Friday's Recap (200209)

Last Friday, we tore down our own tower of babel. We surrendered to God. We submitted our human understanding to God. We trusted in His magisterial plan and the blessed assurance of a savior making all things right in the end. All sorrow accounted for. All pain lifted. All suffering recompense fully, completely. It was a time of corporate empowerment. And I sincerely thank you guys and gals for holding steadfast to your portion of faith amidst many things that you do not understand or even apprehend. But still, the discussion took several unnerving twists and turn that at times seemed unsettling and uneasy.

We talked about tragedies most perplexing and challenging to our faith. I told you about parents who lost their sons to horrifying accidents. I told you about a tipper truck running over a 9-year old, severing his body into two. A Camry smashing into a 16-year old, throwing his limp body meters away from the impact. All these unspeakable accidents resulted in immediate death; most heart wrenching, to say the least. One is tempted to ask, in his own flustered way, "where is God?"

I have also heard of a Rwanda mother whose big family of 40 were captured by savage rebels and held hostage for days on ends. She then witnessed the worst of human evil ever committed. Her family and relatives were hacked to death before her eyes. She was repeatedly gang raped. Her husband was forced by the sickening mob to rape his own sister. He naturally refused but paid a bitter price for it: his limbs were severed. He then bled to death. The cruelty did not end there. She was forced to hang her infant child from a tree using makeshift ropes. And in the most trying circumstances of humanity, she strangled her own flesh and blood to death. Completely naked, and repeatedly abused, she trekked with the rebels for weeks before she escaped and went to a nearby village for help. The tragically "happy" ending was that she was nursed back to health and was reunited with two of her children who had also escaped from the callous mob. "Where is God?" is the tempting refrain.

Another incident happened to a devout Christian and her lovely children. This inspiring story is taken from The Scalpel and the Soul by Dr Allan J Hamilton. Candy was a beautiful lady in her thirties. She was full of life, bubbly and intelligent. She was also a compassionate nurse, going the extra mile to help her patients. Despite being abused and battered by her husband, she mustered the courage to divorce him and remained strong for her two teenaged children, Sean and Taylor. Her children were her inspiration and source of hope. Candy also met a special man after the divorce, Tim. He was a construction worker and he was completely devoted to her. Soon, their relationship blossomed. To add to the blessed mix, her children were doing well in school. Sean was a gifted basketball player and had won a scholarship for the sport. Taylor, Candy's daughter, was, like her mother, beautiful in appearance with flowing golden locks. She was also a gifted acrobatic cheerleader. But all was not meant to be when the first bad news struck.

Candy's son, Sean, met with an accident. His car was hit by a trailer which came loose from a truck which was towing it. Sean suffered severe head trauma with multiple contusion to the brain. Although he recovered, he was never the same again. The injuries had robbed him of his basketball skills and scholarship. Sean frequently fell into angry fits of temper and proved to be emotionally trying for Candy and Taylor. The 2nd bad news was in the pipeline and this time, lightning did strike twice.

Taylor also met with an auto accident. She was brought to the ER. But it was not the minor injuries from the accident that scared Taylor. At first, the usual suspicion was drug or alcohol. Taylor must be under the influence when she met with the unfortunate accident. But brain scans showed that she had actually suffered a ministroke. When the hospital dug deeper into the cause of the stroke, they realised that Taylor had a huge tumor lodged in her right thalamus. And this tumor had an ominous medical name, anaplastic astrocytoma. It was quite a mouthful to describe what is known as a high grade malignant brain cancer.

Immediately Taylor was put on a high-radiation therapeutic regimen. And Taylor's beautiful physical appearance was her first casualty. She lost her golden locks. The treatment had caused her to go bald, bloated and acne-ridden. Her entire left side was badly affected and she lost her senses in her leg. She was so weak that she had to give up being a cheerleader. Even her smile was crooked. Over the course of the treatment, Taylor became almost unrecognizable - from a princess of 18 years old with a bright future ahead, she had morphed into a physical sneer, losing her hair, confidence and control over the left side of her body. In her depression, Taylor mourned these words that no mother should ever hear from her own daughter, "It's too bad I didn't know about this tumor earlier. I wouldn't have been so reluctant to give up my virginity. Now I'm probably going to die a virgin, looking the way I do." Taylor died less than two months later. All the prayers in the world could not prevent this tragedy from happening to a family that served God faithfully.

