The God of the Bad Times

The Royals were on a great winning streak ... 6 in a row, and almost every game for a couple of weeks. Ten games in a row with 10 hits or more. Even with three All Star players injured, they were winning. They had one of the greatest 9th inning comebacks I've ever seen, or likely will ever see again. And then the bottom fell out, losing 5 in a row, with very few hits and a paltry sum of runs. Elation and heartbreak. Everything's going great, and then nothing, and I mean nothing, goes right. There was even a freak throw by an infielder that was supposed to go to first base, but went almost straight down to nail Merrifield on the funny bone. That ball could have gone anywhere, but it just had to hit one of our most productive players on that part of the elbow.

Some feel this way about our nation's history. Things were going along pretty well for a while, with "win" after "win" in almost every arena. And then seemingly in the blink of an eye, the bottom fell out and nothing seems to be going in a good direction. The economy is suffering, good jobs are much harder to find, we have one of the weirdest political seasons in our history, and we're getting into violent disagreements over who gets to use which toidy.

It's easy to feel like God's in control when your home team is "winning," whether that's your favorite sports team, your company, your nation, or even the people of faith. Because of that winning record, so to speak, it sure seems like God is in control.

When when your team can't get a hit, your company is laying off waves of employees, your nation seems to be in ever-worsening disarray, or the people of faith pushed toward the margins, it's easy to feel quite the opposite - that God is somehow not in control. Or perhaps just that He's less in control than He was before. The near-term trend seems even more negative, and so God seems even less in control.

There are plenty of examples in Scripture of God being in total control while His people felt quite the opposite, most notably in the life and death of Jesus. There's also Hebrews 11, which celebrates the actions of faith by those whose lives bore little clue that God was steering the ship. It's helpful to read and reread these accounts. But there's also a sense of "that was them, there, back then." It's a little hard to be completely solaced by the stories of people dead for 2000 years or more.

Perhaps a little logic will help. Think of the times when it really feels like God is in control. Either those times are a complete fraud or they are the very evidence we need. If God is in control in the good times, that means He's sovereign over all things in order to make those times good. Therefore, that means that He's sovereign over bad things as well as good things, whether bad things or good things are currently happening. So, either good times are a fraud, that even then God's not really in control, or the good times are the proof we need to remember that God must be in control of the bad times, too. He's either never sovereign over all things or He's always sovereign over all things. He can't be less in control at any point in time.

An author is control of not only the protagonist characters but also the antagonists. She's in control of both the happy storylines and the sad storylines. The author is no less in control of the difficult parts of the story, and in fact is using both good times and bad times to accomplish the purpose of the narrative.

God's narrative is Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration. He's the author of that ongoing story. There is no part of the storyline that He's less in control of than others. When we're in the chapters where everything falls apart, the author isn't losing. He's just making the story complete.

It'll all be all right

I recently had an opportunity to face the reality that not everything is always going to be OK. We live relatively safe, predictable lives where things just work (most of the time), minor injuries don't become life-threatening emergencies, and our jobs will be there tomorrow (again, most of the time). Many societies today still don't have that kind of confidence. We live in a blessed time in a blessed place - it's relatively infrequent that we must face the reality that things could become very, very not OK. But once in a while, we are forced to - someone passes away, someone is in a horrible accident, someone gets a horrible disease.

For me this time, it was Lynne having surgery. It wasn't even a high-risk surgery or a life-threatening illness. I had very little anxiety leading up to the surgery. But the surgery took quite a bit longer than we were told to expect, which opened the door for me to speculate what bad things might be happening. When I was finally called back to talk with the surgeon, waiting in a small, drab conference room, I realized that it was possible he didn't have all good news. Or, he might have very bad news.

When he showed up, the initial news was all positive. Then he explained some of the complications they encountered in the surgery. Then he told me that there was an unexplained, concerning drop in her blood oxygen level during surgery, which halted the procedure until they could bring it back up. Everything turned out fine, but it forced me out of my overly cavalier attitude to face the reality that it's not always going to be OK. It didn't cause me anxiety, but it did force me to think through some things I've had the luxury of ignoring.

