The actions of God in the world and by extension in the life of the believer are by definition supernatural.
That’s not a statement that most people are comfortable with. It is in fact a statement many reject out of hand. What we believe we have learned from Darwinism, Freudianism, deconstructionism and postmodernism, is that there is no creator and no God, thus by definition there can be nothing beyond what we see in the natural world; hence, there is nothing supernatural. The latest iteration of mainstream culture and the study of history posits that pretty much everything about our society is not based on positive relationships, purposeful work or faith communities. Instead, everything is a construct created by those in power for the express purpose of keeping their power. Breaking the mold of oppression is the word of the day.
True enough, oppression is a real thing. It needs to be addressed and changed. Respect for other people, their experiences and their views is essential. Hearts and minds need to change.
Respect.
Changed minds.
Changed hearts.
Oppression is wrong, and it grieves God’s heart.
But wait–there is no God. There is no higher power to whom we can turn for justification for our core beliefs and ideologies that posit that there is right and there is wrong. And oppression and racism and hate are wrong. We know this at our cores. We react with justified anger at suffering and wrong. But does that make sense?
If oppression works to get the people with the power what they want, biologically speaking, why shouldn’t it continue?
If racism is an understandable if unfortunate reality due to biological, ecological, and evolutionary conditioning causing preferment of the members of our own tribe, why is that so bad?
If hate is just something everyone deals with to some extent or another, and it occasionally spills out in angry words and ugly scenes, why isn’t that just par for the course, something we have to expect because there are no forces for good that can change our animal natures?
By definition, amongst the biology and chemistry and geology and astronomy and physics that make up this material world, there are phenomena, there are circumstances, there are agreements we make with other human beings that cannot be explained by the processes of the material world alone. Yes, we inhabit a material world with predictable forces. But what we see cannot be all there is.
Not if we acknowledge the effects of natural beauty on the human soul: the sunrise, the sunset, the wind in the grass, the soughing sound of the pine trees near the ocean; what purpose in a world without God?
Not if we acknowledge the ability of one human being to forgive another human who’s done something horrible.
Not if we acknowledge the artistic richness of music in all its variations and its ability to speak to our hearts.
Not if we acknowledge the sadness and rage we know when “senseless violence” occurs, and we are punched in the gut yet again with the wrongness of this kind of horror.
Not if we acknowledge the wisdom and lived knowledge of the millions or more people who have experienced the love of God, and who have placed their trust in that God for eternity. The odds of them all, through centuries of time, maintaining a group illusion are billions to one.
Not if we acknowledge the power of the force of entropy: powerful as it draws our universe and our galaxy farther apart, expanding into distances that entirely dwarf the power of the mind. Entropy means that “all things tend toward disorder.” Perhaps as the theory goes entropy actually allows things to become more complex by providing more options for each particle. But if entropy “sets particles to ‘wiggling,’” how does entropy do so? At times during the past one hundred and three years we have lamented, “Things fall apart: the center cannot hold.” And yet beyond all expectations, beyond all assumption, beyond all possibility, the center still does. We have been given the power to combat entropy with every clean house, every loaf of bread, every drawing together to worship God on a Sunday morning.
What we experience with our senses cannot be all there is if we acknowledge the mystery of a changed life and a changed heart: the addict, the angry, the jealous and greedy and harsh, changed. It happens. How so? Any changed heart in a world like this is a mystery.
The power that made the forces is the greatest force and power there is. We inhabit a reality suffused with the gift and glory of the supernatural.
Year after year, month after month, day after day, hour after hour, life has been full of surprises. It has definitely not been what I expected, and that means both good and bad. There have been wonderful times. There have been horrible times, and much of the time, there has been the daily struggle to walk faithfully forward, not knowing what is to come.
Not that I want to know what is to come, really. I’m thankful that I don’t have that kind of knowledge and that isn’t expected of me. Hard times or good times, some of the hard times that have come have been so difficult I would definitely not have wanted to know about them in advance because it would have caused crushing despair. Living through those times one moment at a time was the only bearable way to get through.
And God knows that. I think that’s why he gives us time. We don’t live outside of time yet because we don’t have the strength to bear it. We are given one minute, one hour to manage at a time (is there no other way to say that without using the word time?) because that is exactly what we are able to handle.
The future is not known, but the good news is that the past is safe with God. The joys and sorrows there cannot be taken away from us. The memories of our lives with those we love are eternal. What we did, what we accomplished, what we enjoyed, and most of the all the love we shared are compassed round with God’s protection.
As for this moment? We live it. Compassed round with God’s protection.
As for the future?
