man’s comment for quite a while. But he was only saying out loud what I’d seen in my mirror every day.

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Doris D.My sister Mary and I have always been fans of Doris Day, an actress who played the wholesome girl-next-door in movies of the ‘50’s and 60’s. We loved her sugar-sweet romantic comedies and were captivated recently when a special-edition magazine about her life hit newsstands.

When we paged to current-day pictures of this once-adorable woman, however, we gasped, responding much like my friend did to me: “Oh my! What happened to her?”

Mary recovered first, and in a quiet voice said, “It comes to all of us.” And that’s the truth of our steadily declining physical selves.

Doris1.jpg

A popular belief these days is that the Baby Boomer generation, approximately 76-million strong, won’t age. Although this group “got wild” in their teens and twenties, eventually they brought national attention to health food and were responsible for starting the running craze.

They shun retirement and retirement homes, and news commentators have noted Boomers are in a state of denial about their own aging and death, preferring instead to “think about it later.” But deep down, they know it’ll come.

It’s not that each of us didn’t have a grand beginning. What could be more remarkable than God “knitting us together in our mothers’ wombs”? (Psalm 139) If we stockpile enough years, though, Mary’s statement becomes everybody’s bottom line: “It comes to all of us.”

But there is an up-side. Spurgeon says it well: “Our bodies humble us, and that is about the best thing they do for us.” Since God values humility, maybe that’s the whole reason he designed the aging process as he did.

So, no matter how many old friends don’t recognize us through our wrinkles, we mustn’t despair. For now, it’s a healthy humbling, and some day? It’s all going to come to a delightful conclusion:

“The Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will [when he returns] transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” (Philippians 3:20-21)

Dream a Little Dream

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Some of us have had our dreams come true, and many have had dreams that haven’t. A few of those unrealized dreams have been secrets, hopes we quietly nurtured without telling anyone. When it became clear those dreams had died, we suffered in silence, since no one knew.

Other dashed dreams are shared with others because they can’t be hidden: a pink slip at work, an abandoned home, a soldier without a limb, a divorced couple. Yet nothing discourages us from dreaming.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell if our dreams are coming or going. Maybe they’re doing both. As Pastor Colin Smith says, “The home where you live is yours for a time. The work that you do is yours for a time. The people you love are yours for a time. One day, your home will be lived in by others. One day, your work will be continued by others. One day, your money will belong to others.”

Dreams.

Even in our dreaming we need to remember that old adage, “The only constant is change.” Nurturing dreams is probably a good thing, though, as long as we keep them in a proper perspective. Do we absolutely have to have a dream fulfilled before we can be happy? Or do we hold it lightly and tell the Lord, “It’s really up to you.” And then, after a dream comes true but eventually goes through a change, do we erupt in anger?

Some of us have dreamed of future scenarios that, had we been given them, might have been our undoing. Looking backwards, we see that and are thankful God prevented them from coming true.

So how are we to dream with wisdom? I think the only sure-fire way is to do it through questions. Questions addressed to God:

“My heart desires such-and-such, Lord, but is this something you want for me?” Or, “All I can think about is x-y-z, but if you want me to fill my mind with something other than that, would you please let me know what it is?” Or, “I’ve earmarked my bank account for this-or-that, but did you have a different idea for that money?”

I believe God is honored when we ask him questions, as long as we open our “ears to hear” his responses and then heed them. I also believe he will definitely respond, which is where dreaming-wisdom comes in. If one of our dreams is realized because God is behind it, we can be sure it’ll be every bit as satisfying as we’d hoped. But if it’s something we want that he doesn’t think is good for us, we can be sure the uphill battle we fight to make it happen won’t deliver the pleasure-pay-off we thought it would.

“God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.” (Ephesians 3:20, The Message)