Absolute Devastation. Absolute Hope

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We have been praying for a little girl at a neighboring church who finally lost her battle to leukemia this morning. She was surrounded by her loved ones, church family, and the hospital staff. The doctors had told her family multiple times that she only had a few weeks left. But this time, the doctors were right.

When she was taken to the hospital two weeks ago, her dad told her pastor that this was it. She wasn’t coming home.

This little girl had thousands of people praying for her. She had rallied so many times before.

I can’t imagine what this must feel like for her parents.

Absolute devastation.

The pain, sadness, grief, anger, relief, loss, frustration, helplessness…

Absolute devastation.

 

We have been praying for a little girl who was received into glory this morning. She was born as a twin, but her brother never made it. She was the only one that made it through the birthing process. This morning, she was able to reunite with her twin brother for the first time since the womb!

We had been praying that she experience an incredible reunion with her loved ones, but most of all, with her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. She loved Jesus, but most importantly Jesus loved her. She took such comfort and strength in knowing that her short life here on earth was not the end of her. That God created her for eternity, and because Jesus had died for her sins, she would live forever in glory.

I can’t even begin to imagine what that must have been like. The reunion with her twin brother. She is in the presence of Jesus! She is surrounded by all the saints who have gone before her. All she knows and experiences is glory. That’s her reality! Wow! She is with Jesus!!!

She had rallied multiple times before, but this time…this time she was ready to go home to her twin brother, to her Lord and Savior Jesus. She was ready. She was so ready to be done with physical pain and misery. She was so ready for glory.

Absolute hope.

The joy, elation, relief, exaltation, freedom, wholeness, peace…

Absolute hope.

In a world without Jesus, these are exclusive. Death is the ultimate absolute devastation because it’s the end. One can’t have hope and devastation at the same time. They are an oxymoron.

Not so with Jesus. Even with Jesus, death still sucks. Death still hurts. The pain and loss is still absolutely devastating. But because of Jesus, there is absolute hope.

Hope doesn’t negate nor cancel the devastation. It’s just that devastation can’t negate nor cancel hope. They are both there. Absolutely. Completely. Hope and Devastation.

But in time, hope overcomes the devastation. Hope sustains. Hope lifts. Hope abounds.

Absolute hope.

Lessons from the Abyss

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It’s not that Christians don’t have troubles. It’s just that troubles don’t trouble Christians. Not because troubles aren’t present, but because troubles cannot defeat God’s children.

Human beings – all people, white, brown, black, red, yellow, democrat, republican, gay, straight, Christian, non-Christian…all people – have trouble from time to time.

Back in seminary, Dr John Leith, used to say something like, “Until you’ve seen yourself and God from the bottom of the abyss, your faith will always remain shallow.”

I was in my early 20’s. Heck most of my classmates were in our early 20’s. None of us had a clue as to what the abyss was. But the way he said the “abysssssss” made it sound like I never wanted to be there even if it meant a deeper faith!

Fast forward three decades or so. I now know better what he was talking about. What I’ve discovered about the abyss – a place where there is no light, no hope, just darkness, a never-stopping pain, a suffocating shame, a place where one actually welcomes death to end the suffering – is that even there, you are not alone. God is there. God is present to lift you up out of the abyss, out of the darkness. God is there. There is never a there where God is not present.

“You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday” (Psalm 91:5-6).

It’s not that you will never have nights of sheer terror. It’s just that the night tormentors can no longer defeat you. This doesn’t mean terror doesn’t feel like terror, or that crappy situations don’t feel like crap. It just means nothing – not terror, not crappy situations, not death, nothing in the created universe – can ever defeat us. Because God is there.

There is never a there where God is not there.

Brutality of Godly Transformation

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You’ve heard dramatic stories of how they went from being a drag addict and a convict to where they are now clean and sober, those relationships that had been broken (parents, children, spouses) are mended, and how they are serving and making a difference all because of Jesus.

To be honest, these stories make me nervous.

First, they make me nervous because not everyone’s broken story has a happy ending like this. There are lots of people who live miserable lives and struggle with their addictions and brokenness throughout the rest of their lives even though they receive Jesus.

But the biggest reason why stories like this make me nervous is that they don’t describe the brutal journey of transformation.

Very rarely, will God zap someone so that they go from being an addict one moment to being completely clean the next moment with never another desire to be high.

Can God do that? Absolutely. Has God done that? People say so. But I’ve not seen it. People I work and live with struggle with addiction. Addiction ruins them. Even when they love Jesus, the addiction ruins them. And those who have beaten their addictions, they have scars all over their bodies and souls to prove how excruciating and difficult transformation is.

These stories of transformation make it seem like God did all the transforming, and people can’t help but wonder if there’s something wrong with them or wrong with God because God’s not transforming them in the same way.

Why isn’t God zapping me? Why do I still struggle?

Most of the time, transformation works as teamwork. God desires all to be transformed. And God gives us that possibility.

AND, there were and are mighty struggles where the recovering addict and criminal battles with all his might against his flesh that wants to get high. There were and will continue to be mighty battles against the flesh that wants to be destructive and violent. But because they battle to submit and obey the will of God instead of the will of the flesh, over time, over much battling, and over many scars they become the people God calls and created them to be. God eventually changes our character, our desires, our addictions. And, in time, we become who God created us to be.

But this was excruciatingly difficult.

And they are absolutely changed by the love of God. And they will be the first to tell you that without God they couldn’t have done it.

Yes, God did it. Yes, God changed them. But they worked their butts off so God could change them.

God didn’t zap them because God is rarely in the business of zapping.

Transformation is hard and brutal work.

But God absolutely changes people and changes our world.

And thank God for that!!!