Tag Archives: providence

Suffering and Sovereignty: a Follow-up

My last post may have caused some confusion regarding the timeliness of teaching some truths. Suffice to say, all theology that helps us understand God biblically (in this case, his sovereignty), may help us through hard times when we know it going in, but may prove an untimely truth, misunderstood when first received in certain situations.

Likewise, sin’s role in suffering proceeds from Eden, and may have only secondary (or further removed) causality in our suffering. In John 9:2-3 the disciples inquired whether a man was blind for his sin or for his parents’. Jesus replied, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” Sin wasn’t causative, but had the fall not happened, blindness wouldn’t be an issue. When sin’s role is more apparent in suffering, a comforter should tread carefully.

Pondering suffering and sovereignty in my own life, I find this helpful: Consider the child who cuts her foot on a rusty nail. Already suffering a cut, her parents take her to the doctor, who’ll add stitches and shots to her misery. From the child’s perspective, subjecting her to more pain seems cruel and uncaring. From the parent’s perspective, it’s love for the child and purposeful for her long-term good.

Similarly, when sin is at issue (in the following illustration, disobedience), consider finding your child playing in the road against your strongest commands. Depending on traffic, you might rush to grab him by the arm, yanking him to safety before giving them a good swat on the bottom. So, in this case, you clearly haven’t been able to make him understand actual danger (traffic), so you give him a memorable, alternate incentive (punishment) to obey you in an effort to keep him from true harm.

These parents understand this suffering, but look past it for the child’s welfare.

On the “why” of evil and suffering, consider this small child, yourself and an infinite, omniscient, omnipotent, creator God. Where do you suppose is the larger gap in understanding? Between you and the child, who we’ve already determined is unable to grasp parental wisdom, or between you and God? Clearly, if we have wisdom over and purpose in some instances of a child’s suffering, God has greater wisdom and purpose in our own.

Both of these illustrations convey to me that God has purposes in whatever befalls us. For the believer it’s correction, preparatory training, reparatory work, or some combination of all of these – done in love. Unlike some Christian pundits, I’m not to venture God’s specific purpose for believers or others, in any evil and suffering large or small. Further, since I’m not the center of the universe, my own suffering may simply play into (and most certainly does) a complexity of interrelated stories concerning those around me. May my witness reflect his perfect purpose over my present pain.

In 2 Corinthians 4:8-12, Paul poetically enumerates his great suffering for Christ, before finishing (17-18): “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

God opposes evil (Habakkuk 1:13), but has power over it and purpose in it we cannot see. In fact, he uses it and suffering for our collective, eventual good (Romans 8:28). If a sparrow’s demise doesn’t escape him (Matthew 10:29), how close he must hold the suffering!

On Sin and Sorrow: Suffering and God’s Sovereignty

Whether the logical outcome of our own buffoonery, the carelessness or cruelty of others, or as rain from the clear blue, suffering in this life is a fixed certainty (John 16:33). Degree varies for “fairness,” as we understand it, isn’t in play. If you’re reading this, unless you are currently on fire (or suffering thusly), you likely wouldn’t agree to randomly switch places with one of the other seven billion people on the planet. Yes, those in the West enjoy some ease, but suffering is inescapable, whether peculiar to station (Matthew 19:16-22) or common to man (Luke 8:41-42). Life can hurt in abundance and need.

In our rush to “run the race,” we sometimes tie our shoes together, or fail to notice low limbs and deep holes in our chosen shortcuts. Our ever-present penchant for sin, no matter how wise seem our decisions, makes for a gravely road under the skinny-tire bicycle of life. Hubris, impatience, greed, slothfulness and more have led us all to react, speak, choose wrongly, behave badly, and move impetuously or indecisively – hurting others and ourselves. Some of us won’t pay the ultimate price for our sin (because it’s been paid), but most of us will taste its rotten fruit – on a cot in a cell, or in a bed of suffering and regret.

Add to our self-inflicted wounds the unintentional ricochets or deliberate shots of others. Physical and painful or ethereal and emotional, the negligence and barbarity of humans, one to another, has been well-documented since Cain killed Abel (Genesis 4:8). Those surviving torturous blows might also suffer the tension between revenge and forgiveness, wrongly believing the former will satisfy where the latter is the only true, if partial, relief.

