I often want to be able to solve a problem quickly. That's fine when it comes to DIY or even a simple admin job, but it is awful, destructive, and sinful when applied to people. Part of the problem I think is absorbed from our culture of the quick fix, the instant remedy. Part of it comes from wanting to remove pain and discomfort from the lives of those I care about. Another part of it comes from wanting to be thought well of, wanting to be 'successful' in pastoring people, maybe even having something to dow with measurable goals or feeling like a job is finished. And yet the Bible does not give us a steady stream of pat answers to life's problems and pains. The Bible is not ordered or indexed or searchable in a way that enables us to look up 'd' for depression, 'a' for anxiety, or 's' for solution and we ought to be grateful for that. Rather what we see is people walking with others through the story of their lives.
Quick answers, half thought through theology, hastily spoken misapplied doctrine is dangerous. Just think of Job's friends. They begin well, they sit and observe Job in silence but the problem comes when they speak and provide answers that are half thought through, received tradition misapplied to Job and his situation. It would have been better if they had kept silent. Or think of Nehemiah, he hears of a problem, he cares deeply about a problem, he is moved to help and literally moved to care for God's people, but he takes time to pray it through. Even when he goes to Jerusalem he takes time to survey the walls and the people and live alongside them as he leads them to build first the walls and then a community with God at the centre within the walls.
There is a lot for us to learn from the Bible's walking with rather than talking at approach. Think of the difference walking with gospel hope alongside a friend struggling with depression and anxiety would make rather than taking at them with quick answers about a situation we have not experienced or whose complexities and pain we don to fully understand. Think of the difference walking with would make in any given situation of suffering you or those in your church family are facing; childlessness, infertility, loss, grief, unemployment, infirmity, disability and so on. That is what Jesus did when he became man, he walked with us through suffering, he wept alongside Martha and Mary, he loved and lost and yet brought hope, it's no accident that we find him in the next chapter in their home again. He walked with them and talked of hope and salvation as he walked.
Offering quick advice is easier but it is not more productive. Walking with is longer term, it is harder work, it takes more commitment, and is more painful but it is what we are called to because it is what Jesus has done for us.
Showing posts with label pain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pain. Show all posts
Wednesday, 22 June 2016
Tuesday, 2 June 2015
The pain of pastoral ministry
There is a difference between being thick skinned and just being uncaring. There is a difference between being tender hearted and just being soft. My hunch is that we are all prone to one or the other of those two. Either we tend to be quickly devastated by any criticism or we have developed a tough carapace that means nothing gets to us at all.
Pastoral ministry is tough, it is painful, it is at times heartbreaking and it was designed to be such. If we think we are doing pastoral ministry without ever experiencing such pain then I think we need to ask if something has gone wrong somewhere. Both Paul and Peter call believers to be tender hearted towards one another. Church is a family therefore when someone leaves or when there is disagreement there is going to be pain.
I wonder sometimes if this is magnified by the way the church promises so much but under delivers this side of eternity. Or at least it does the way we think of it because we have an over realised ecclesiology. I'm not down on church, I'm just wondering sometimes if we expect too much of it. Church is a God's means of displaying his glory which he has staked on the gospel to the world and beyond in ways that we cannot imagine or fathom (Ephesians 3:10). But at the same time Paul writes to two churches calling them to "bearing with one another" (Colossians v13, Ephesians 4v2), and Peter writes to a church calling them to "Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins." (1 Peter 4v8). Paul has to write to the Corinthian church about significant breaches in gospel living, he has to warn two ladies in Philippi, he writes to Philemon about Onesimus. In each and every case we see the imperfections of the church.
And yet so often as believers we are surprised at the imperfections we find in the church. We react as if a brother or sister in Christ who is fighting sin is a failure, and as if the imperfect church is beneath us. We are all a work in progress, God's Spirit working in us to realise grace, conquer sin, produce holiness and joy. Yet too often we are impatient with that work in others, and such impatience spills over into judgement of others. Too often we are quick to look outward rather than inward, quick to cast the first stone rather than examine ourselves. The glory of the church is in the application of the grace of the gospel again and again and again.
