The Hole in the World

There’s a hole in the world tonight.

There’s a cloud of fear and sorrow.

The night my husband died, these words from the song by the Eagles kept running through my head. His death left a big hole that will be forever unfilled, at least in this life.

He left a young son to grow through his teen years without a father, and believe me, every teen boy needs a dad. My youngest son has an empty spot, a hole, where a dad should be, and he will always feel it. I know this because my husband also had a hole, one left by his own father who died when he was a child. He always longed for something he didn't have.

But the hole in the world is bigger than the empty spot left when a son loses his dad, although there’s nothing like the death of someone you need and love to reveal the all-encompassing hole—the big hole made up of all the smaller holes. The hole is bigger, even, than the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack the song was written for, and it's not just there tonight, but always.

When I was younger, I wanted to believe my story would start with “once upon a time” and end with “they lived happily ever after,” but even then, deep down, I knew that none of this world’s true stories are fairy tales. At some point, we all realize that even as we struggle to gain, we are not even maintaining. We strive for stability, but things keep changing, and not for the better. We build buffers against the unexpected, but they are never as strong as we imagine, and we are always one disaster away from losing everything.

Hurricanes come, and fires and earthquakes and floods and debilitating diseases. Evil people harm others in acts of shocking cruelty. Worst of all, death is inevitable, for ourselves and for everyone we love. We live our lives fearing future losses and grieving past ones.

Have you thought about why Jesus wept when his friend Lazarus died (John 11)? We know he planned to raise him: “I go,” he said, “to awaken him.” Yet he was “deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled” when he saw Mary and the others weeping. He wept, I suppose, in sympathy for them, yet he knew their bereavement would be short-lived. In just moments, they would be celebrating like never before. Do you think he wept because he knew that however brief their sorrow this time round, and however joyful the reunion, Lazarus would die again? Their sorrow would return, inescapably, over and over for the rest of their lives. Did Jesus weep because of the hole in the world?

Still, Lazarus and his sisters had hope for the future, and so can we. The one who raised Lazarus has already defeated death, and one day all those who believe in him will have their own resurrection. One day creation will have it’s redemption and everything wrong will be made right. No more hole, not because the world is patched up, but because the world is made new.

But in the meantime, life is painful. The hole is everywhere; we can't ignore it. We grieve, not like those who have no hope, but we still grieve.

Jesus, the one who defeated death, wept in the face of it. We can't do better than Jesus.

This is an edited version of post I wrote 10 years ago. It seemed appropriate to repost it now. 

Women in Scripture: Ruth and Naomi (Titus 2 in Reverse)

Ruth 1:16 But Ruth said (to Naomi), “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God."

Like most women, I've always had a particular affinity toward the portrait of redemption handed down in the story of Ruth. The sweeping tale of Boaz, the kinsman-redeemer, restoring the line of Elimelech by taking Naomi's daughter-in-law, Ruth, as his beloved wife upstages Disney by a mile. That such a noble man as Boaz would be willing to risk his own inheritance so that the inheritance of a deceased family member would be left intact defies conventional wisdom and truly boggles the rational mind. This is a man who understands love and covenant. Learning that the son of this Gentile widow and her kinsman-redeemer would not only become the grandfather of King David, but eventually would even be named in the bloodline genealogy of the Messiah, ought to inspire us all, especially those of us who were not born into the covenant and raised in the church.

An equally inspiring relational dynamic in this redemption story tends to be overlooked.  Ruth's relationship with her mother-in-law, Naomi, models something of a role reversal between the younger and older women. Both women suffered devastating losses, as told in first chapter of the narrative. During a time of great famine in the land of Moab, both Ruth and Naomi lost their husbands. Naomi suffered greatly in a land far from her original, because she not only lost her husband, but also both of her sons as well. Several times in the first chapter of Ruth, Naomi stated that she believed the Lord's hand had gone out against her. She even told Ruth and the other women to no longer call her Naomi, changing her name to "Mara" instead, which meant bitter. Naomi had grown bitter in Moab and believed the Lord had dealt bitterly with her by bringing great calamity upon her family.

After Naomi's pleas for Ruth to stay with her own family and with her Moabite god, Ruth, the younger woman, responded in a surprising way. Ruth, in faith, chose to bind herself to her mother-in-law Naomi, to Naomi's people, and to Naomi's God - the only One, true God. Ruth's dedication and commitment was no small sacrifice. Ruth chose to forsake her family, her ethnic culture, her past, and her previous belief system to follow Naomi into a completely different community and way of life.

Meanwhile, Naomi seemed have forgotten her true identity as child of the God. She lost her Biblical and covenantal perspective. Naomi's example is far from the Titus 2 ideal of the older woman of the covenant community. Yet, because of Ruth's covenant commitment to Naomi and her people, God not only restores Naomi to the covenant community, but He also provides a kinsman redeemer who blessed them both -- and eventually redeemed the rest of us, too. 