Somehow, sin is at the root of all suffering. The Bible makes that clear, but it may be an unsatisfying answer to sufferers. Karma seems the natural response to the dilemma. Basically, if your sky is raining manure, you somehow seeded the clouds (Job 4:7-8). It’s “you reap what you sow” as quid pro quo rather than as a guiding principle of sin and judgment (Galatians 6:7). Still, actions have consequences, and to the degree we can recognize our sin’s contribution, we have power to lessen our suffering by lessening our sin. Even this is of grace when we realize how miniscule is any blowback compared to the price already paid…or that deferred for later payment.

Finally, our sorrow can come as seemingly random as the cartoonish piano or safe that breaks loose above the city sidewalk, only to hit us while we’re standing in a Kansas cornfield. As suffering settles in after natural disasters, dreadful diagnoses and inexplicable accidents, “blame” is not so clear.

Regrettably, this is the place where many indict God, and reason, “a good God wouldn’t allow this if he was able to prevent it.” This perspective imagines a malicious ogre who delights in our suffering, or a hand-wringing wimp, “good” in motive, but powerless to help. Neither of these unreasonable facsimiles is the biblical God. The Bible shows a good and loving God (Psalm 107:1), sovereign over everything that transpires (Isaiah 46:10; Luke 1:37).

Truly, only a clumsy caregiver will speak first of sovereignty or “God’s will” to participants of tragedy, even if there’s some sense that it’s true. It’s also less than helpful to pose that weakling God who “suffers with you.” That’s your job (Romans 12:15). Instead, declare the loving God of promise, familiar with suffering, powerful over it and purposeful in it, as proved by the cross and resurrection.

Christians, Your Sky is Not Falling

Hope and cheer resident in our recent holiday celebrations seemed somewhat tempered by universal instability. There’s terrorism, home and abroad, and bi-polar politics – if the polls are right our choices will be “pick your poison” (the Liar or the Lunatic?). Racial unrest is piqued by some questionable law enforcement actions. We’re in a time of hyper-sensitivity to “offense” (as taken, not intended) and rules change to bridle the tongue and redefine “normal” far afield of the Bible’s standard. Our teeth are set on edge, for indeed, there is very little perceptible “peace on Earth.”

Add to these global problems individual concerns. My own issues seem gargantuan to me, but many of you could compete and win an “Oh, that’s nothing…” contest. Cancer, death of loved ones, unemployment, relational rejection, and familial turmoil are just a few of the burdens we bear – all potentially exacerbated by the holidays.

For the social media savvy, it gets worse. While we’re knee-deep in our own suffering, we look at our friends’ Utopian lives. We see vacations to far-off places and milestones for all their “awesome” family, and photos of the party to which we weren’t invited. Their studio-quality “selfies” make them seem only minutes older than “back then,” where our own make us look like Alfred Hitchcock in bad lighting. Ugh.

Sharing good things isn’t wrong, but the comparison of our real struggles with their faux perfection can lead to despair. Their façade may just belie difficulties far worse than our own, and while no one wants Eeyore for a Facebook friend, consider for all of us – are we presenting a Shangri-La life online, when our reality feels more like nuclear winter?

Even a biblical Christian will admit that life at times seems like a dumpster fire, or like a spin in the back of a cement mixer filled with rocks. We all have scars aplenty, and many have all-too-fresh wounds to our souls.

I’ve painted a pretty pitiful picture, no? Chicken Little, sound the alarm!

Not so fast. “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33b) While no statement in the Bible is said in a contextual vacuum, Jesus’ statement as quoted can be more broadly applied in truth to all believers as is borne out in statements by Peter (1 Peter 4:12-14), James (James 1:2-4) and others. “Don’t be surprised,” “Count it all joy,” are their declaration to believers about the trials of life and faith and the good that will result.

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28) We can and should pray for desired temporal outcomes – healing of bodies and relationships, employment and finances, etc. That said, given this verse in Romans, our “peace” here is not dependent on the absence of trials…but reflective of our perspective in the midst of them.

