Halfway
through an intensive graduate program I lost my
zeal. My pastoral heartstrings tugged at me; I
wanted to get out of academia and back into
people-centered ministry. I came close to
quitting.
On Evie's advice I decided to
seek counsel from the dean of students. When I
walked into his office the next morning, he
received me warmly and spoke with me at length,
even though I hadn't made an appointment. After I
explained my dilemma, he offered some simple
advice: Since I had come this far in the program,
it was a minimal sacrifice to continue. Besides,
the long-range benefits of finishing the degree
well outweighed the momentary relief of getting
out.
Fortunately his counsel hit a
receptive chord, and his affirming spirit was
reassuring. By the end of our meeting my
motivation had begun to return. I'm now eternally
grateful to this man for his advice and
encouragement. Staying with the program gave me
the background to write my first book, and the
degree has opened numerous doors of ministry. In
this case God used a man--one individual--to keep
me from a regrettable course of action. Were it
not for his counsel, I likely would have bailed
out.
The experience speaks to me of
God's protective hand in my life. As I reflect on
his protection, I'm reminded not only of
individuals who have been like angels of light to
me but also of fortuitous circumstances. One
evening when we were living in St. Louis, I was
studying in my basement office. I took a short
break to go to the kitchen for a soda and while
upstairs heard the noise of glass shattering in
the basement. I rushed downstairs to find that
the fluorescent bulb over my desk had come loose,
falling onto my desk and exploding into hundreds
of fragments. I had barely missed being in its
range of fire.
I'm frankly humbled to realize
how often the "barely missed" scenario
has described my life. Perhaps you feel the same
about your experience as well.
Rescue Missions
I'm not building up to the
thought that the Christian never experiences
problems or that faith will deliver us from every
predicament. God allows challenge and pain to
come into our lives as needed to strengthen us
and increase our dependency on him. Yet a friend
and I who were talking about it agreed that our
most common experience of God's grace has been of
his providing us ways out of tight spots. Often
these have been predicaments of our own
making--dilemmas into which our limited insight
has plunged us. Call this a rescue operation if
you will. I'm perfectly comfortable with the
idea. In fact, if we don't have a profound and
ongoing sense of needing to be rescued, we
will miss many of the benefits of the grace of
God.
But this sense of need must be
accompanied by the conviction that God will come
to our rescue. We need this confidence not only
for the sake of humility (as vital as that is)
but for the sake of courage. One of the
reasons we hesitate to take important steps of
faith--toward building relationships or seeking
better opportunities for our gifts--is our fear
of problems that might confront us on the way.
Divine Compensation
Throughout his earthly ministry
Jesus demonstrated his willingness to care for
those who followed him, to the point of bailing
them out of the most hideous predicaments. His
first miracle was precisely such a rescue
mission. He and his disciples were attending a
wedding feast in Cana (Jn 2:1-11). Marriage
celebrations in New Testament times amounted to
festivals that lasted many days. The families of
the bride and groom were often bound by a legal
contract, and the groom's family could be sued if
the reception's provisions were inadequate.
Partway through this particular feast, the wine
gave out. Jesus proceeded to transform the water
filling six twenty-gallon jugs into wine of
superb quality.
By doing so Jesus not only taught
a symbolic truth about the superiority of the new
covenant over the old. He also demonstrated
something profoundly practical about God's
willingness to come to our aid in human affairs.
By protecting the groom's family from
embarrassment and legal liability, he showed how
God can shield us from unforeseen consequences as
we take steps of faith.
Jesus showed his willingness to
rescue us in perhaps an even more comforting way
through his last miracle--restoring the ear of
the high priest's servant after Peter slashed it
off (Jn 18:10-11; Lk 22:51). Peter undoubtedly
intended to do something far more destructive
with his sword--to kill the servant or the high
priest himself. The healing of the servant's ear
not only symbolizes God's rectifying our mistakes
but reminds us that he often protects us from the
more extreme effects of our impulsive and
destructive tendencies.
A Confident Perspective
We should meditate often on the
fact of God's rescue missions in our lives, for
this is one of the vital ways in which he shows
his providential care for us. Appreciating his
willingness to rescue us shouldn't lead to
sloppiness in our walk with Christ ("If God
will bail me out, I can do whatever I
want"). If it does, then we haven't taken
the grace of God seriously to begin with! To the
contrary, it should strengthen our boldness to
take steps of faith.
I realize it can sometimes be
hard to know precisely what God wants us
to do. We may struggle long and hard to discern
his will for a particular decision. Yet even as
we come to understand it, we're often panicked at
the thought of moving forward. Our mind is filled
with countless "what ifs"--imagined
future disasters which paralyze us from taking
action. At this time especially we need to be
fortified by confidence in God's willingness to
rescue us if it proves necessary.
From the human angle, of course,
we want to figure out solutions to all potential
problems before they arise. Yet concern with
troubleshooting every possible contingency in
advance will paralyze us from ever taking a major
step of faith. As the Cana wedding feast reminds
us, the time comes when we simply need to move
ahead, trusting that God is abundantly able to
come to our rescue where our planning has been
inadequate. And as he protected Peter in the
incident with the servant's ear, he can safeguard
us from the effects of our more extreme human
tendencies.
God cannot steer a parked car.
But as we move forward, we discover his infinite
ability to navigate our lives. And he is just as
able to do the maintenance necessary to keep us
on course.
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