The Glorious Intruder

A man named Paul Tournier once researched 300 leaders from world history.
He was searching for a common thread among them, regardless of the fact that they came from different cultures, different continents and some of them were of different races.
His list included George Washington, Adolf Hitler, Alexander the Great, Golda Meir, Napoleon, and even Fidel Castro. Tournier found the thread he was looking for - they were all orphans; either physically orphaned or emotionally in their lives.

In our day, we are told for the best possible results of a child, that child must be nurtured to the best of our abilities, have a stable home, 'normal' parents and a good education. Yet, here is a list of 300 men and women who literally changed the course of history and impacted the world beyond their lives, some to this very day, all of whom had less than ideal circumstances and some who had horrible circumstances.
How can this be?

The answer is that any situation is not the final word as to the outcome. In this case, being orphaned was not the determining factor because these leaders, early in life, bucked up and worked hard - overcoming their personal, difficult circumstances.
One of the things that I have learned about my situation is that the same is true with one who is in pain and suffers.

Truthfully, the only people who can rightly speak of suffering are those who suffer themselves; each person who does endure suffering, endures it in a way that is as unique as it is mysterious.
We often ask in our time of pain if God is responsible or if He is some cosmic sadist who desires suffering on His creatures.
Because of what we know of God's character, the simple answer is no, He is not the causation nor does He desire His creatures to suffer.
Although many Christians suffer, I am convinced that my suffering was as repulsive to God as it was to me.
Yet, this being true, many Christians will disallow the thought of a transforming value in our personal suffering.

Biblically, Job, Habakkuk and Jeremiah each saw the worst of what the world had to offer and they continued to believe regardless of the fact that at times, it made little sense to them to continue in the faith.
They came to understand what we in the modern era should learn to understand - real faith means believing in advance what will only make sense in reverse.

And if you look at our pain and suffering as Christians in this light, it can rightly be described as a glorious intruder; one who causes pain in our lives, while at the same time teaching us and drawing us nearer to God. Although we rightly see a darkness in suffering, there is also a divine dignity within the one who suffers because of what he endures and what he learns.

Throughout my ministry, I have sat next to countless hospital beds with families enduring the suffering of a loved one. Yet, there have been some things learned only by being in that hospital bed, in pain and pronounced 'terminal.'
From this experience, I am going to share a few truths that I have learned; all influenced by other Christians who have likewise suffered and recorded what God shared with them.

1. Suffering is the great Equalizer in life.
- Christians often say that the only place we are equal is at the foot of the Cross - and there is some truth in this statement. But I would argue the same is true for suffering because pain, disease, inflictions, and even sometimes the issues that cause divorces show no favorites and can strike anyone.
- The one positive to this equalizer is that when a person is in great pain and is suffering, whether it be from cancer or a divorce, you realize the need for true redemption in life.

2. To the Suffering, the Gospel is Good News, not a Threat.
- One of the age old false condemnations of Christianity is that it is negative; what is true is that Christianity is the greatest hope in the world but individual Christians have turned it into a threat. For example, 'Believe in Jesus or you will fry in Hell..!'
That's what I mean by taking the greatest hope and turning it into a threat.

- When one is in pain or suffering, there is no exaggerated sense of self-importance. A person learns in that time the difference between real fears and imagined fears. You begin to be able to distinguish in every area of your life the difference between necessities and luxuries.
And if you are a Christian, as you read the Gospel, you can see the hope written on every page - not for the scholar, but for the one who is in the most difficult time of their life.

- It is for this reason that I am convinced that those who suffer have a blessed advantage (spiritually) over those who have never known real pain in their lives. When a person suffers he is lacking something; those that do not are able to get by comfortably with their natural gifts and are self-sufficient.
A person who suffers MUST be dependent on others. It is in this dependence where we find a greater blessing for we find a greater grace. In other words, the weaker we feel, the harder we lean on Him.

Without suffering there is no dependence; without dependence there is no grace.

3. Those that Suffer Respond to Gospel Call Better.
- I am convinced the reason I was able to function considerable well during my time of suffering was because I realized I had so little left to lose. I was told that I was dying; soon, everything would be taken from me, I would lose control over everything in my life and then I would lose my life itself.

- As a response to that fact, I decided to do all I possibly could to honor God, my family and my church until I could not speak or write any longer. Consequently, it was from this notion from which this blog was born.
I have come to learn that people who suffer respond to the Gospel call for totality because there is so little left for them to lose.