Insert here Ted Turner’s “crutch” accusation or Marx’s “opiate” comparison. Indeed, naïve escapism and denial is unhelpful (e.g., Mary Baker Eddy’s Christian Science). That said, pitiable is the truly broken soul who pretends no need for support and finds no eternal hope past the pain resident in everyday life.

The God of the Bible is not caught off guard by your turmoil or the lunacy that is the world. You can rest in a sovereign God who will somehow bring good from “all things” for those who love Him. I write to myself and to you – peace, believer, the sky is not falling.

Hey Jesus, What Have You Done for Me Lately?

While few Christians would really ask this, many find the scriptural account of God’s work in history insufficient as fuel for faith. They seem to need an experiential immediacy not therein promised. Verses are plucked from context to support teaching an intimacy with God on par with prophets and apostles – even when present day inaudible “listening to God” is far different than the accounts of God’s interaction with people in the Bible. Somehow, our adoption by the Father, the imputation of our sin to Christ and his righteousness to us, and all we can look forward to as co-inheritors with Christ in eternity…isn’t quite enough proof that God loves us.

Today, experience trumps doctrine, and “head knowledge” is maligned and pitted against “heart knowledge.” To be sure, no biblical Christian would deny a frequent emotional response to grace, both in the whole redemptive story and in our own, but perilous is the chase for experience, and “feelings” are notoriously bad arbiters of truth. Our dissatisfaction with copious biblical assurances of endless love and sure and certain promises (for His people) forces new teaching calling for “listening” during prayer and “pray about it” decision making – roughly the heavenward equivalent of the “bat phone.”

As always, I could be wrong, and I know I am certainly in the minority in the Christian circles in which I run. I also know God can do anything he wants, and that your personal, anecdotal experience belying my thoughts here are unassailable. I also believe strongly that the Bible doesn’t teach these practices as they are commonly taught today, and that studying the full context of the verses used for proof texts would prove my point.

The problem is that it’s taught that “maturity” means an ability to “discern” God’s mind or voice (as is generally the case), making one of two outcomes is certain. Those who “hear” nothing despair of their faith, wondering why God doesn’t “speak” to them. Others will begin to sanctify their own thoughts (often, not always, biblically informed) with a spectrum of language from the more obtuse (“I feel led…”) to the more certain (“God told me…”). Christening our decisions thusly may sound Godly, but it’s simply moving responsibility for consequences from us to God.

Popular teachers like Beth Moore and Sarah Young (“Jesus Calling”) report these intimate, inaudible conversations they have with God, and attempt to set them below Scripture in value, but ultimately and necessarily devalue Scripture in the process. When one is familiar enough with Scripture, these new revelations (that’s what they are) will sound a lot like God, but to give them His authority is more than troublesome. Study the Scriptures and discover the weightiness of claiming “God said,” and further the consequences when He says, “No, I didn’t.”

If you insist still that God’s speaking to you (outside the Bible), use this test of qualities of His New Testament interactions. Is it rare? Is it intrusive and unsought? Is it unmistakably supernatural (audible/visible visitation)? Is it clear and unambiguous? If it meets those criteria, it has authority and must be obeyed. If not, it may just be your imagination. (Note: thanks to Greg Koukl at str.org for his teaching on this.)

There is a mysterious way that the Holy Spirit leads and guides us, but He doesn’t make our decisions for us. The Word gives us boundaries within which we are free to do as we please. The accounts of God’s sacrificial love for his people in Scripture should be sufficient promise and hope until His return.

Christianity’s PR Problem: Oh, What to Do?

Christianity has an image problem. Exclusivist claims are a turn-off, “puritanical” morality is behind-the-times, and we have some “crazy” beliefs about how humankind came into being. Further, the Church is saddled with all sorts of (true and false) baggage for reprehensible (and unbiblical) crimes committed under her banner. Finally, hawkeyed media outlets and others who glory in any hint of Christian buffoonery from a few, never miss the opportunity to proclaim it such that the reproach is universally shared. Who can blame them when some of us act in a manner to make parody superfluous?