This was no ordinary friendship. The younger woman, Ruth, demonstrated real covenant commitment through active faith, love, and encouragement to the older woman, Naomi, to Naomi's people, and most especially to the Lord. Because of Ruth, the Lord redeemed the devastation that Naomi and Ruth experienced in Moab, while Elimelech and Naomi were separated from their covenant community. Because of Ruth, we see the Lord's providential provision to transform Naomi's life from an untimely tale of loss and discouragement to a phenomenal epic of life-giving rescue.  In this regard, the text and the older women in Naomi's life speak for themselves: 

Ruth 4:14 Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! 15 He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.”

We could use a new generation of younger women like Ruth who make the active decision to commit to their local covenant community and to the older women in their midst, like Naomi. During seasons of trial and suffering, whether dealing with the loss of a loved one, ill health, or just lagging faith, most older women could really use the energy and enthusiasm that younger women often bring to their interactions. As a middle woman, I feel the tug to be both a more committed younger woman, as well as a more gracious older woman. 

May I be willing to open up my life and share it with those who are newer in the faith -- and to sit, listen, and learn from the older and wiser women around me.

Singing in the Fire

“When the fire of affliction draws songs of praise from us, then indeed we are purified, and our God is glorified….Singing in the fire!  Yes!  God helping us, if that is the only way to get harmony out of these hard apathetic hearts, let the furnace be heated seven times hotter than before.”1 - Susannah Spurgeon'

  This blogpost was originally going to focus on physical affliction,  a subject I’m familiar with.   For almost thirty years I have been laid aside off and on with  ME/CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome)  and other health issues.    CFS is the illness that has caused Laura Hillenbrand, author of  Seabiscuit and Unbroken,  to be housebound for years and she tells her remarkable story to Elle Magazine.
 

A stubborn relapse this year has caused me to  spend most of my time in bed again so  I’ve been reading up on the assorted  maladies of  believers  throughout history;   Job,  John Calvin,  both Charles and Susannah Spurgeon, Amy Carmichael,  and others.

When I realized  how many of these sickly  saints  had also suffered with a variety of other  serious trials I was reminded  of Job’s words,  “man is born for trouble,  as sparks fly upward.”  (Job 5:7)   

THE PURPOSE OF ADVERSITY

 “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,” James 1:2  

 Note that  James  does not describe any particular  kind of trouble.     Trials  come in all shapes and sizes:   Illness,  disability,  death of a loved one,  financial ruin,  divorce,  a prodigal child,  betrayal,  personal sin or failure,  persecution;  and the list goes on.     Nevertheless,  all adversity that befalls the Christian serves essentially  the  same purpose.    James goes on to say that we are tested through our trials for the purpose of producing an enduring faith.  

The moment we are saved God begins His sanctifying work in us.    All of our sins, past, present and future,  have been forgiven because of the blood sacrifice  of Jesus Christ,  and now the Lord begins to  “disciplines us for our good so that we may share His holiness.” (Heb.12:10).    This is  not the kind of discipline  that has to do with punishment  because Christ has already taken that for us.   Rather this is the kind of discipline that an athlete or soldier would undergo to train for a competition or battle.   

THE  PRUNING PROCESS

Because He loves us,  God  prunes us so that we will  bear fruit and it is the Word that acts as  His pruning shears.

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”   Hebrews 4:12

But it is through the vehicle of affliction that we are driven to His Word.  

“What, then, does affliction do?"  you ask.   Well, if I may say so, affliction is the handle of the knife—affliction is the grindstone that sharpens up the Word of God.  Affliction is the dresser which removes our soft garments and lays bare the diseased flesh so that the surgeon's lancet may get at it.   Affliction makes us ready to feel the Word, but the true pruner is the Word in the hand of the Great Husbandman.” 2 – Charles Spurgeon

  THE PEACEFUL FRUIT

The writer of Hebrews reveals the final product that adversity delivers.

“All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”  Hebrews 12:10-11 

Did you catch  that the peaceful fruit of righteousness  comes  afterwards?  When James tells us to “count it all joy”,   he didn’t mean that we should be masochists who  enjoy suffering.    It is the end result of  our suffering that causes us to rejoice!   

Consider our greatest example,  Jesus.    No human suffering in the history of mankind  could even begin to compare with the agony that Christ was about to  suffer on the cross on our behalf.     And yet, He was able to endure it because  He knew of the joy that would lie beyond it. 

“fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”  Hebrews 12:2

The best thing we can do when we are faced with any kind of serious trial is to submit to the loving hand of  God under it and try to rest in the promise that it will ultimately yield many rewards.

• We will be drawn closer to God:  Psalm 88:9
• We will learn to depend upon Him:  2 Corinthians 1:9
• We will be humbled:  2 Corinthians 12:7
• We will learn obedience:  Psalm 119:67
• We will share His holiness:  Hebrews 12: 10-11
• We will  learn that God’s grace is sufficient: 2 Corinthians 12:9
• We will  share in the fellowship of suffering with others: 2 Corinthians 1:4  
• We will learn perseverance:  Romans 5:3
• And in the end...

"This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.”  2 Corinthians 4:17

 

 

1. Singing in the Fire by Faith Cook:  Banner of Truth Trust; 1995; pg. 34

2. C.H. Spurgeon, Sermon No. 774:  October 6, 1867,  delivered at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington