How does God take a Christian who lives one-half inch from hell and make him live one-half inch from heaven? It is not easy. There is a price to be paid. The divine Surgeon must be permitted to use his scalpel to cut, cleanse, and break, so healing can take place. In fact, such spiritual surgery is more painful than physical surgery. God doesn’t use an anesthetic; he doesn’t do his work while we are asleep. God can take any brokenhearted believer and make him or her a radiant, loving person. But when he performs such “heart operations,” his children are wide awake.
~Erwin W. Lutzer (1941- )
Fear not, O land; Be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done marvelous things! Do not be afraid, you beasts of the field; for the open pastures are springing up, and the tree bears its fruit; the fig tree and the vine yield their strength. Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God; For He has given you the former rain faithfully, and He will cause the rain to come down for you—The former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil. “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you; and My people shall never be put to shame. Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel: I am the Lord your God and there is no other. My people shall never be put to shame.
~ The Prophet Joel, speaking the very words of G_d, in Joel 2
Oh beloved, it is true. For each believer there is a crisis of faith. For some this crisis comes early (or even simultaneously) with the moment where one puts their faith in Him. For some though, this moment comes later. It does seem that we can find the Way to heaven one day, but in the same decision miss that heaven can begin right now in Him.
Those who go through this time later often have to be beaten into submission. And no, it is not an arbitrary god with some stick who whacks us for being bad. And yes, it is the mercy of a Loving Father who will tear away any supports of self-comfort in our lives that we might finally look to Him as our only Source of sufficiency in life.
And eventually, any true believer will face – and pass through – the crisis. It is though, often as one who has passed through a fire. So much of our former life is gone. It has been devoured by the locusts of choice and circumstance and pain and sin.
The people we knew and thought we loved, are so disillusioned with who we were, that they have abandoned any belief that we are knowable. They may love us, but they are so hurt by who we were, that they can no longer function as people with whom we have close relationships.
The fire of our anger has burned the edges – and even the core – of so many people and things we once held dear.
The pride we held and positioning we once did has put us at odds with just about everyone else. They are put off by the inability of one like us to simply say that we were wrong.
The self-righteousness we claimed we did not have, soured the sense of flow and forgiveness that normally flows between people in relationship.
Our lusts did not feed us; they only put fuel on the fire that was destroying both us and the people around us.
But G_d.
He does finally break through our defenses. And it is at this point that we find ourselves completely defenseless and undone before Him. We, like the prophet Isaiah, simply see ourselves for the people of unclean lips that we are.
And He makes us clean.
And somehow this amazing thing begins to happen. He takes the things that He had to take away, and begins to give them back to us. But, they are not like items which have been confiscated, wrapped and stored. No, they are things and people and circumstances which are a bit like the old – and yet totally new.
We may even reconcile to many of the same people. But the relationships are new. It is as if we are meeting someone again – and yet for very the first time. And some relationships are totally new. Yet, even here there is this oddly and profoundly beautiful dynamic. The new relationships could not have happened the way they are happening if it were not for the crisis through which we have just passed.
And on He goes.
In His Love and goodness, He restores the fortunes and circumstances that He once had to take away because of this same Love and goodness. It is as if He has taken us completely around the pole of our existence. And what was – at first – a sunset fading into darkness – is now a sunrise expanding into a Day which will never end.
And He gives more grace.
Eventually beloved, there comes a moment where He begins to explain – not just what He had to do to move us into a right relationship with Himself – His heart and why He did what He did… and even how He felt about it in the process.
Can we see it? Oh how the very G_d of the universe Loves us. What at first seems to be the arbitrary judgments of a wrathful G_d – are now seen for what they truly are. They are the loving overtures of The Great Lover of our souls.
Are you in the crisis friend? Let Him take you through it. A beautiful Sonrise is coming.