Pastoral ministry is tough, it is painful, it is at times heartbreaking and it was designed to be such. If we think we are doing pastoral ministry without ever experiencing such pain then I think we need to ask if something has gone wrong somewhere. Both Paul and Peter call believers to be tender hearted towards one another. Church is a family therefore when someone leaves or when there is disagreement there is going to be pain.
I wonder sometimes if this is magnified by the way the church promises so much but under delivers this side of eternity. Or at least it does the way we think of it because we have an over realised ecclesiology. I'm not down on church, I'm just wondering sometimes if we expect too much of it. Church is a God's means of displaying his glory which he has staked on the gospel to the world and beyond in ways that we cannot imagine or fathom (Ephesians 3:10). But at the same time Paul writes to two churches calling them to "bearing with one another" (Colossians v13, Ephesians 4v2), and Peter writes to a church calling them to "Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins." (1 Peter 4v8). Paul has to write to the Corinthian church about significant breaches in gospel living, he has to warn two ladies in Philippi, he writes to Philemon about Onesimus. In each and every case we see the imperfections of the church.
And yet so often as believers we are surprised at the imperfections we find in the church. We react as if a brother or sister in Christ who is fighting sin is a failure, and as if the imperfect church is beneath us. We are all a work in progress, God's Spirit working in us to realise grace, conquer sin, produce holiness and joy. Yet too often we are impatient with that work in others, and such impatience spills over into judgement of others. Too often we are quick to look outward rather than inward, quick to cast the first stone rather than examine ourselves. The glory of the church is in the application of the grace of the gospel again and again and again.
Wednesday, 13 January 2010
Our faulty view of God
Spent most of today studying Ruth - it is a great book and one I'm looking forward to learning from as we go through it on Sunday evenings at Lighthouse.
One thing in particular struck me today as I focused on Chapter 1 - the faulty nature of Naomi's understanding of God. I had never really noticed it before, quite how I'm not sure. But she lurches from praying that her daughters-in-law as she urges them to leave her would know and experience the ('hesed') unwavering, steadfast loyal love of God, to in the same exhortation (v13)saying God has been against her. A charge that she reiterates when she gets back to Bethlehem and tells them to call her 'Mara' (bitter) not Naomi (pleasant) because the Almighty has made my life very bitter, he has brought her back empty and he has afflicted and brought misfortune on her.
Added to all that as she seeks to send them back to Moab it is not just to the people but to their gods. Naomi's view of God is confused and is not grounded in the law (Gen-Deut) and its revelation of God and his character. It is amazing that Ruth woudl want to ally herself with the God of Naomi.
Her circumstances had made her bitter, her circumstances had determined her view of God. The question is which is right is God 'hesed' steadfastly faithful beyond what people deserve or is he responsible for her bitterness, has he left her bereft and without hope. The great irony is that as she describes herself as empty, beside her stands Ruth who has made Naomi's people and God hers and will be the means through which God provides and shows his hesed love for her.
It is striking because I think so often we are like Naomi - circumstances determined how we view and feel about God rather than how we view God determining how we feel about our circumstances.
Another facet I'd not thought about before is that Naomi is part of the lost generations following on from Judges 2:10 "After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel." I wonder if that is why her understanding of God seems so faulty, if that is what prompted the family to flee to Moab?
One thing in particular struck me today as I focused on Chapter 1 - the faulty nature of Naomi's understanding of God. I had never really noticed it before, quite how I'm not sure. But she lurches from praying that her daughters-in-law as she urges them to leave her would know and experience the ('hesed') unwavering, steadfast loyal love of God, to in the same exhortation (v13)saying God has been against her. A charge that she reiterates when she gets back to Bethlehem and tells them to call her 'Mara' (bitter) not Naomi (pleasant) because the Almighty has made my life very bitter, he has brought her back empty and he has afflicted and brought misfortune on her.
Added to all that as she seeks to send them back to Moab it is not just to the people but to their gods. Naomi's view of God is confused and is not grounded in the law (Gen-Deut) and its revelation of God and his character. It is amazing that Ruth woudl want to ally herself with the God of Naomi.