Was my confidence leading up to the surgery based on statistics of medicine or the sovereignty of God? This was a relatively routine, lower-risk surgery. The statistics on there being severe complications is incredibly low. There is every reason to expect the good outcome that we ended up having. But was I enjoying a robust peace because I merely relied on statistical analysis, or because I knew that even if the worst might happen, God's sovereignty still reigns over every situation?

If my confidence is in the track record of doctors, then my confidence is completely circumstantial. It may be well-founded by the data, but sometimes life does the unusual, defying the statistics. And eventually, the statistics run down to the point where they are against you. Clearly, that confidence is faulty.

If my confidence is in the sovereignty of God, then my confidence is not circumstantial. It doesn't matter whether what happens complies to or beats the odds. The odds can deteriorate completely against me, and still I have something to put my confidence in. That confidence doesn't mean that everything will work according to my desires. But it does mean that everything that does happen is within the purposeful, attentive control of the eternal God. Even when things are not OK, they are in fact OK. Perhaps painful, tearful, and confusing, but never without purpose, never out of control, never stronger than the God who will one day make all things new.

Lynne and I have been overwhelmed by your expressions of concern, your offers to help, the food, the notes, the texts, and even the sensitivity to guard our privacy. You bear evidence of the sovereign God's care.

Anxiety Because We Forget

Psalm 139 is one of the church's favorite psalms of comfort. God's presence is everywhere, and even if we tried to escape it, we will never find a place where He is not. He knows everything about us, and He knew all of it before we were even born. He's the one who "knit" us together. In this psalm, we see God as sovereign, engaged, caring, and protective. It's no mystery why we love this psalm.

Just look at a sampling of the things God does in this psalm: examine, know, understand, observe, be aware, be thoroughly aware, squeeze, place His hand upon me, have knowledge, be present, be there, never too dark for Him to see, make, perform awesome and amazing deeds, know beforehand, see, and ordain. And after everything is said and done, we still have to contend with Him. Shew!

I am overwhelmed by the completeness of His attributes: to every extent and in every way, to any height or depth, far away and nearby, He is thoroughly God. Because He is our creator, He knows all these things, does all these things, exists in all these contexts and places. Even if we were to list, catalog, analyze, study, and write comprehensive theses about all this, still - there He is, with us, there for us to contend with. His existence is even beyond the sum of His attributes and actions.

My study of my Creator cannot be confined to an analysis of His effects. My creator is there for me to have a relationship with. He knows everything about me, He made me, He already exists in every place I will ever go. He’s there and he knows everything about the me who is there, too.

Many times when we are anxious, it is because we don't know what God knows, and we forget that what God know is ... everything.

Psalm 46:10 He says, “Stop your striving and recognize that I am God! I will be exalted over the nations! I will be exalted over the earth!”

Forgive me, Lord, for my whining, as if You didn’t know everything, as if You weren’t absolutely there in this specific space, as if Your hand was not upon me, as if You did not create me.

Does My Effort Matter?

God is sovereign. Completely. Everything is under His control, nothing happens unless He at least allows to happen, if not directly makes it happen. He has guaranteed the final score before the first pitch. The Bible says that it's not just that God knows what's going to happen, but that He's the one who will make it happen.

So, does my effort matter? I can't thwart God's plan. I can't change the outcome (can I?). I certainly can't alter God's eternal plan. The Bible seems to care a lot about whether or not I do certain things, but does it really matter, since I can't alter the final score that's been fixed from before the world began?

Among theologians, these questions are part of a much larger debate which (sadly) can cause division among brothers in Christ. But in real life for normal people, it really comes down to the very practical question: Does my effort matter? And if it does, how so? And if not, then why bother?

Does my effort matter? You probably anticipated this answer: yes and no.

In one sense, no, your effort doesn't matter. Sorry, but God's plan is not so fragile as to teeter on whether or not you do something. He's completely, totally, effectively, conclusively sovereign, and He will execute His eternal plan no matter what you do. His confidence for the outcome of His plan is not merely based on the fact that He knows how it all turns out - His confidence comes from the fact that He is God, and because He is God, there is no other possible outcome than His plan.

