Jim Pace

Diaspora Week Six…

July 15, 2010 | 1 Comment

Hello everybody.

I realize that I am not only being cliche, but redundant as I express my shock that so much of the summer has gone by already! So, there it is. Again.

I doubt it will be the last time either. 🙂

This season of the year is always a bit of a unique one. A key group that [nlcf] reaches out to are college students, so the start of the fall semester is always a very busy one for us. But busyness isn’t the issue.

The start of fall signals the start of a season where we have very specific goals. Goals that we need God to step into and enable, or we simply won’t hit them. This fall is no different. And that is why this time of the year feels so unique.

This time of the year begs the question, “What if God doesn’t do his part in the way we are expecting him to?” Yes, we have a part to do in all this, but unless God shows up and does the heavy lifting, then we are stuck.

That question then leads to others, “Why didn’t he do his part? Did we misunderstand? Is he trying to show us that we are on the wrong track? Are our hearts wrong?” And a litany of questions like them.

What do we do when God doesn’t do what we thought he was going to do?

This question, like so many we have reflected on this summer, have so many levels to them, so many nuances, that we simply cannot reflect on them all. So, let’s try to go after what we can. There is one that I hear lurking underneath so many of the others in my own heart, but also in the hearts of those that ask similar questions. What does it say about God’s love for me when he doesn’t show up and do what I ask him to?

Not surprisingly, this one runs very deep, so let’s take a look. And let’s start in the chapter that many people — and commentaries — call the Hall of Faith, Hebrews 11.

I would strongly encourage you to read the whole chapter, as I am going to pick it up in verse thirty-two. And away we go…

32 “And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again.” Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. 37 They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated– 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. 39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. 40 God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.”

Start out great, eh? The first of the chapter is a list of those that trusted God, and in return, God did amazing things through them. In verse thirty-two the author of Hebrews starts picking up speed and lists a number of people together.

Then we get to the close of the chapter.

It starts with another amazing list. Things that probably all of us would want. “…who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again.”

Who would argue with those results?! Amazing things done that only God could do. Powerful expressions of God’s love, power, and attentiveness; enacted at just the right time. These are the results we all would love to be able to count on.

But the chapter continues on. “Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. 37 They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated– 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.”

Now these? These people had it rough. Tortured, flogged, mocked. Some were homeless. The sheepskins and goatskins they were talking about would have been the castoffs, the pieces that anyone that could afford to would toss out. Most of us would take one look at them and, after we got over our pity, would consider their faith overall a failure. These people would have likely been like us and would have asked for God to remove their situation from them, would have asked him for help in a very palpable way.

Wouldn’t we?

And clearly he didn’t.

But then look at this amazing couple of sentences. 39 “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. 40 God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.”

They were commended for their faith. God was doing something bigger. I love the very tender line in there, the world was not worthy of them.

Here is what this section of verses helps me to understand. God honors my faith. Very simple, eh? But true. He honors, he appreciates, he loves, he even in some manner rewards the faith I show in him. My trust of him matters. Not just my trust that he will do what I think he should. Not just my trust that I will get what I ask for. It’s bigger than that.

I think what he values most in our trust is that we have it in him. That just like in those few tough to read verses, even if we don’t get what we want, that he is weaving our short lives into his unfolding story. That, as much as he does love us, if we must go through difficulty, it is important in ways we don’t understand.

Jesus seemed to be clear on that with the disciples. He told them they would be kicked out of the synagogues — something that had many more implications than we would think — they would be hunted, he even told them that some would be killed. Not because they were letting God down, not because they were always doing it wrong.

Primarily because the world is broken, and we are broken in it. And as God is involving us in his plan to bring us back to what he originally created us to be, sometimes he would need to do things that would won’t get. Sometimes things will happen in ways we won’t get.

Our faith, mostly simply put, is our trust in God that he has got it under control.

So, our faith won’t make everything predictable, even though there clearly will be times that God will honor our requests down to the very word. Our faith won’t always happen the way we think it should or on a timeline that we agree with.

But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use it! Far from it, God is telling us to use it in every occasion; to ask one another what we are using our faith for, to encourage and challenge one another to use it all the time. To see our faith as the most precious thing we have. Our faith isn’t about playing it safe, only attempting the things that we can handle on our own. Or even that are private enough that, should they not work out our way, we can avoid embarrassment.

Our faith is going to get banged up by our world, it’s going to happen. But it will also allow God to use us in ways we could never imagine on our own. This week, let’s really reflect on our faith.

Reflection
What are you believing God for, this week?
What are you doing that requires God to show up or it will fail?
How have you handled those unavoidable occasions where God hasn’t done it your way or according to your timeline?

Prayer
This week, get together with a few other followers of Jesus, and take a few moments to share how what you are trusting God for in your life right now. Then take maybe thirty minutes and pray. Pray for those things, pray for each other’s faith — that it might be stronger and more used. Please also pray for [nlcf], that we would be a church that individually and collectively trusts God.

Share
Then respond back and let us know what we can be praying for you. If God has been doing anything wild to honor your faith, share that with us too.

Loving this journey with you all!

Faith!
Jim

Categories: Church, Diaspora, General, life, Mission