It would seem major swaths of “Christians” have indeed hired PR consultants and have distanced themselves from presently distasteful stances by compromising with the world on creation, salvation, and morality (necessarily severing ties with much of the Bible in the process). “Get with it,” you might hear them say while their denominations race to conform. Their churches shrink with the contrast they now lack, and the spiritual food they serve is water soup to a starving world.

Others have used America’s one home-grown philosophy, pragmatism, and made Christianity more temporally useful than eternally crucial. With Christianity, you can “Have Your Best Life Now,” or take “8 Steps to Create the Life You Want.” Money, stress, health, drugs, marriage, raising children – every one of your problems can be “fixed” by this Christianity. Prosperity preachers preach, “You can have whatever you want,” with the escape clause, “if you have enough faith.” Otherwise orthodox pastors’ pulpit messages master in missing the point when they concentrate almost entirely on fixing the felt needs of the congregation over proclaiming the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Even biblical Christians can suffer this tendency to a small degree. When’s the last time you heard someone’s testimony that didn’t focus on how much better their life is since coming to Jesus? “I used to be ‘this,’ and now I’m ‘THIS!’” What about hearing from someone who grew up in church, always believed and never rebelled, but still understands deeply their need for a Savior? This is how it should be for our kids, but we discourage that when we celebrate the sensational. Besides, Tony Robbins or a juice cleanse may be just as likely to “fix” you.

So, if aping culture and offering practical/fantastical solutions to life’s problems isn’t the answer to our PR problem, what is?

Well, avoid joining the ranks of the thin-skinned “reactivists” with a featherweight chip on weak shoulders. Real, dangerous persecution happens overseas all too much for American Christians to complain. Did biblical laws inform our forefathers as they laid the foundation of this country? Of course and in many ways there is marked erosion, but this has never been a “Christian nation,” and as pluralism increases, liberties we once assumed can be assumed no longer. Sans paranoia, we can offer a calm and civil response when there are real changes to the freedom of speech or religious liberties intended by law.

So, is there a “war on Christmas” and on Christianity in general? Yes! There has been for two thousand years! Jesus said, “You will be hated by everyone because of me…” (Matthew 10:22a) He said it to his apostles in a specific context, but there is so much more biblical weight promising a hard road (cross-bearing, trials, persecution) for all who love and follow Christ.

Faithful, biblical churches will never solve their PR problem. We should be intentional in love, winsome in manner, but unyielding in truth. The cross is its own offense. It needs not our help.

The Peanut Butter and Jelly…and Unemployment Diet

I have a new and exciting diet plan for those of you out there who wish to shed pounds. In fact, I’ll guarantee you lose weight! It’s easy, just follow the steps below:

Eat PBJ for lunch (on whole wheat with extra gluten) every day (not required)
Eat whatever else you want – I recommend no-sugar-added Blue Bunny Bunny Tracks ice cream (not required)
Run four miles a day on old knees with disintegrating menisci (not required)
Drink a “touch” of red wine or perhaps a “smidgen” of Scotch most nights (these terms are synonyms for “somewhat less than half your body weight” – not required, but highly recommended)
Most importantly, be in your “prime earning years” while earning, get this, nothing at all! (required)

Voila! Somehow – I think it’s magic – your stomach digests everything, including your stomach, at an amazing rate. You’ll shed pounds! You’ll shed hair!*
*(If you’re not already bald. And, unfortunately, you old guys won’t shed your ubiquitous ear and back hairs, your new unruly eyebrow/beanstalk hairs, nor your nose hair mustache.)

The Back Story

Through no fault of my own, except for most of the professional choices I’ve made in the last twenty-five years, I find myself in the unenviable position of “looking for work.” If you’ve read the About the Author paragraph on the home page, you’ll know that I voluntarily abandoned a sought-after position some years ago. My thought at present? Undo! Do-over! Mulligan! The people who say they have “no regrets” are either liars or stupid liars.

Most nights I’m awakened by Chicken Little running through my head screaming what Chicken Little screams. I say, “preach it, brother!” Then, Chicken Big follows him screaming, “Don’t worry about the sky falling, the Earth will open up and swallow us first!” (We do live in Florida, by the way, so this is more than 50% likely on a good day.) The whole situation has my gut in a knot. Frankly, it’s kind of a nightmare.