Her circumstances had made her bitter, her circumstances had determined her view of God. The question is which is right is God 'hesed' steadfastly faithful beyond what people deserve or is he responsible for her bitterness, has he left her bereft and without hope. The great irony is that as she describes herself as empty, beside her stands Ruth who has made Naomi's people and God hers and will be the means through which God provides and shows his hesed love for her.
It is striking because I think so often we are like Naomi - circumstances determined how we view and feel about God rather than how we view God determining how we feel about our circumstances.
Another facet I'd not thought about before is that Naomi is part of the lost generations following on from Judges 2:10 "After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel." I wonder if that is why her understanding of God seems so faulty, if that is what prompted the family to flee to Moab?
Tuesday, 24 June 2008
It is well with my soul
It is well with my soul is one of my favourite hymns, both for the truths it sets forth but also because it is a great rock when sufferings hit.
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot,
Thou hast taught me to say
It is well, it is well with my soul
It is well (it is well)With my soul (with my soul)
It is well, it is well with my soul
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come
Let this blessed assurance control
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate
And hath shed His own blood for my soul
My sin, 0 the bliss of this glorious thought
My sin, not in part but in whole
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, 0 my soul!
And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll
The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend
Even so, it is well with my soul
Spafford was a Chicago lawyer, but this great hymn was not written in the midst of ease and plenty but pain, grief and almost unimaginable personal tragedy. In 1870 their only son was killed by scarlet fever at the age of four. A year later, it was fire rather than fever that struck. Horatio had invested heavily in real estate on the shores of Lake Michigan. In 1871, every one of these holdings was wiped out by the great Chicago Fire.
Aware of the toll that these disasters had taken on the family, Horatio decided to take his wife and four daughters on a holiday to England. They needed the rest and their friend DL Moody needed the help as he was traveling around Britain on one of his evangelistic campaigns. They planned to join Moody in late 1873 and traveled to New York in November, from where they were to catch the French steamer 'Ville de Havre' across the Atlantic.
Just before they set sail, some last-minute business forced Horatio to delay. Not wanting to ruin the family holiday, Spafford persuaded his family to go as planned saying that he would follow on. Anna and her four daughters sailed to Europe while Spafford went back to Chicago. Just nine days later, Spafford received a telegram from his wife in Wales. It read: "Saved alone."
On November 2nd 1873, the 'Ville de Havre' had collided with 'The Lochearn', and sank in only 12 minutes, claiming the lives of 226 people. Anna Spafford had stood bravely on the deck, with her daughters Annie, Maggie, Bessie and Tanetta clinging desperately to her. Her last memory had been of her baby being torn violently from her arms by the force of the waters. Anna was only saved by a plank which floated beneath her unconscious body and propped her up. When the survivors of the wreck had been rescued, her first reaction was complete despair. Then she heard a voice speak to her, "You were spared for a purpose." And she immediately recalled the words of a friend, "It's easy to be grateful and good when you have so much, but take care that you are not a fair-weather friend to God."
Upon hearing the news, Horatio boarded the next ship out of New York to join his bereaved wife. Bertha Spafford (the fifth daughter of Horatio and Anna born later) explained that during her father's voyage, the captain of the ship had called him to the bridge. "A careful reckoning has been made", he said, "and I believe we are now passing the place where the de Havre was wrecked. The water is three miles deep." Horatio returned to his cabin and penned the lyrics of his great hymn.
The words Spafford wrote that day come from 2 Kings 4:26 and echo the response of the Shunammite woman to the sudden death of her only son. Though "her soul is vexed within her", she maintains that 'It is well." And Spafford's song reveals a man whose trust in the Lord is as unwavering as hers was.
His worship doesn't just depend on how he feels. "Whatever my lot", he says, come rain or shine, pleasure or pain, success or failure, joy or grief "Thou hast taught me to say / It is well, it is well with my soul".
Nor does his worship centre on himself rather he focuses on what God has already done at the cross (0 the bliss of this glorious thought / My sin ... is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more) and what God will do in the future ("Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight / The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend").
