Messy in the Middle

Candy's thoughts: One of the positives that comes from making preparations for a remodeling project is that lost items can be found. Last Friday I came across a file containing my favorite magazine articles from 2006/7. This one, presented below, is by Andree Seu Peterson, my all-time favorite article-writer; in modern language (2019) she would be described as a "blogger." 😁  

I have read this essay a couple of times, and while I agree and am vastly encouraged with its entirety (and especially the last sentence!), I wonder why I won't remember it when I encounter the next big challenge in my life. Do I just have eternity-amnesia (a phrase coined by Paul Tripp)? Andree appropriately had a subtitle to this article entitled "Messy in the Middle: But the end of the story can change everything."  I pray that God would help me in my constant forgetfulness about the glorious ending to our individual and collective lives. 💜

Andree's thoughts: "Pasteur Jean-Christophe Bieselaar is overworked and understaffed in Paris, for the glory of God. His email contained news of vandalism to his church, L'Eglise Protestante Evangelique de la Défense, and concluded with this note: "Let me tell you the truth as a pastor, can I? This is bad-and discouraging."

But that is the middle of a story, not an ending.

Pamela, a distant acquaintance, shared the dark night of her soul at a meeting in 1998: Her father was leaving her mother for a woman younger than his daughter. Devastation. Sackcloth and ashes. End of the world as Pamela knew it.

That was also the middle of the story. When I met her over breakfast recently she was radiant. She had seen over nine years that the Lord brings about the most improbably wonderful finales: the restoration of a family to more glory than before the tragedy. No wonder Abraham's son was named "laughter." Back in '98, Pam would have changed the hand dealt her. But, as a retreat speaker once said, "Would you really want to be in control of your own life? I can't even reset the clock on my VCR."

The end of a matter is what counts (Ecclesiastes 7:8). If the end is nice, the middle mess is not only bearable but takes on the endpoint's sheen. "Not only this valley but all this earthly past will have been Heaven to those who are saved. . . . This is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal suffering, 'No future bliss can make up for it,' not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory" (C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce).

Satan wants you to believe the middle will last forever. A bit of the blues comes your way and you say, "Life stinks"-which is quite an extrapolation. But remember, the Polaroid shot of a tossed ball snapped at its arc's midpoint only seems to be stuck in the air. It won't stay there. The woman with the 12 years of bleeding (Luke 8) and the man lame for 38 years (John 5)-these are stories short in the reading but long in the living. But see what Jesus brought about.

Someone I love is presently perplexed that the Lord seemed to "dangle" a blessing in his life, only to snatch it away. "Why would God get my hopes up to let me down?" The short answer is "I don't know." The longer answer, from three decades' extra perspective, is that God, like any good Father, sees around corners for His children and snatches them out of the way of oncoming cars. He also drags His kids, kicking and screaming, from their cherished mud puddles, to take them to the beach.

Job, stuck in a brutal middle, cried, "I know that my Redeemer lives" (19:25). And that is the key to everything, to surviving brutal middles. "This is the victory that overcomes the world-our faith" (1 John 5:4). Those who believe not merely survive but flourish: "As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs" (Psalm 84:6).

My brother Marc, in God Still Loves the French, chronicles 20 years of beating his head against the wall as a missionary in France. I don't know, does God still love the French? Does he love Pasteur Jean-Christophe Bieselaar? Bieselaar and Mailloux in France are not unlike Paul in Asia, whose life was messy in the middle freeze frames.

And so are we all "afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed but not driven to despair" (2 Corinthians 4:8). A cloud of witnesses flanks the path of suffering, each one a living spring, dispensing ablutions of inspiration like so many cheering fans thrusting water cups along the Tour de France."

Quotables

I love my smart phone because it enables me to save so much time! I like being able to take a 'screenshot' of many things I find on the internet. I no longer have to scramble for a piece of paper and some writing utensil in order to remember facts or ideas, because with technology I can just take a picture of it. 😉

Here are the last few months of screenshots that I've collected featuring quotes from modern and not-so-modern theologians. I'd like to hear from you as to which ones you found most inspiring/memorable/convicting/thought-provoking.

I favor #2, #4, #7, #8, #9, and #11. What about you?

1. "God is more worthy of interest, attention, admiration, and enjoyment than all other realities, including the entire universe."
     John Piper

2.  "I have given God a million reasons not to love me.  None of them changed His mind."
     Unknown

3.  "If you're a Christian, you believe in a sovereign Creator God who created the entire cosmos as the theater of His glory, and there is not one atom or molecule that is outside His sovereignty in the universe."
     Al Mohler

4.  "To expose our minds constantly to ungodly thinking is a great danger."
     Alistair Begg

5.  "It is utterly crucial that in our darkness we affirm the wise, strong hand of God to hold us, even when we have no strength to hold Him."
     John Piper

6.  "You can love without agreeing with someone. You can disagree without hating them."
     Tim Keller

7.  "God only uses imperfect people: Noah got drunk, Moses was angry, Rahab was a a prostitute, Abraham was a liar, David was a murdering adulterer, Elijah was depressed, Jonah was self-righteous, Peter was cowardly, Paul was a persecutor, Thomas doubted. God's grace is greater than all our sin."
     Garrett Kell

8. "The pain now is part of the happiness then. That's the deal. To deny that loss is to deny the love."
     C.S. Lewis  (This is the one quote that I always share with my GriefShare friends.)

