The Long View

we look for help

In challenging and more than challenging times, we look for help. If, like me, you are a praying person, prayer will be something like the go-to position, almost automatic. As Christians, we count on the God we know from unalterable facts the Bible records—for example: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and tomorrow” (Heb 13: 8). Our God has made promises we expect him to keep! Here’s one: “ . . . he said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (Heb 13: 5b). And a few more: “Come to me all you labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest” (Matt 11: 28); “Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10: 42); “If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him” (Luke 11:13); “And I tell you, ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened” (Luke 11: 9-10).

You may be thinking, Yeah, I tried that. I asked, I was desperate so I knocked on every door—nothing!” And I’ll be thinking, I’m right there with you, friend. I’ve done it too.

something else

Something happened to our confidence in God and his promises. I’ve been there, I’m reliving such times in my own life. And right behind those unhappy memories, I also remember something else. When I was a child, I had an earache with every cold. And I knew what would happen next. I’d be hauled off to the doctor for a shot. On more than one occasion, I did my best to talk my mother out of it. We were always close, and I had a lot of confidence in my persuasive abilities when it came to her. But she wasn’t budging. Now imagine this scene: The doctor’s office, an unhappy me dreading that doctor who would be poking around in my sore ear and the penicillin shot soon to follow. Do you think anyone could have gotten a long description of my mother’s love out of me at that moment? To me, she seemed the very model of the wicked, adult power structure. What was a kid to do?

better, not worse

Well, this is what I did—I put up with it, I had to. Even the shot. And my ear infection got better, not worse. My point is this: We are taught by the Lord Jesus to call God our Father. And sometimes what he does is incomprehensible. Someone has wisely said, “If I could understand everything he does, I couldn’t worship him as God!”

did I see that?

Here’s another point about God’s answers and his incomprehensible faithfulness: He is great at the camouflage principle, he protects his wonders. It has amazed me for years that we live around wild life and plenty of it—birds, especially. Yet it seems a treat when we actually see what the wild creatures are doing. A beautiful red bird, for example, can fly past. We glimpse that red and the bird vanishes—even a bright red one like the summer tanager I saw a few days ago. It will be lost in a welter of wiggly leaves, some in shadows, some in light. This too: Many birds are feathered in splendid camouflage. The brown thrasher, state bird of Georgia, is as brown as the leaves and brush it likes to scratch around in. We have to look twice. Did I see that? My point? If we expect God to be (often) incomprehensible, we’ll be in a better place. We’ll be less worried, we’ll be less likely to feel abandoned. This is the simple truth: He knows more than we do. He’s also mightier. No, I have to amend that. God is mighty. We aren’t in that league. The comparative doesn’t work here.

the long view

There’s something else: God takes the long view—the very long view. We have to be patient. Here’s where faith comes in. A person of faith is able to wait. This person will also be able to accept the unexpected answer, the hard answer, even the “No, we are seeing Dr. Dean today.” We hang on. We wait. God is good. Do I have to say that hard times provide a scalding test of that conviction? Our determination to believe that God is good is one of the first things to be proved by fire in hard times. So when the terrifying test comes on, try this godly tactic: As you’ve seen your heavenly Father do it, take up his practice. Take the long view—a long look back at the many ways he has answered your prayers in the past. It will happen again. We know this: The answers, when they come, will be incomprehensibly good.

from the Edgefield Advertiser, oldest newspaper in South Carolina

May 19, 2021

with thanks for the great image–kelli-mcclintock-rwBVkoPNkhQ-unsplash.jpg