ENTRUST.

ENTRUST. EVEN WHEN IT HURTS

¶ Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.
First Peter 4:19

I was recently invited into a Public Secondary College to give a talk on Cosmology - more precisely, the Cosmological Argument For The Existence of God. When it came time to the Q&A I was expecting some pseudo-intellectual objections to my presentation. But what they all asked surprised me.  

And now we call the arrogant blessed. Evildoers not only prosper but they put God to the test and they escape.
Malachi 3:15

Now that I think about it, this class of teens listened intently to what I had to say. As much as I'd like to tell you I have a way of captivating teenagers and holding their attention to 90 minutes, I can't. Their attentiveness was flattering but unusual. Then the teacher threw it open for questions. I had prepped up on as much astronomical data as I could muster, so I was armed, ready, and dare I say it, dangerous. But then came their questions.

"Why do bad things happen to good people?" "But why would God allow suffering?" "How come life sucks sometimes?" Each time I deferred to the teacher, because this wasn't why I was invited into her class, but then she relented. As I began to answer this series of questions, it got really quiet in the classroom. I doodled this on the whiteboard-

Most people think of life as merely limited to the time between the cradle and the grave. That is, from birth to death. Little wonder then that when someone's life is cut short from their expected time of death, it seems like an utter travesty, a tragedy, a gross injustice. But what if our lives do not merely consist of the time between the cradle and the grave? What if it is, as I continued on the whiteboard, that our lives never end. The grave is not the end. It is merely a change.

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison 
Second Corinthians 4:17

The reason we sense such great loss when someone's life seems to be cut short is that there is an intuitive sense within each of us that life is not supposed to end. As I began to explain this, several of the students teared up, and one began to quietly weep. I could tell that this was not merely theory to them. I further explained that our ultimate eternal destiny lay in either of two directions. One of those directions was to defy God's authority over our lives and choose independence and its consequence for eternity, or to choose the other direction which involves humbling ourselves and accepting God's offer of forgiveness and adoption and reaping the gracious consequences of that choice.

After I explained this I summarised the students' questions with a more confronting question about human suffering: Why me!?When someone we don't know suffers, we may feel some sympathy for them but it doesn't affect us deeply. However, when someone we love suffers, we are very sympathetic and even empathetic as we begin to feel something of their pain. But when we suffer, it's not just our pain that we feel, it's also the ache of injustice that is added which we feel deeply. All of this reinforces that we intuitively know something is very wrong with the way the world is.

I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins."
John 8:24

When we experience pain, suffering, tragedy or injustice and do not have hope beyond this life, we despair. But when we have the confidence that God holds not only the Universe in His hands, but our lives as well, we can trust that He has everything in control for a good purpose. Even when such suffering, crime, pain seems utterly futile, we know that the God-Who-Is-Only-Good is also the God-Who-Can-Only-Do-Good. Therefore, we have a positive expectation for our future (which, by the way, is the definition of "hope").

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope.
Romans 8:20

As my time in the classroom came to an end, and the teacher was wrapping up, I slipped to the back of the classroom and spoke to the girl who was crying. She whispered that one of her best friends and classmates had just committed suicide. Little wonder the class was so attentive and sombre. It's sad but understandable that it sometimes takes tragedy for God to get some people's attention. Dark times are not the time to shake a fist at God. Rather, they are the times when we should open our hands to God and ask for His help to get through our dark hour. 

The Apostle Peter writing to the churches of Turkey told them to entrust their souls to their Creator during times of suffering, and not to cease doing good for others (1Peter 4:19). If we suffer and succumb to our Enemy's whispers and withdraw from the family of God and cease doing good for them, we injure ourselves. Our Enemy works tirelessly to isolate us and especially so during our moments of suffering.

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
First Peter 5:8-9

One of my favourite singers is Natalie Grant. One of my favourite Natalie Grant songs is "Held". It is about a couple who were excitedly expecting their first child. After much prayer they are finally blessed by God with a bouncing bundle of joy. But just two months after he is born, he falls terribly sick and dies. Natalie Grant sings-

Two months is too little
They let him go
They had no sudden healing
To think that Providence
Would take a child from his mother
While she prays, is appalling
Who told us we'd be rescued
What has changed and
Why should we be saved from nightmares
Were asking why this happens to us
Who have died to live, it's unfair
This is what it means to be held
How it feels, when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive
This is what it is to be loved and to know
That the promise was that when everything fell
We'd be held
This hand is bitterness
We want to taste it and
Let the hatred numb our sorrows
The wise hand opens slowly
To lilies of the valley and tomorrow
This is what it means to be held
How it feels, when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive.Held, by Natalie Grant

When Peter told the Turkish Christians to entrust their souls to their Creator in the midst of their suffering, it wasn't merely a theory to him. He had seen Jesus The Christ do it. This is the foundation of our hope and the true answer to where is God when it hurts? He entered into it and experienced its worst on the Cross. And just a few short years after he wrote this, he himself showed us what entrusting our souls to God looked like when he was taken by Caesar Nero and tortured then crucified upside down resulting in days of public humiliation and agony then eventual suffocation. No matter what you're going through, entrust your soul to your Creator. No matter how angry you are, entrust your soul to your Creator. No matter what injustice you have been afflicted with, entrust your soul to your Creator. Entrust, even when it hurts.