Beneath the Crashing Waves

My confession to you, and my testimony, is that this is not how it should be. Now, my situation is not how I want it to be, but it is my reaction that is not how it should be.

What should not be is the knot in my stomach. What should not be is the voice in my head and in my sleep. What should not be is the hand-wringing, faithless worry of which I’ve been guilty. What should be is the “peace that passes understanding.” (Phil 4:7)

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:4-7 ESV, emphasis mine)

I am more than ashamed that I’ve been anxious – that my understanding of God’s providence, of his sovereign control, of his love and his promises, have not been brought to bear on how I’ve handled this setback. I guess the old epithet “those who can’t do, teach” is at least partly true in this case. I’ve taught Sunday school and Bible studies for almost 20 years, and in my study and experience, I’ve learned again and again the faithfulness of God. This faithfulness extends to far more than “fixing” my present lamentable circumstance, which he is likely to do in his good time. Regardless on the timing or outcome of this wait, I should appreciate and focus on the completed work of Christ on the Cross. If I never have another payday, or another meal, or share another laugh, or feel another hug, I should be content with what he’s done for me in his Son. My next breath, my next heartbeat, and all my future hopes are all of grace.

Providence

Many believers watch our lives for little “blessings,” or “miracles,” as if we need proof all over that God is real and he’s there and he loves us. Our tendency is to make something supernatural out of every event, as if that’s the only way God works. We need to have up-to-the-minute evidence on his résumé that he’s involved. We have “God sightings” or see “God at work” whenever there are fortuitous circumstances. Should we praise God for these good things? Of course! Just don’t manufacture evidences that make him seem more immediately (directly) involved than we can know for certain. First, it’s uncaring (and hubris?) to brag of his activity in your life to those who know no such privilege. Second, we train ourselves to imagine perpetually sunny days, and lose the ability to praise him for gray, hazy days, and imagine him to have abandoned us in the darkest storms.

Further, we often tend to connect, one-to-one, our circumstance to our performance or faithfulness. Those who prosper are being rewarded and those who suffer are being punished, or God is “teaching them something.” While it may very well be that I’m suffering my own poor choices, there are far too many situations we all know of where suffering is clearly not the fault of the sufferer (I know of some folks close to me in this category, further bringing my own “suffering” into perspective). That some real schmucks prosper ought also dispel that myth. So, how does God work?

There is far more to the biblical doctrine (teaching) of God’s providence than can be contained in a large book, much less a short post. Briefly, God uses means. We are fed by farmers and cooks and bakers, healed by doctors, taught by teachers, protected by soldiers, police and firemen and women. When we take the super-supernatural view, we lose the appreciation (and praise!) we should have for God’s providence in the everyday – the mundane, the ordinary. Think of it this way, if you wonder about God’s present activity, by the power of his might, he’s holding the atoms together that make up your body and the world around you. He’s always present and active, and yes, it seems there are sometimes “miracles” (supernatural intervention), but he mostly uses secondary causes (means – nature, you and me) to effect his perfect will.

[BTW, I recommend the book, Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work for a good overview of work/providence.]

And yes, he has good purpose in all that comes to pass (Romans 8:28), but clearly some of what “comes to pass,” we wish would pass more quickly. So, he has some purpose even in our tragic, baffling, suffering. While I’m sure to touch more on this in later posts, I’ve come to the conclusion that we’re rarely able to discern with any precision what he’s doing and why (sometimes we get a clue after the fact). And finally, here’s my point: In all our circumstances, as Paul says, “in plenty and in want” (Phil. 4:12), we are to be content. What he is teaching us as we reflect on him and his promises and his faithfulness, and what we should practice to find contentment, are gratitude for what he’s done, and trust in what he will do.

I’m blind to the Lord’s plan for me. Fruitlessly, I strain to see farther than the fog allows. In one sense, I don’t sit on my duff (“Let go and let God”), but forge ahead, actively pursuing work, knowing in whose hands my future truly lies. In another sense, I rest, with gratitude for all he’s done, and trust for what comes next. Pray that it would always be so.