9.  "I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned, and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren't true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world - and they couldn't keep a lie for three weeks. You're telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible."
     Charles Colson

10.  "He foresaw my every fall, my every sin, my every backsliding; yet, nevertheless, fixed his heart upon me."
     Arthur W. Pink

11. "We forget that God's primary goal is not changing our situations or relationships so that we can be happy, but changing us through our situations and relationships so that we will be holy."
     Paul David Tripp

12.  "The great basis of Christian assurance is not how much our hearts are set on God, but how unshakably his heart is set on us."
     Tim Keller

Why me? Why NOT me?

I first came to know of David Powlison many years ago through his participation on GriefShare videos and then by reading his book When People Are Big and God Is Small. Until his death last week (from pancreatic cancer) he was an editor, counselor, speaker, and writer at CCEF (Christian Counseling and Education Foundation). He authored several books and many booklets on various topics combining reformed theology with practical advice on how to overcome sinful and dangerous behaviors using the words of Scripture. The book he was working on when he died is scheduled to be released this fall: Safe and Sound: Standing Firm in Spiritual Battles.

Here are some excerpts from his book entitled God's Grace in your Suffering. These are humbling, convicting, and yet immensely hopeful and encouraging thoughts from a gracious man of God. I pray that God will minister to CandyceLand readers as you contemplate David Powlison's words:

"[God] comes for you, in the flesh, in Christ, into suffering, on your behalf. He does not offer advice and perspective from afar; he steps into your significant suffering. He will see you through, and work with you the whole way. He will carry you even in extremes. This reality changes the questions that rise up from your heart. That inward-turning “why me?” quiets down, lifts its eyes, and begins to look around. You turn outward and new, wonderful questions form.

Why you? Why you? Why would you enter this world of evils? Why would you go through loss, weakness, hardship, sorrow, and death? Why would you do this for me, of all people?

But you did.

You did this for the joy set before you. You did this for love. You did this showing the glory of God in the face of Christ.

As that deeper question sinks home, you become joyously sane. The universe is no longer supremely about you. Yet you are not irrelevant. God’s story makes you just the right size. Everything counts, but the scale changes to something that makes much more sense. You face hard things. But you have already received something better which can never be taken away. And that better something will continue to work out the whole journey long.

The question generates a heartfelt response:

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget any of his benefits, who pardons all your iniquities and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion, who satisfies your years with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle.

Thank you, my Father. You are able to give true voice to a thank you amid all that is truly wrong, both the sins and the sufferings that now have come under lovingkindness.

Finally, you are prepared to pose—and to mean—almost unimaginable questions:

Why not me? Why not this? Why not now?

If in some way, my faith might serve as a three-watt night-light in a very dark world, why not me? If my suffering shows forth the Savior of the world, why not me? If I have the privilege of filling up the sufferings of Christ? If he sanctifies to me my deepest distress? If I fear no evil? If he bears me in his arms? If my weakness demonstrates the power of God to save us from all that is wrong? If my honest struggle shows other strugglers how to land on their feet? If my life becomes a source of hope for others?

Why not me?

Of course, you don’t want to suffer, but you’ve become willing: “If it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Like him, your loud cries and tears will in fact be heard by the one who saves from death. Like him, you will learn obedience through what you suffer. Like him, you will sympathize with the weaknesses of others. Like him, you will deal gently with the ignorant and wayward. Like him, you will display faith to a faithless world, hope to a hopeless world, love to a loveless world, life to a dying world.

If all that God promises only comes true, then why not me?"

The Church's One Foundation

"And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."  (Matthew 16:18)

Candy's thoughts: It was Easter Sunday, 1983. Steve and I attended First Presbyterian Church in Berkeley, CA.  It was my first time observing and participating in a Protestant service, and the first time I ever heard the hymn "The Church's One Foundation."  I was absolutely mesmerized by the preaching that day, and by the congregational singing of this hymn in particular. I thought it was such a beautiful tune, and the words, while strange and confusing to my soon-to-be-converted heart, still tugged at me in a mysterious way. I wanted to hear more of this type of preaching and singing.

Fast forward 36 years and "The Church's One Foundation" remains in my Top 3 Favorite Hymns list in my mind. It always brings tears to my eyes, both because of its loveliness, but also because God used it so many years ago as part of the process of claiming me to be His.

Here is the story behind the writing of this hymn:

Lindsay Terry's thoughts: "Stainless in character, strong in body, steady in nerve, studious in learning, and swift to the defense of the gospel are said to be characteristics of one Samuel John Stone, born in England in 1839.

"His tender heart led him to the down-and-outer, the man on the other side of the tracks. He was a great leader of his people and was loved by them all.

"Even in his later years he enjoyed a remarkable ministry among the shop hands and office workers of London. As the early, cheaper trains began to stream in the city bringing the workers, Samuel Stone would open his church and have periods of singing and short messages for the people. He then would allow them to sit quietly and visit, sew, or read until it was time for them to begin their day's work.

"He noted that many used the 'Apostle's Creed' in their praying, but that few had any comprehension of its meaning. This ignorance, coupled with the blasphemy of the evolutionist and materialist of his day, prompted Stone to write one of the truly great hymns used in our churches today, 'The Church's One Foundation.'

                             The Church's one foundation

                             Is Jesus Christ her Lord;

                             She is His new creation

                             By water and the Word:

                             From Heaven He came and sought her

                             To be His holy bride;

                             With His own blood He bought her,

                             And for her life He died.

"No hymn could be more Scriptural. In the first stanza the writer tells that the foundation of Christ's Church is Himself, that a man must be born of water and the Word, and that Christ gave Himself for His Church and purchased her with His own blood.

"Reflection:  It is not enough to know about Christ. In order to go to heaven we must know Him and we must become His. When we give Christ His rightful place, the rest of our theology seems to fall in place."