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
First Peter 5:10

Ps. Andrew

BREAKING THE CYCLE OF POVERTY

I recently read Dr Wess Stafford (pictured left) book, "Too Small To Ignore - Why Children Are The Next Big Thing". This books exposes the atrocious childhood experiences that Wess had when he grew up as a missionary's kid in nation of Ivory Coast. It was the policy of the denomination that his Dad was a missionary for, that all missionary kids had to attend the denominational boarding school several days drive away. While at Boarding schooling for nearly 6 years young Wess was subject to constant abuse (of every kind) as were nearly all of the other children attending this school. This horrendous experience could have embittered young Wess against Africa and against the Lord (since his abusers were Christian missionaries!), but he left Africa with great compassion for Africa and for the cause of Christ.

It would take another 50 years for Wess before he would come to terms with what happened in his early schooling which eventually resulted in justice being done. But along the way, Wess developed an even deeper compassion for the world's poor. Eventually he would go on to become the President of Compassion International where he would advocate for the world's most vulnerable poor: children in poverty. Wess now champions a concern that should concern us all- How do we fight poverty on behalf of the world's poorest and most vunerable people?

Having grown up in Ivory Coast and then working in Haiti, Wess is well qualified to address this issue. He says that nations need a Six Spoked Strategy. Here is a summary of his proposition-

1. ECONOMICS

"In Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemishere, the average peasant family earns $140 a year... To send a child to school costs $50 a year " (Stafford, page 176).

The economy of a nation is critical to the well-being of that nation. If the national economy of a country is marked by a gross imbalance of trade (where a country does not export enough to 'pay' for its imports) it is likely to inflict poverty upon its citizens. Governments need to manage their economies well by avoiding and minimising debt and increasing national productivity, argues Dr Stafford.


2. HEALTH CARE

"A big part of health maintenance, of course, is getting adequate nutrition. Some people think the earth can't keep up with the food needs of its population. This is not true. In fact, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) declared at a World Food Summit in Rome that the planet could produce enough food for every one of us to hav a daily diet of 2,720 calories. The average six-year-old needs only 1,800 calories a day. The average fourteen-year-old girl needs 2,200 and the average fourteen-year-old boy needs 2,500." (Stafford, page 177).

A balanced diet, clean water, sanitation, adequate shelter, and availability of necessary medicines are some of the basics needed to provide sufficient health care that all too often those nations in poverty are deprived of.


3. EDUCATION

"What you don't know can't hurt you" is a lie, says Dr Wess Stafford (page 178). Being able to read can literally save lives and break cycles of poverty. Yet such a basic art is often denied to the world's poorest.

4. ECOLOGY
Trees, fresh water, sanitation, all matter. Agriculture is called "primary" industry for a good reason. In Haiti, Dr Staffords tells, greedy foreigners cleared entire forests for the rich supply of timber. Today the forests are all gone. This has radically changed Haiti's ecology. Trees help to preserve water, maintain soil nutrients, and act as a cooling agent. But Haiti is now in virtual perpetual drought. As rain clouds come over the once tropical Haiti the intense heat of the now bare ground drives the rain clouds up into higher altitude and then past Haiti.


5. SOCIOPOLITICAL
Governmental corruption leads to national poverty. Good government facilitates national well-being. Democracy may not be the best way to govern a nation, wrote CS Lewis, but it's the best form of government that we have. A functioning democracy is an all too rare occurence among the poorest nations. A deep sense of vocation and calling is needed by all those in Public Service so that the gravity of their responsibility is carried out with a sense of dutiful diligence without fear or favour.


6. SPIRITUAL
A wrong understanding of God and what appeases Him can lead to poverty. A right understanding of God helps avoid poverty, says Dr Stafford. He has seen many nations whose predominant understanding of "God" was largely superstitious and idolatrous resulting in worship practices that designated certain people groups to perpetual poverty without compassionate relief from their countrymen. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is Good News for the poor, the marginalised, women, and especially children. It is imperative that Christians do not shrink back from proclaiming Christ as Saviour, and the Hope of the World.

Acts 4:12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Wess Stafford says that all this must start with children, who he argues are the most vulnerable members of a society. He gives some remarkable statistics about the potential to shape a person's life and values if they can be influenced before they have turned 21. As I read Dr Stafford's book, I thought that it is not just the poorest nations that need to continually work on this six-spoked strategy. Our own nation could benefit greatly if Christ-followers worked toward shaping our own governments to implement this same six-spoked strategy.
We should encourage those followers of Christ who are involved in any of the six vital areas of cultural influence that their work is work of worship, devotion to the cause and glory of Christ and that what they do (no matter how mundane and unappreciated) has the potential to safeguard the welfare of many people who would otherwise be the victims of a Christ-less bureaucrat.

1Corinthians 10:31 ¶ So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Amen.