Now come the last and final tragedy. A few months later, still grieving from the death of her daughter, Candy telephoned Dr Allan and told him that when she was having a shower earlier, she could not feel the right side of her body. Dr Allan then did an MRI scan on Candy's brain and confirmed his worst fear. Candy had a brain tumor in exactly the same place as her daughter! Life had stamped an early expiry date on Candy. She lived for another two and a half year. But her living years was an inspiration to every doctor, nurse and patient who crossed her path. She continued teaching Sunday school and shared about God's love and kindness until the day she was too ill for Tim to carry her to church. Her faith was logic-defying and Dr Allan even challenged her when he asked her why would God allow all these to happen to her and her family. Candy's reply was unforgettable, Dr Allan recalled. She cocked a finger at him, shook it and said, "Don't you dare blame God for this! Maybe this had to happen so you'd be more motivated to help find a cure! Or maybe this was meant to test my love for Tim and Tim's love for me. But God's not to blame here!"

What was left of Candy's immediate family was Tim and Sean. Tim stayed friends with Dr Allan for many years. He confessed that he was never interested in another woman and said that Candy was the perfect woman for him. He also admitted that not a single day went by after he buried Candy that he didn't wake up and weep till he was almost too weak to stand. Tim also wanted to take his own life but he remembered his promise to Candy that he would live to take care of Sean. He has kept that promise ever since

Beloved, when bad things happen to good christians, it is only natural to question, "Why, God?" In fact, it is by not questioning God that one has to doubt whether the sufferer or victim is sincere about his or her faith. It is natural to question God because we have certain expectations of Him. We expect God to heal us or our love ones when we pray. We expect God to deliver us from evil that comes in the form of a natural or man-made disaster. We expect God to spare our loved ones from a speeding tipper truck driven by a drunk driver. We expect God to protect our children from life-threatening diseases or savage men who only has evil in their minds and blood in their hands. As finite being with finite understanding, these expectations are expected of us. And mind you, these expectations are not about making us materially rich or granting us longevity. It is about keeping us safe, sheltered and secured. Surely, these expectations are not too unreasonable for God, who is all-powerful and all-loving, to fulfill or realise.

The problem of evil in this world is the problem of faith. There are some things that happened to us or our loved ones that we cannot, try as we might, wrap our mind around it. We cannot understand why tragedy happened the way it did, right under the nose of the divine oversight. It is therefore second-nature to praise God for blessings like news that one is pregnant. But when one's baby dies stillborn, it is tempting to point the finger at God and cry out, "WHY?"

When the aggrieved and the inconsolable blame God, the reason is humanly obvious and, at times, understandable. Pre-mature death, diseases and tragedies are largely preventable. Some of these are man-made or as a result of the perversion of free-will like evil men ravaging a city and raping and killing whoever stands in their way. So, to prevent from being their victims, we stay away from them. We migrate to a safer country. We instruct our children to self-defence. We escort them from point A to point B, ensuring their safety. We rally the help of a community to fight against mindless crime. We pay taxes to good, efficient and uncorrupt government to keep us safe. On a whole, crimes committed by evil men that results in death can be prevented if we are vigilant and careful.

Then, there are natural disasters like earthquake, tsunamis and twisters. When we have forewarning of them, we can get out of their way. Although we may suffer property lost, we can thank God that we still have our lives to keep.

But how about earthquakes not foreseen? How about the 2006 tsunamis that ravaged the south pacific basin and killed untold numbers of innocent people? How about Hurricane Katrina? There are some tragedies that no amount of human vigilance can prevent. Even man-made ones cannot be prevented if a character like Hitler takes over and starts committing genocide. Or a figure like Pol Pot or Saddam Hussein runs a coup and rules a country with malicious zeal and merciless paranoia.

But are these atrocities really unpreventable? The Bible extols God's omnipotence and omnipresence. It also sing praises of God's unfailing, universal love. If we put them altogether, we get a God who can prevent anything, both man-made or natural disasters. So, seen in this light, pre-mature deaths, diseases and tragedies are largely preventable, that is, by divine fiat. God can stop time and teleport a little girl from being ravaged by a mob of lusting men. He can point his finger, like a laser beam, at an anomaly gene and zap it to smithereen to prevent it from mutating into a full-blown deformity. He can also snap his fingers and turn misfortune into blessings, sickness to health and pre-mature death to life. In theory, God can. In practice, God could. In real-life, God should. So, what is God waiting for?