4. It's the Fight, Not the Venue.
- Suffering does not seem to be beneficial in and of itself, it is what a person does with that suffer; it is how a person reacts to it. In my case, I chose to fight until my last breath as many rightly do.
And in this fight, your body is the venue and we do not know in advance how God will take the tragedy we are experiencing and transform it into a triumph.
But if we do not fight, we will never know because we will rob God of a glorious opportunity to use us as His glorious vessel.

- Many who read this blog either are suffering themselves with something medically or they know someone who is - I pray daily God gives me the words to bring encouragement to you as so many were used by God to encourage me. But I digress.
If you are suffering, if you are in pain, regardless of what the cause of it is - don't give up - fight.
Remember, His strength is made perfect in your weakness.

Corrie ten Boom was a Christian, a mere child when she was arrested by the Nazis in Holland. Her crime - sheltering Jews. As a result, she and her family were enemies of the state and sent to a German death camp.
Much has been written on those camps, there is no need to recount the horrors of that time here. It is enough to say she saw evil incarnate as she struggled to live at the foot of the Cross.
In those camps she learned a truth that can strengthen anyone who suffers:
'However deep the pit, God's love is deeper still.'

In my time of suffering, as I believed I was hanging somewhere between life and death; I realized God had been hanging too - He hung on the Cross of Calvary.
Instead of the comfort of Heaven, instead of turning a deaf ear to the poverty, affliction and pain of the earth, He chose in Jesus to come in flesh and die as an innocent victim in my place.

Hebrews teaches us in our difficult times we are to 'fix our eyes' on Jesus...
                      "who for the joy set before Him endured the cross..."
                                                      -Heb 12:2 (NASB95)

What is the 'joy' the author speaks of?
The joy is the redemption of man, which is why Jesus died in the first place.
But if you take it a step further, the 'joy' is the resurrection - where Jesus Christ would defeat death once and for all.
For, if you believe in Him and trust by faith in His work, though you may one day die - you will rise again. And to give you and I, the creation He love, that chance to walk with Him in eternity, Jesus was willing to endure the worst, giving us the best.
I imagine that would be a wonderful source of joy for our Lord and all we have to do is accept it.

Until next time, go win one for the good guys.

The End Result

There are no words that can exactly describe how I feel at this time.
Three months ago I was proclaimed terminal; my life could be made 'comfortable' and it could be 'extended' but not cured.
I was never scared about dying; but there were things I considered.

As the days passed I wondered about what would happen to my children, who would do the military death notification - as I have done in the past, and I wondered if my funeral would actually play out as I had planned.
And all of those thoughts and pondering seemed to serve little purpose except to now produce an end result.
It seems that it is the end result which I have been led to throughout this entire ordeal.

A man named Helmut Thielicke, a theologian, once stated that Americans have an 'inadequte view of suffering.'
From what I've seen in the world, especially overseas, I believe he is right.

Americans do have an inadequate view of suffering but also of many other things as well.
For example, in other countries the poor classes are starving. In America, our poor are fat, have cell phones, enjoy air conditioning in the summer and heat pumps for the winter. Regardless of what politicians say, we are the most well taken care of people who have ever lived.
But I digress.

As to our suffering in sickness, disease and tragedy - we tend to view it not as a progression of life but as a stigma on our lives. Every generation has viewed pain and suffering as a part of the normal progression of life; that is every generation except the current generation.
The reason we are so apt to think of it as a stigma is because we tend to believe that we are to be healthy, happy and live a wonderful life which always is progressing towards better things and then go out with a nice, quiet, peaceful death..
The truth is that life is mostly the opposite of what I just described.

Nevertheless, some people and even many Christians believe the world is here for our pleasure; just ask God and 'believe' for whatever you want and you will have it. That's hard for me to swallow; mostly because it just isn't true.
To these, blame is affixed with suffering; 'you've sinned,' or 'you don't have enough faith.'
To these, I would pose the question that God posed to Satan - 'have you considered Job?'

Job had done nothing wrong and never lacked faith in God - yet, he suffered greatly. And the words of his friends sound very similar to what I hear people say to their sick friends in hospitals; yet, it must be remembered that when God spoke to one of Job's friends, He condemned them saying, 'you have not spoken of me.'

No, it isn't always sin or a lack of faith that causes sickness; although at times it can be - it isn't always this way. And the world isn't here for our pleasure either - it's here for God's glory.

I mean, seriously - can anyone with common sense actually believe that God put the world in motion for the sole reason to appease the pleasure of His creatures? In the world in which we live, over 1/3 of the earth's inhabitants go to bed starving every night.

