We expect to be fairly
treated, if not by the world but at least by God in who's hands many
of us have entrusted our lives. But when we encounter overwhelming
struggles, too painful to endure, how do we respond to the
circumstances and to God? Do we struggle and fight against them or do
we embrace them as God given opportunities? Opportunities for what,
you ask? How can this unrighteousness and pain be an opportunity for
anything good?
These are questions
i've wrestled with for many years. After losing the love of my life
to the deceit and manipulative tactics of missionary friends,
people i once trusted. After a thriving youth ministry was destroyed
by church politics which focused more on performance and numbers,
than on disciplining it's flock. After a trusted friend and business
partner destroyed our successful joint venture for
personal gain. After the legal system of my homeland failed to uphold
what is just and right. After God unexpectedly took away my closest
friend and mentor, in the midst of the most difficult trials of my
life.
No, i'm not
lamenting,.. at least not so much anymore. At times i still wrestle
with these questions, not to find someone to blame but to look for
resolution and purpose in it all. I often quote Romans 8:28, that
all things work for good, for God's purposes, - which admittedly
i often still fail to understand.
Joseph was always one
of my favorite characters in the Bible. What a great picture of
enduring faith in God. After being sold by his brothers into slavery,
falsely accused of rape and imprisoned, after several opportunities
to be exonerated and freed have passed him by, he is left to rot in a
prison cell. Certainly not a good place to be. But Joseph understood
something so many of us fail to understand. He understood God allowed
this for a purpose, though there was no way he could imagine for
what.
Apostle Paul found
himself similarly in prison. Together with Silas, their ministry seemingly derailed by lies and deceptive charges, and were unjustly imprisoned. How
could God be in this? How could God allow such a successful ministry of two men to
be cut short by imprisonment? In our minds we could never comprehend how God could possibly use this.
We tend think they
would have been much more effective free and outside of prison, rather than within
the walls that surrounded them. However Paul and Silas didn’t and neither did
Joseph in the previous story. They understood that man-made walls can
never stop God's plans, they can only stop man's plans. It was
certainly not Josephs's plan to be imprisoned, nor Paul or Silas',
but they looked for God given opportunities in the imprisonment, not
seeking to get out of it. It in fact made them sing!
Yet we are so bent on
our concept of freedom. We get angry and fight for the right to be
free, and in many ways i admire the passion with which my American
friends fight for this freedom. Yes, freedom is a God given right we
should stand for, but it's also a choice and a privilege we choose
regardless of what our surrounding circumstances may be. Joseph, Paul
and Silas were more free in prison than many of us who live in the
free world today. What often imprisons us is our own fight for
our rights, and our understanding of justice. Our thought are about us, how we can be more effective, how we
can have more success. And of course many of us like to say it's for the
glory of God and the furtherment of His kingdom. But what if God
decides that our unjust imprisonment would be more effective for His
purposes? How do we respond to Him then? Would we have the heart of Joseph,
Paul or Silas, or would we only only wrestle with our loss as Job did?
In many ways Job became imprisoned by his losses, and found no key to liberty in the
words of his 'righteous' friends.
These are tough
questions to address. I know too often in my life, my response to
hardship has not been like Joseph's or Paul's or Silas'. I've been a
fighter, fighting for what is right and true and just. And yet in my
fights i've become tired, i've failed, and i’ve become lost. I've
wrestled as Job did, to the point of loosing faith, hope, and
purpose. Call it my sackcloth state. It was part of the journey Job
needed to go through, and sometimes a path we need to travel as well.
But it's not a place we should stay, focused only on our losses. For
there's opportunities hidden in our deepest loss, and there's freedom
to be found within prison walls. This is something Joseph, Paul and
Silas understood well.
Within our
struggles, is it possible we can learn to understand this too?