But in another sense, yes, your effort does matter. Consider:

• We can participate in God's plan: Technically, everyone is always participating in God's plan, either for it or against, either wittingly or unwittingly, because no one is exempt from God's comprehensive plan. But we have the opportunity to be willing participants working for God's purpose rather than against it. That's a privilege! When the end comes, we will have either been active participants in what God accomplished, or non-participants, or even antagonists. Personally, I really like the first of those three options.
• We can be the kind of person God is making us to be. By participating actively in God's purpose, we are being what God wants. To be a believer in Jesus Christ, but inactive in God's plan, is to be a living contradiction. Even though I can't change the final score, I can either live consistently with His plan or live inconsistently with His plan. What kind of people does God want us to be - those who live in concert with His purpose and plan or those who clash with them?
• We can glorify God. By living a life that reflects what God is doing in the world, we bring Him glory. God is glorified by whatever reflects His character. Applying ourselves to His purpose reflects His character, and therefore glorifies Him. Don't tell me that doesn't matter.
• We can be how God executes His plan. Yes, God is completely sovereign and will accomplish His purpose, but God accomplishes a lot of His purpose through people. His sovereign plan that existed before the world began includes those through whom He will accomplish His plan. Our actions matter because our actions are part of what God sovereignly uses to execute His plan.

Part of our problem with this question is that we have a very Western mindset, which is focused on results. Actions are meaningful only if they produce the desired results. We look at God's sovereignty and how He will get His results no matter what we do, and we conclude our actions don't matter. However, our Western way is not the only way to discover what's meaningful. Meaning is also found in being. By being a certain kind of people (who do certain things because of who we are), we have meaning in God's economy. In other words, God has value for us not only in what we accomplish, but in who we are. Being completely willing  participants in His plan is valuable, no matter how it may affect the outcome.

In all things, rejoi... you've got to be kidding!

The weekend was one of those rare weekends filled with almost entirely positive events. We had a great time with my folks and my oldest brother visiting, we made great progress on several very important decisions involving my parents, we had a great time in the car driving them to Branson and spending the night playing cards and talking with them. They finished their journey home safely, and we had a fun, casual time away from responsibilities and demands for a few days.

"Almost entirely positive events." When we came back to the car after one last sight-seeing diversion, we found that someone has smashed out one of the car windows and stolen Lynne's purse - right in broad daylight in a parking lot that has frequent traffic. They could have stolen my computer bag, they even could have stolen the entire car, and no one got hurt, but still, we've lost some money and we've inherited a whole lot of hassle. The cost to restore things will be more than the money the thieves netted out of this.

The entire weekend, Lynne had been very careful to put her purse in the trunk. This was the only stop where she thought that hiding it on the floor under a sweater in broad daylight at a busy attraction outside the city would be OK. I certainly thought leaving my computer bag up on the seat in plain view was OK. And it was the last stop of so many stops on this trip. How the thieves found an opening to smash a window in, and then the rest of it out is beyond us. (This also surprised the manager of the facility, who, by the way, was extraordinarily helpful - he even vacuumed out our car for us.) We were gone from the car about 90 minutes, and by no means did our car even look like a cash-rich target.

So, what to make of this? I don't believe in pure accidents. I'm already hesitant to take vacations because they are so much hassle and so expensive (we did OK on both counts, until this event exploded both of them). We had such a positive weekend up until the very last thing. And we almost went to a different attraction than this one. Plus ... I'm already 2 1/2 days behind this week because of the vacation, and now I'm going to lose one or two more days just getting things restored.

God never promises us that we'll understand every event that happens to us, whether "good" or "bad." But He does promise that He has a purpose for every event that happens to us. We sometimes are left with nothing but trust that this is always, always, always true. God never promises that he'll use this somewhere down the road in a way that it'll be obvious that He turned this event into something good, like the person later coming to faith in Christ. But He does promise that He is always, always, always with us in every event, and that He never gets caught by surprise by the things that happen to us.

I want an answer. But I might not get one. Will I still trust that He's always working together things for good for us? Will I praise Him only when events please me? Will I maintain a Christlike attitude when maliciously aggravated for no good reason? Will I try to make myself feel better with some lame platitude, or will I allow God's purpose to be a mystery for as long as He wants?

And I say all of this knowing full well that there are some in our own church family who persistently suffer worse than this one setback, let alone the living conditions of our orphans in Kenya.

I long for heaven, where this stuff will never bother us again. But God has us here now on purpose. I might not always know what the purpose is, but I know that there is one. And I know it's a good one.