At this juncture, I invite the atheists and skeptic to take a front row seat. God had already taken the initiative way before we could point a finger at Him and complete the sentence, "Why, God?" The story of Jesus is the story of this omnipotent, omnipresent and all-loving God. God coming down to man, to live with them and to die for them is the greatest love story ever told. Many other religions talk about deities sacrificing for mankind. But Jesus did it. His death and resurrection are the reason why we have cause to live on and fight the good fight. Because living without God is the worst of all tragedies and suffering, Christians must constantly remind themselves that living for God means that the worst has passed. We can overcome anything that this world throws at us because having Jesus in our heart is having everything we would ever need in this life and the life to come. That is why Psalm 46 proclaims, "God is our hiding place; He is our power. Providing in trouble, He's there every hour. And fear will not find us, though earth be in motion, and mountains fall into the heart of the ocean, or tidal waves roar and the flood waters pour; no, mountains themselves cannot shake His devotion."

Note that God is our hiding place. Note also that in this world, trouble avails, mountains fall, tidal waves roar and flood waters pour. Our lives are not immune from trouble. Tragedies do not pass us by just because we flash a "we are God's property" badge at it. You can easily imagine a world without trouble. Just imagine a world without growth. There is magic in pain and suffering. It is the magic of growth. We mature when our faith muscles are stretched by trials. We endure better when our minds are focused on Jesus' ultimate earthly victory rather than infinitely wallowing in the bleak choruses of Why-me and How-come. When Jesus was crying for relieve from God to deliver him from the cross, God's hands were restraint. I believe the entire universe stood still in anticipation of God's next move. But God moved not. He did nothing. He allowed his creation to slaughter His only son, to subject him to extreme humiliation and to murder the one who was sent to save the murderers.

God's restraint was deliberate, calculated, purposeful. He did nothing because doing nothing is the only way something could be done. That something was the gift of universal salvation. Jesus' death was a victory to us. It is also a reminder that bad things happen for a reason. And God's hands are restraint for a reason. God has a purpose for our life, individually. The trials that we are going through, whether it is caused by us or otherwise, contain a manual for our christian growth. The manual is a step-by-step guide to overcome our circumstances and by overcoming, we take a step closer to discovering God's purpose in our life. Ultimately, even in death, we know that a life lived for God is not in vain. In fact, for true believers who are going through life's most depressing circumstances, it is always a booster to our faith to remember that all is only temporary and the best is yet to come. Let these words comfort those who are in their own valley of shadows and pending death, "While we walk the pilgrim pathway, clouds will overspread the sky. But when trav'ling days are over, not a shadow, not a sigh. Let us then be true and faithful, trusting, serving ev'ry day. Just one glimpse of Him in glory will the toils of life repay."

Have a victorious week ahead.

Ps: Beloved, it is said that hope is listening to the melody of the future and faith is to dance to it. What is your music when crisis hit? What songs are played in your spirit when trouble beckons? Robert Benson once said, "There has to be a song - to make our burdens bearable, to make our hopes believable, to transform our successes into praise, to release the chains of past defeats. Somewhere - down deep in a forgotten corner of each man's heart - there has to be a song." Do you hear the singing of God's choir in your spirit when you are mired in a situation that is beyond you? The Bible is full of crisis singers. Joshua led in victory chant that fell jericho wall while Nehemiah worshipped God to restore the wall around Jerusalem. King David sang his heart out when he was down and out. King Soloman had his very own self-titled chapter called Songs of Soloman. Paul crooned in prison and convicted the hearts of the prison guard and his family.

Sometimes, when bad times prevail, we would be wise to tune into God's calming melody. There is a song for everyone. A song to bring us into God's presence. A song to weather even the worst of time. A song to bring peace into our hearts. Here's a song that your faith can dance to whatever your circumstances, whatever your grief:-

IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL...

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like a sea billows roll,

Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say...

It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,

Let this blessed assurance control,

That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,

And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

It is well, with my soul,

It is well, with my soul,

It is well, it is well, with my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!

My sin, not in part but the whole,

Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

It is well, with my soul,

It is well, with my soul,

It is well, it is well, with my soul.

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,

The clouds be rolled back as scroll;

The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,

Even so, it is well with my soul.