So before we started this trip they talked to us about rights and expectations. Do you have the expectation to shower daily? To like where you are? To like who you are with? To be safe? In theory, I was prepared for anything that was thrown at me. I was ready to live with bugs, in the heat, unclean at times, in an amped, tight-knit form of community…in theory.
There comes a point where theory becomes reality and you get to really know if you can handle something or not. More importantly, when the going gets tough, you get to see where the allegiances of your heart lie.Â
Often times we sell the prosperity gospel because it sounds good and we think we can get more people to bite the bait. After all, we are called to be fishers of men, right? And in part, what we are presenting is absolutely correct. We do have a good God who loves us unconditionally. We do have a God who will always provide for us. We do have a God who bends down and hears every one of our prayers. What we don’t have is a God who cares more about our comfort than the state of our hearts. What we don’t have is a God who promised to make everything easy. What we don’t have is a God who always answers our requests the way that we want.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,� you say. “I know all of this,� you say. But do you? Because I thought I did, and a few blips in my comfort and convenience and I had to face the reality that part of my heart was not fully on board with this whole good God in suffering stuff. When you chose to marry your spouse and it turned out to be hard, did you doubt God and his guidance? If you were hit by a car and lost your ability to run, walk, function with the independence you once had, would you still be able to praise God for his constant provision? Or would you wonder why He didn’t keep you safe? If you went to wake up your 9 month old from a nap to find them dead in their crib, would you wonder if God was there? If He even existed? If He was good? Because you know what, God is there. Through all of it. And His goodness doesn’t change just because the ugliness and brokenness of the world reared its ugly head in your life. He doesn’t love you any less because He didn’t stop the evil and brokenness of this world from affecting you. He is there in your marriage, in the car when you got paralyzed, with your child when He took them home very, very prematurely.
Job seemed to grasp this best when He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.� And in all that happened to him, Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.
But so often that is what we do, is it not? We get angry with God and charge Him with wrong. We feel betrayed that He would allow for something bad to happen to us, His beloved. The truth is, we live in a broken world and you will not walk out unscathed. Yes, God loves you, deeply. He sees and feels the depths of the brokenness of this world far, far more than you. Because it isn’t just the two or three major tragedies of your life that He feels, but every single one the world over. And it hurts Him, too. He hates it more than you. He hates it so much that when He foresaw the brokenness and hurting, the sin and the lies, the natural disasters and dead infants, He sent His one and only son to come and die and rise again. He sent Him so that through Jesus, He could redeem the world.
But know this, beloved, the victor has been established, but the war is not yet over. We are being redeemed as individuals and we have the ability- through Christ- to witness Kingdom coming in our world today, but it is not over. It may stink, and you may not understand why, but the reality of it is that we are living in the in-between time. The closest analogy I can give is that we are in that time between D-Day and VE-day. Victory is certain, but it is not yet here. Jesus speaks to the apostles a message that also rings true for us and our lives in this time saying, “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.�
Hard times will come. Loved ones will die. Your possessions will be lost, stolen, or broken. You will be hurt, betrayed, walking wounded. In those times you can cry out to God because He is able to handle anything, but be wary of charging Him with wrong. He never said that it would be easy. He never said you would get everything you wanted. I challenge you to drop that expectation, right now before the next trial comes and you sin against God.  What He does promise, is that He is there with us every step of the way. Oh Beloved, He is there. Whether you feel Him or not, He is there. He is faithful. He has promised to never leave or forsake you. After all, you are His creation.  He has placed part of Himself in you, and He is incapable of leaving or forsaking Himself. So do not fear and do not be dismayed. God is with you, and God is good. In the good and the bad, the ups and the downs, in all things, praise Him.
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