In fact, Spafford's worship brings us back to the bottom line: at the end of the day, come hell or high-water, it is "this blessed assurance" that holds us fast.
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot,
Thou hast taught me to say
It is well, it is well with my soul
It is well (it is well)With my soul (with my soul)
It is well, it is well with my soul
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come
Let this blessed assurance control
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate
And hath shed His own blood for my soul
My sin, 0 the bliss of this glorious thought
My sin, not in part but in whole
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, 0 my soul!
And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll
The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend
Even so, it is well with my soul
Spafford was a Chicago lawyer, but this great hymn was not written in the midst of ease and plenty but pain, grief and almost unimaginable personal tragedy. In 1870 their only son was killed by scarlet fever at the age of four. A year later, it was fire rather than fever that struck. Horatio had invested heavily in real estate on the shores of Lake Michigan. In 1871, every one of these holdings was wiped out by the great Chicago Fire.
Aware of the toll that these disasters had taken on the family, Horatio decided to take his wife and four daughters on a holiday to England. They needed the rest and their friend DL Moody needed the help as he was traveling around Britain on one of his evangelistic campaigns. They planned to join Moody in late 1873 and traveled to New York in November, from where they were to catch the French steamer 'Ville de Havre' across the Atlantic.
Just before they set sail, some last-minute business forced Horatio to delay. Not wanting to ruin the family holiday, Spafford persuaded his family to go as planned saying that he would follow on. Anna and her four daughters sailed to Europe while Spafford went back to Chicago. Just nine days later, Spafford received a telegram from his wife in Wales. It read: "Saved alone."
On November 2nd 1873, the 'Ville de Havre' had collided with 'The Lochearn', and sank in only 12 minutes, claiming the lives of 226 people. Anna Spafford had stood bravely on the deck, with her daughters Annie, Maggie, Bessie and Tanetta clinging desperately to her. Her last memory had been of her baby being torn violently from her arms by the force of the waters. Anna was only saved by a plank which floated beneath her unconscious body and propped her up. When the survivors of the wreck had been rescued, her first reaction was complete despair. Then she heard a voice speak to her, "You were spared for a purpose." And she immediately recalled the words of a friend, "It's easy to be grateful and good when you have so much, but take care that you are not a fair-weather friend to God."
Upon hearing the news, Horatio boarded the next ship out of New York to join his bereaved wife. Bertha Spafford (the fifth daughter of Horatio and Anna born later) explained that during her father's voyage, the captain of the ship had called him to the bridge. "A careful reckoning has been made", he said, "and I believe we are now passing the place where the de Havre was wrecked. The water is three miles deep." Horatio returned to his cabin and penned the lyrics of his great hymn.
The words Spafford wrote that day come from 2 Kings 4:26 and echo the response of the Shunammite woman to the sudden death of her only son. Though "her soul is vexed within her", she maintains that 'It is well." And Spafford's song reveals a man whose trust in the Lord is as unwavering as hers was.
His worship doesn't just depend on how he feels. "Whatever my lot", he says, come rain or shine, pleasure or pain, success or failure, joy or grief "Thou hast taught me to say / It is well, it is well with my soul".
Nor does his worship centre on himself rather he focuses on what God has already done at the cross (0 the bliss of this glorious thought / My sin ... is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more) and what God will do in the future ("Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight / The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend").
In fact, Spafford's worship brings us back to the bottom line: at the end of the day, come hell or high-water, it is "this blessed assurance" that holds us fast.
Thursday, 31 May 2007
How could a loving God allow suffering?
I think this is definitely the number one question that people raise, at least in my experience. And the question is where to begin in answering it.
Genesis 1 and 2 paints a glorious picture of a world without suffering and pain because it is world unmarred and perfectly created by God and which is in relationship with him. The Bible has at its other end the future, the new creation which is a world without suffering and pain again a consequence of being in a right relationship with God. The answer to how could a loving God allow suffering is seen in the Bible between those two bookends.
