“If you live far enough away from trouble, trouble will never find you.” So says Henry Smith’s father in Gary D. Schmidt’s Newbery Award winning novel, Trouble. Of course, when Henry’s older brother is hit by a car and eventually dies, Henry must reevaluate his father’s words. He and his brother had planned to climb Maine’s Mount Katahdin together, but now, Henry musters the courage to proceed with their plans, partly as a tribute, but mostly “to learn how to live with trouble,” terrified as he is to face this challenge alone. Later, Henry is in the hospital, having escaped death himself while on Mount Katahdin. Contemplating all he has been through, he says, “The world is trouble and grace. That’s all there is.”
In last week’s Sunday school lesson we read and discussed two passages where trouble’s results were favorable, but how should Christians react when the outcome is a sad one, despite much faith and prayer? Yesterday we attended the funeral of a 41 year old father of four who had been pressing toward the goal of a heart transplant for 6 months before succumbing to complications related to the transplant itself. Hundreds of friends and relatives are still reeling at the devastating results experienced by a Christian family buoyed up by hope and prayer for so long. We just received an email from the daddy of the heart transplant recipient. He said that though God did not touch his son directly in terms of a complete healing, his family felt that God had communicated with them, fed them, and ministered to them through all of us in cyberspace or in person, by the giving of our support and prayers. God had shown His face through us, and that by sharing in their burden, they were better able to carry it.
Some Christian’s believe that their faith shields them from calamity, but rabbit’s foot theology will always let us down. Jesus’s love and example won’t. Love will never disappoint, and God’s love is always visible when we come together to share our joys or sorrows in a Sunday school class, on a blog, when we pray together, or when we are gathered together to honor anyone, dead or alive. As the rector at the funeral said yesterday, “When there is love in the house, God is there.”
When trouble knocks at your door, do you think it’s God’s doing? Do you think He allows trouble for a purpose, that there is method in His madness, that trouble happens and God’s grace gets you through it, or that there is another reason why bad things happen to good people? Any thoughts?
PS. I just noticed that Jim Somerville's latest post "Vending Machine Prayers" is about this same subject, and so interesting. Check it out here!
Oh, Jeannie,
ReplyDeleteIt's plain to see where you are today. I'm sorry for the loss of your dear friend. I so love your heart, which is capable of such great love and passion. You ask one of life's greatest questions, where does trouble come from.
When presented with this dilemma, I take a deep breath and allow the moment to wash over me and allow (or at least try momentarily) to allow my need for certainty to pass. God is in it, busy in it.
I believe that when we bear another's burden--feel the weight of it, it spreads the grief across many souls. I spoke with a dear friend today who is struggling as a friend of hers has a diagnosis of cancer, with more and more bad news on a daily basis. My friend said it affects her, she can't concentrate at work, she exhausted and feels overwhelmed with the grief of it all. I believe that because she shares the struggle of her precious friend, the burden is lighter for the friend. She said that her friend has confirmed this--just as the family of yours has to you.
I was on the receiving end of this when my mother had a stroke, many years ago. I was a new Christian and my new church family was holding me up in prayer and I experienced a lightness I could not explain in any other way. Sounds a bit "out there" but I think it is a spiritual phenomena that goes beyond logic.
No, I don't think God causes the trouble. But there is, indeed, trouble. And we have hands and feet and hearts, in our human form, to share in the troubles of life.
Jeannie I am so sorry to hear abuot your friend.Yet I am very encouraged by the amount of faithyou shared that his family has.When you loose someone very close to your heart it is avery tough thing to go through.It sounds to me like they know exactly where their hope lies that is in Jesus.
ReplyDeleteI have just read the epistle reading for this week.It is about Pauls thorn in the flesh and how that is a weakness for him.Yet how he observed that through this weakness he grew stronger in Jesus.I believe your friends family and you and Jeff wil grow sronger as you go through this time.May God bless all of ou
Jeannie & Jeff: So sorry to hear the news of your friend's loss despite the transplant. I think trouble is sometimes used by God to make changes or move in the direction He wants us to go; not that He causes the situation per se; but, that it is a catalyst or perhaps step in our journey that may change our course for the better. That has certainly happened for me several times as I have dealt with and faced difficulties.
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