“I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” ~Psalm 73:23-26
Life is full of disappointments and difficulty, pain and suffering. As Westley observes in the film classic The Princess Bride, when Buttercup tells him he mocks her pain, “Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.” If you look around, you see this. There isn’t one among us who hasn’t suffered. And if there is one, that person just hasn’t suffered yet. So in this way, we are all men of sorrow. And this reality must be acknowledged. It can’t be ignored, platitudified, or painted over.
Yet. Are all things as bad as they could be? There are some immeasurable griefs, desperate fears, heavy suffering. There always are, somewhere. You have experienced it yourself. However, when there is cruel sadness, that is the proof there is much that is good. How could there not be? If there were no sadness at what is broken, there would be no comprehension of what evil, badness or brokenness is, nor would there then be an understanding of the good gifts God has given in the midst of the rest of it.
The order and the beauty that is ordinarily around you, even when you are in the midst of the struggle is a good gift. Even in the worst times, there is often still tasty food, an act of kindness you can do for another person, your purring cat, a hot shower, a sunset, a book worth reading, a word of love and encouragement from a person who loves you.
Every good gift has been given to you, because in the midst of the bad, God is generous and good. Could a world with good gifts have been abandoned entirely? Could you?
Psalm 34 says, “The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. The righteous person may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all; he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken. Evil will slay the wicked; the foes of the righteous will be condemned. The LORD will rescue his servants; no one who takes refuge in him will be condemned.” King David wrote here that you will have troubles; we all will. But in the midst of those troubles, God hears.
Jesus, the man of sorrows, is not far off. No, he’s close to the brokenhearted. He has the greatest compassion on those who don’t even have hope. And we are free, nope, invited to tell. Jesus. about. it. Cry out, because he cares for you. These griefs are not meant to be a permanent burden, because the Lord carries our burdens day after day.
Jesus knows that whatever the grief, the disappointment, the misery is, it’s wrong. He rebels with us against the darkness of those things, is closer to us than our breath, binds up the brokenhearted and comforts all who mourn and even better, is the one who redeems our losses.
Jesus came for the weak and the humble, not the proud. If you are a man of sorrows, beloved, know that he is too. And he is the one who is making all things new.
Guess what is wrong with being disappointed with life?
Nothing.
Not one thing.
Why is that? Disappointment is the normal, human reaction to the devastation we see in the world around us. It’s normal to be disappointed as well when you planned an event for some people you love, but then they couldn’t attend, or someone said something rude or hurtful during that time. It wasn’t what you wanted. I wasn’t what you internally knew it could be. We love what is good and beautiful and what brings joy, and when those are lost or never found, disappointment is great.
And it should be, if there is a place to use the word “should” which I generally avoid because it may lay on shame, which is never helpful.
You may be disappointed both with your circumstances and with God.
And the good news is, you’re not the only one. The Old Testament prophets and the book of Psalms are practically a manual for calling out to God with disappointment and grief. It’s all there. You can own it; you can feel it; you can tell God about it. You may feel as the man who wrote Psalm 22 did: “My God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far away when I groan for help? Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer.” Or Psalm 13: “How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow every day?…turn and answer me, O Lord my God.” It’s right here. You can tell God what your losses are and ask what is going on.
This is not to say that we aren’t strengthened and helped by telling God what we are thankful for, and by looking daily and hourly for truths and moments that are gifts he has given to us. We clearly aren’t called to spend all our energy complaining. But the path through these disappointments is not to pretend they don’t matter or that we shouldn’t feel them. That may be a message in a church you’ve attended, but it isn’t anywhere in the Bible. Both things are true at the same time: the great griefs of our lives, and the great glory and grace of God.
To take steps toward healing your heart, as John Eldredge says in his One Minute Pause App, “Without loving care, these disappointments erode our belief that God loves us, sees us, and cares for us…The pain of life slowly poisons our confidence that we are loved. God knows this; [Psalm 22] is the very passage Jesus cried out from the cross…showing us that we can, too.”*
As Eldredge says, there are forces of darkness in this world that want to use our heartaches to destroy our knowledge that God loves us. But before you ever got up today, God answered the question, does God see my struggles and does he care? Christ died for you before you took one step in his direction. “The cross removes all doubt [that he does].”*
We can tell God how things really are with us. This world is hard. But with Jesus on the cross, and in our lives, a humble man of sorrow who was in every way like us, we can decide, repeatedly if necessary as it likely will be when we are suffering cruelly, to stand on the “solid ground before the cross, the final proof that we are seen, we are loved, we are pursued, and we will never be forsaken.”*
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*quotes from evening meditation, day 13 of the 30 Days to Resilience Plan
Joy in the Journey 