Bring the rain

As Thanksgiving is this week, many of us are telling each other what we're thankful for and we are beginning to count our blessings.  This has been on my mind of late and I think if I'm honest then I've had a shallow view of what it means to be blessed.  Let me explain.  Whenever I talk with someone about the blessings in my life, I mention how blessed I am to have two wonderful parents who support me or that I have been blessed with talents and abilities that I am able to enjoy.  I may even say that someone else blessed me by giving me something that I really wanted.  I would wager that many of us do this.  We look at the positive things in our life and say that these are the things that God has blessed me with.  I would agree that these are indeed blessings, but it is only part of the picture, before I elaborate on this I want to point us to scripture.

Looking at the story of Joseph we see a laundry list of sufferings that he endures.  He is thrown down a well, sold into slavery, wrongly accused of adultery, thrown in prison, and forgotten.  If we were to go through this and use the same definition of blessing that we use in our lives, we would be hard-pressed to find any sort of blessing from God in this.  In fact, we would wager that the only real blessing came near the end of this story where Joseph was elevated to the number 2 guy in Egypt.  Joseph makes a comment, however, that should take us off guard, in speaking to his brothers he says, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." (Gen. 50:20).  Joseph is saying that God's plan was behind it the whole time.  God intended all of those sufferings for good.  It was a blessing.  Joseph has a completely different perspective than us on suffering.  He is grateful for going through that, because the suffering was given to him by God so that many lives would be saved on account of him.

Then if we turn to the new testament we see yet another instance of this different perspective.  In Acts, the apostles are going around preaching the message of Christ.  They are constantly telling others about the redemption and restoration given through the sacrifice of Jesus.  The Pharisees are staunchly against this message and so the Sanhedrin comes together and arrests them and even considers killing them for preaching about Christ.  Instead, Gamaliel speaks on their behalf and they decide to let them go, but not before flogging them and ordering them not to speak the name of Jesus.  The fascinating thing here is that in the very next verse we see their reaction.  It says, "The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name." (Acts 5:41).  They had just been flogged and in my mind, I'm sure that it was far from a light flogging, but yet they leave rejoicing at being able to share in the suffering of Christ.  They look at it not as suffering, but as a blessing.

James later writes, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that testing of your faith develops perserverance." (James 1:2-3).  As you look through scripture, you begin to see that while God does bless us with very tangible blessings, He also intends our suffering to be seen as a blessing.

Now I am not suggesting that when going through suffering, that you cannot grieve or mourn as these things are necessary in the midst of suffering.  Jesus wept when Lazarus died and he even sweat drops of blood in the garden before he endured the Cross.  In fact, in the stories that I shared from scripture, I am sure that there were times where each of these people were probably a bit depressed or mourning in some way.  The point was that they were able to look back at their sufferings and see God's hand in it and how he used it to bless them.  They had a renewed perspective after enduring suffering.

Several years ago, I was involved in a mountain biking accident.  Most, if not everyone reading this blog, is aware of that accident, but I will share it nonetheless.  As I was training for a mountain bike race, I went off a jump and landed it wrong.  My front tire hit the ground first, stopping the bike immediately, while I went over the handlebars face first into a tree.  Getting up, I recognized that something wasn't right.  My lip had been severely lacerated all the way through, 3 teeth had been knocked out, 3 teeth had been broken, and the roof of my mouth had been lacerated and had somewhat collapsed.  It was a brutal accident, that left me without the ability to eat solid food for 2 and a half weeks and left me severely hindered in speaking.  The next several months I had many dental appointments and appointments with various other doctors as they tried their best to restore me to what I was before the accident.  This was one of those life-defining moments.

I was frustrated, confused, scared, and generally upset.  I just couldn't understand why this was happening to me.  Following the initial months came the surgeries that would be required to repair my teeth.  The price of this was enormous and my family knew that affording the surgeries would be a huge cost.  One day my dad came home and told me that he had sold his boat so that he could pay for my teeth.  My dad showed an incredible amount of love in that moment.  He sacrificed something that was dear to him for me.  You see, this time in my life was certainly a moment of suffering and a complete state of confusion, but through all of this God's hand of blessing was on me.  He showed me love and cared for me.  He knew my hurt and He hurt with me.  All the while, God reassured me that it was for my blessing that I would endure this.  After many years of talking about this story and enduring all the things that have gone along with this, God has shown me that it was a blessing.  He has given me a new perspective.

Many of us are going through a lot this holiday season.  The economy is still only barely recovering, many have lost their homes due to flooding or foreclosures, and more are unsure of how to make ends meet.  It is a time of great suffering and much lament.  As we approach this season of gratitude though, I wonder if we were to gain new perspective on our sufferings could we begin to see them as blessings?  When we count our blessings this season, may we accept the good with the bad.  In the words of Mercy Me, "Bring me joy, bring me peace, bring the chance to be free, bring me anything that brings you glory.   And I know there will be days when this life brings me pain, but if that's what it takes to praise you Jesus bring the rain." 

Settling for normal

What a fantastic week.  Saturday began with a bible study, that gave me a great new perspective while reordering my priorities.  The following day before and during church, I realized a desire in myself to be more wholly surrendered to God and my need for greater sacrifice.  Then Monday came and I had an amazing conversation with my spiritual director who helped point me further along this path that had begun on Saturday.  This all culminated on Wednesday afternoon as I sat in the quiet library of the Jesuit center overlooking the front lawn.  In the stillness, I could feel God's presence as He sat with me and spoke words of love.  It has left me with a joy that is inexpressible and at the same time must be expressed.  It wells deep within me and is in my very soul, burning to come forth.  If I tried to contain it, I would cause detriment to myself, so it must pour out of me unto others.  This joy has taken me completely as Jeremiah says, "A fire in my bones."  It must not and cannot stay locked within me for fear that if it does, it shall consume me completely or rather be squelched within me bringing none of the fruit that it was meant to bring.  For if I do not share it, it will surely subside and I will have to settle for normal.

It is a curious thing that we do as humans and Americans in particular.  We have the imprint of God written on our hearts.  The creation around us sings of His glory and yet we settle for satisfaction from temporary things.  Our soul cravings cry out for the eternal so we give it that which is finite.  I know I've done it plenty of times.  I've settled for things that do not satisfy and leave me with a hunger for something more.  It is as though my soul is starving and so I give it a teaspoon of sugar hoping to satisfy.  We were born for more than this.  We born for the joy that wells deep within us that comes bursting forth leaving us completely transformed.

I think that which grieves the Lord's heart is when we settle for good things, when we were meant for far greater things.  When was it that we stopped dreaming?  When did we accept the world around us and settle for being normal?  When did those dreams of changing the world, of making a difference, when did these fade?  Whatever your opinion of Lawrence of Arabia, I think his quote here is applicable, "Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find it was vanity:  but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible."  Os Guinness took this further and said, "Dreamers of the day respond to the gap between vision and reality by closing it."  So I say again, why have we stopped dreaming?  Why have we settled for normal when joy that springs from eternity has been given freely to us.  Instead of looking around us and saying, "woe is us look at we must deal with", we must look around us and say, "blessed are we, that we may be instruments of change and thus be given the high calling of sharing in God's work in this world."  May we challenge the status quo, may we be the change we want to see in the world, may we not settle for normal.