Again, the world is here for God's glory not my sensual pleasure - but that begs the question, 'how is my suffering bringing glory to God in a suffering world?'
If the world exists to bring glory to God, then everything in the world and everything that happens in the world must ultimately likewise bring glory to God in some way.

The Apostle Paul spoke of the present 'groaning' of creation.
His reference was of what Christians know is the result of the fall of man and how we have the spoiled world in which we live today. When man fell from grace so many years ago and sinned against God - the entire created universe fell with him because man was the ruler/head of the earth, exercising a God-given dominion over it.
The groaning Paul spoke of is creation's cry for restoration and redemption.

In our own lives, in our sickness and suffering - we cry for that same restoration and redemption. Yet, our problem is that we ask the wrong question when we suffer.
Like Job, we ask 'why?'

This is an age old question - 'why do the righteous suffer?'
If, like Job of old, we believe that God is just, holy and righteous, then it would seem to reason that those who follow Him would be devoid of sickness and suffering. Instead, the New Testament actually promises affliction and suffering on those who follow Christ.
Job had difficulty reconciling this just as we do today.

It should also be mentioned that Job's wife gave him another option - 'curse God and die.'
Job refused to curse God and he refused to stop believing in the justice of God, maintaining his righteous faith.
And do you know what the final outcome of Job's situation was?
It was restoration and redemption.

This points me to believe that many times we are asking the wrong question when sickness and suffering is encountered in our lives. We want to ask 'why?'
But that is a backwards look to a present problem; finding the causal reason isn't really that helpful unless someone has been stricken because of rampant sin in their lives.

Instead of asking the backward question of 'why?' When Christians suffer, we ought to be asking 'to what end is my suffering?' Another way to put it - 'What is the purpose of my suffering?'

The answer to this question can be found; yet, it is found individually. Each person suffers differently and no one person's suffering should be compared to another - but each person should be able to find the purpose in their suffering which brings glory to God in heaven. This is not always easy and it certainly isn't pleasant.
Our suffering is not about 'why' it is about 'to what end' it has come upon us.

With my situation, thousands of people from across the globe have joined their hearts and prayers together in intercession on my behalf. Those that read this blog, I am certain a fair amount of them prayed for me; but most of those who prayed for me - I do not know and will not meet on this side of eternity.
People prayed in their homes, in churches and chapels across the world; missionaries in the field and families around the dinner table.
It's humbling even for me to think about it.

And then, God answered our prayers and He healed me.

Since that time, I began asking 'why did God heal me?'
As I asked this question, I found that it is simply torture to find an answer. Over the years, I have prayed for and with many people who were dying and most of them died. Yet, people prayed for me and I lived.
As with the question of suffering, I have been asking the wrong question - it isn't about why, but the spotlight falls on being healed and discovering 'to what end' have I been healed. That is to say, 'What does God have in store for the future?'

The Apostle Paul, in writing to the Corinthian Church, told them to 'rejoice in suffering.' He repeated this theme to several of the churches, as did the apostle Peter, during a period of persecution.
To 'rejoice in suffering' does not mean we are supposed to 'grin and bear it' when it comes upon us. That's not the image seen in Peter, Paul or Jesus. And it doesn't mean that we are supposed to be happy in a time of tragedy.

To rejoice in suffering means that we look for the productive use of our suffering for God to use in our lives and through our lives.

Whether God heals a person or allows one to continue in suffering, there is a productive use, an end result that can be achieved. 
For some, pain, suffering and sickness causes a wedge that drives them away from God. In reality, pain, suffering and sickness should drive us to God.
In being driven to God, it is not a question of 'why has this happened to me' but of 'what is the end result in the glory of God' in this situation.

If you are going through a difficult time, a time of suffering, hold fast to the faith as Job did so long ago. Truthfully, I don't know why some of my friends in the church passed away into God's arms because of cancer and God healed me. I don't know why some are restored in this life and others are taken from this life. And I don't have the answer to every person's situation in suffering nor do I know what God is teaching them or how His glory will be produced through it.
- I do know that if Christians received everything we prayed for, God could never teach us about patience or perseverance.
- I do know that Christians can rejoice in our suffering because we serve a greater end in the glory of God.
- And I do know in our spoiled world, God is always faithful although we may not always understand His ways.

If you are going through a trial of pain and suffering, know that there is a restoration and redemption for you in the glory of God. But friend, you have to want to be redeemed through Christ.
And the restoration that awaits may very well be through death and a new life with Him.
But if you look for the end result of your suffering and seek His faith - God will provide it.

Until next time, win one for the good guys.