Genesis 3 is the obvious place to go, suffering is a consequence of our rejection of God and a relationship with him, it ruins the perfect world God made and gave. In the chapters immediately following Adam and Eve's rejection of God sin snowballs and suffering abounds. All a consequence of that decision to determine right and wrong for ourselves.
But why does God allow it? The Bible teaches that God has to judge sin. This is hard for us to take with our postmodern views and cultural norms but it is the truth. God hates sin, it grieves him, and he has to judge it, he is also just in the way he does so. So in the account of the flood we see God judge sin which is the cause of suffering.
Ask yourself who deserves to be judged by God? Hitler? Stalin? Jack the Ripper? How about terrorists? Child abusers? Murderers? Why do they deserve to be judged, because they cause suffering for others, or because they break our shifting moral code. God's standard is perfect, it is total obedience to his standards and we all fall short. If God is going to stop suffering he has to judge every one who has caused suffering to others and that includes me.
How could a loving God allow suffering? Because he is giving me time to repent. But also because it is his megaphone calling me to recognise that there is something wrong with the world in which we live. Leprosy is a horrible disease, it works by deadening the nerves so that sufferers lose sensation, that's why they will be missing a finger or toe or whatever. The nerves were dead so they didn't experience any pain when it was damaged, or when the knife or axe made contact with it. Pain is a warning, it tells us something is wrong and to address that situation. Suffering and pain tell us that something is wrong with the world in which we live, the Bible says God didn't make it this way, we corrupted it this way, and God's future for his people is a world where he will not allow suffering.
And the gospels give us a glimpse of just what that world will be like as Jesus heals the sick, casts out demons, and raises the dead and proves that he can bring it about. Jesus shows us that God is going to do something about suffering for those who will put their trust in him, but he wants to judge sin and suffering without destroying us so he sends Jesus to die on the cross in our place for our sins and the suffering we have caused for others, so that God can justly deal with rebellion and yet graciously save us for the future he has planned.
Genesis 1 and 2 paints a glorious picture of a world without suffering and pain because it is world unmarred and perfectly created by God and which is in relationship with him. The Bible has at its other end the future, the new creation which is a world without suffering and pain again a consequence of being in a right relationship with God. The answer to how could a loving God allow suffering is seen in the Bible between those two bookends.
Genesis 3 is the obvious place to go, suffering is a consequence of our rejection of God and a relationship with him, it ruins the perfect world God made and gave. In the chapters immediately following Adam and Eve's rejection of God sin snowballs and suffering abounds. All a consequence of that decision to determine right and wrong for ourselves.
But why does God allow it? The Bible teaches that God has to judge sin. This is hard for us to take with our postmodern views and cultural norms but it is the truth. God hates sin, it grieves him, and he has to judge it, he is also just in the way he does so. So in the account of the flood we see God judge sin which is the cause of suffering.
Ask yourself who deserves to be judged by God? Hitler? Stalin? Jack the Ripper? How about terrorists? Child abusers? Murderers? Why do they deserve to be judged, because they cause suffering for others, or because they break our shifting moral code. God's standard is perfect, it is total obedience to his standards and we all fall short. If God is going to stop suffering he has to judge every one who has caused suffering to others and that includes me.
How could a loving God allow suffering? Because he is giving me time to repent. But also because it is his megaphone calling me to recognise that there is something wrong with the world in which we live. Leprosy is a horrible disease, it works by deadening the nerves so that sufferers lose sensation, that's why they will be missing a finger or toe or whatever. The nerves were dead so they didn't experience any pain when it was damaged, or when the knife or axe made contact with it. Pain is a warning, it tells us something is wrong and to address that situation. Suffering and pain tell us that something is wrong with the world in which we live, the Bible says God didn't make it this way, we corrupted it this way, and God's future for his people is a world where he will not allow suffering.
And the gospels give us a glimpse of just what that world will be like as Jesus heals the sick, casts out demons, and raises the dead and proves that he can bring it about. Jesus shows us that God is going to do something about suffering for those who will put their trust in him, but he wants to judge sin and suffering without destroying us so he sends Jesus to die on the cross in our place for our sins and the suffering we have caused for others, so that God can justly deal with rebellion and yet graciously save us for the future he has planned.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)