I am debriefing a group of dedicated
teachers who are struggling with the death of a student. This student teen had
a complicated medical history and sadly surgery and treatment did not bring him
back to their classroom. These passionate educators were disgusted and angry
that the medical community had failed to bring their precious young person back
into their care.
What is clear is that all of us have
dark moments in our lives, times when we feel disappointment with God or even
anger at him.
No doubt, we have times when we are
challenged by struggles in our lives, when circumstances end up overturning our
plans and perhaps even riding roughshod over our dreams.
Perhaps a conflict with someone has
created an impenetrable wall between you and that person and you have no idea
how to restore the relationship. Perhaps shame or guilt is crippling you or
someone you love and the offer of grace seems no more real than a mirage.
Perhaps simple loneliness is the ghost that haunts your days.
Perhaps illness stalks you or a loved
one and effective treatments are elusive or nonexistent. Or perhaps death has
brought an end to their suffering, but deepened your own.
In all those circumstances and many
more, we may feel disappointed by a Savior who didn’t live up to our
expectations. Admit it, you want Jesus to come
and you want Him to come right now. You want clear helpful answers to your
questions. You want to be relieved of the burden of waking up every day without
knowing what you’re supposed to be doing next. You want to put your hand under
the pillow and find the answer there like a quarter from the tooth fairy, but morning
after morning all you feel is the empty sheet.
Deep down, we secretly hope that if we
believe in Jesus, he will use his awe-inspiring, cosmos-shaping powers to make
our lives easier. But instead, He calls for us to embrace the bitterness of life
and live it more deeply. And instead of easing our suffering, He chose to walk
through it with us and teach us how to transform our pain into gateways to
healing for ourselves and others.
And so, in answer to the question how
do we cope with dark moments that make no sense like, we have to say, He’s the
one who opens our eyes and brings us sight when we’re blinded by suspicion,
hatred, prejudice or greed.
Jesus is the one who lifts our feet to
walk in service to others, to share from our wealth, to reach out in
compassion.
Jesus is the one who frees us from our
prisons of loneliness, grief and fear.
Jesus is the one who brings good news
into our lives even when we doubt God’s presence in our lives.
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine
Friends this Christmas that as we look upon that baby born in the manger, we
recognize that He is the Lord God incarnate, the hope of the world, the one who
calls us friend, and as you gaze at the babe in the manager, remember He comes
to bring us strength, courage and peace in our dark moments. Blessed Christmas,
my friends.
