What Good Is God Working Out?

Back in August, I wrote a column for Journey called “The Master Motion,” and I received a note from a Journey reader who asked a great question in response. Here’s what she asked (used with permission): “In your August column in Journey devotional, you say if God allows pain and disappointment to touch us, then we must trust that He’s doing so out of love and for our ultimate good. How do we recognize what that ultimate good is?”

What a great question. I’ve been pondering it for awhile, and I think Romans 8:28-29 has the answer: “28 We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose. 29 For those He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers.”

The first part of this verse is familiar to us. It’s a promise we cling to for dear life in hard seasons — God works everything out for our good according to His purpose. And what is that good and His purpose? The answer is found in verse 29: our being conformed into the image of His Son.

I think most of us would prefer verse 29 say something like this instead: “God’s ultimate good is giving you the outcome you want so that your suffering will come to an end and you’ll be happy.” I wish! If I’m honest, my main priority usually isn’t becoming more like Christ, primarily because I know suffering is the means through which God does that transforming work, and it’s painful! I’m oftentimes more concerned with the outcome of any given situation than I am with the change going on beneath the surface. And that fact reveals my shortsightedness. I’m way too caught up in what I can see, in the temporary.

I remember Elisabeth Elliot saying in one of her talks that this world is not opaque, it’s translucent — meaning, what we see here isn’t our reality. We need to look through the things of this world to the spiritual realm beyond, because that’s our reality. This world is the shadowlands, as C.S. Lewis called it — a mere shadow of the real world yet to come.

When I really think about it, I can see that in light of eternity, life here is just a blip on the radar. But it’s hard not to feel like this is it, partly because we know so little of what eternity is going to be like, and partly because, well, we live here! We have jobs we want to excel in, weddings we want to plan, kids we want to get off to college — all of these things feel so ultimate, like they’re the reason we exist. But they’re not. And our suffering is a reminder of that. God doesn’t want us to get too comfortable here, because He has something much better in mind — eternity with Him.

Second Corinthians 4:17 has really helped me gain a long-term perspective of suffering: “For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory.” Paul describes our trials here as light and momentary, but he doesn’t just brush them off as meaningless inconveniences. Instead, he tells us that these very trials — the ones we sometimes think are purposeless — are the means through which God is producing an eternal weight of glory in us.

John Piper wrote in the article Called to Suffer and Rejoice: For an Eternal Weight of Glory, “The point is not that the afflictions merely precede the glory; they help produce the glory. There is a real causal connection between how we endure hardship now and how much we will be able to enjoy the glory of God in the ages to come.” Our suffering has eternal significance, and that eternal significance is our ultimate good. It’s the good that God is working out here before we get there.

And yet!

Even though our transformation into the image of Jesus is God’s ultimate good for us, and that purpose is largely achieved through suffering, He still very much cares about our circumstances here — about the things we pray for, hope for, dream for — and He redeems them in ways we can’t even imagine — here. He promises that we’ll “see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living” (Psalm 27:13), and He’ll be true to that promise in each of our lives. But the redemption we experience in this life is still just a shadow — a shadow of the redemption we’ll experience in eternity.

When we leave the shadowlands, we can’t take anything with us except the investments we made in eternity through our suffering — that eternal weight of glory that comes as the Lord transforms us into the image of His Son. Maybe that's why the apostle Paul calls suffering a gift in Philippians 1:29. Not only is it the means through which we get to know God here, but it's also the means through which we'll be able to enjoy Him in all of His glory forever.

“For it has been given to you on Christ’s behalf not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him”

— Philippians 1:29

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Elisabeth Elliot's Final Days

If I had to choose one word to describe Elisabeth Elliot's lifestyle, it would be disciplined. She grew up in a very disciplined home, and she carried that with her into adulthood. "Discipline is the believer's answer to God's call," Elisabeth wrote in her book Discipline: The Glad Surrender. Her life illustrated an emphatic yes to that call.

Lars and Elisabeth traveled up to half the year for her speaking engagements, but when they were home, their days were very regimented. As Lars said, "A lot of people wouldn't want the life that we had." Here's what Elisabeth's "at home" schedule looked like:

4:50am — the alarm would go off, and Elisabeth would "luxuriate," as Lars put it, for 10 minutes

5:00am — Elisabeth would go into her study for her quiet time for an hour or so, and then she would get ready for the day and make breakfast.

8:00am —Elisabeth and Lars ate breakfast

After breakfast, Elisabeth would go into her study and write all morning

11:45am — Elisabeth would make lunch

Noon: Lunch was served

After lunch, Elisabeth would go back into her study and answer letters. (She received thousands and thousands of letters, and she responded to every one.)

3:00pm — Elisabeth and Lars would walk. "It was pretty much a daily deal," Lars said about the walk. "It didn't make much difference if it was raining or what!"

After their walk Elisabeth would read or do housework, and then she'd make dinner.

6:00pm —Dinner was served

After dinner, Lars would clean up so Elisabeth could play the piano.

8:30pm — Lars and Elisabeth got in bed and read

9:00pm — lights out

The next day — repeat!

Lars said Elisabeth was a good cook, and a healthy one too. She was very conscious about not being overweight. If she gained a half a pound when they were on the road, Lars said she'd take it right off when they returned home!

A meeting with student missionaries in the 1970’s in Urbana, Illinois. (Wheaton College)

In 1999, Elisabeth told Lars she was concerned because she had been putting cups in the wrong places. So she went to see a doctor.

The doctor told Elisabeth that she had dementia.

As time went on, things got progressively worse. In 2004 she stopped giving "talks," and her last book was published the same year. Her memory loss became more apparent, and she eventually lost the ability to speak. “She could say words sometimes,” Lars remembers, “but she couldn’t carry on a conversation.”

Lars took care of Elisabeth alone for ten years — until 2009 — and then he brought in extra help.

I asked Lars if Elisabeth was afraid of death, and his answer was as I expected: an emphatic no. I remember reading one of Elisabeth's books just a few weeks after she passed away, and this line gave me so much joy: "I don't mind getting old. Before the day began this morning I was looking out at starlight on a still, wintry sea. A little song we used to sing at camp came to mind —'Just one day nearer Home.' That idea thrills me" (On Asking God Why).

On June 15, 2015, Elisabeth went home. She was 88 years old. Here’s how Lars tells of the day of Elisabeth’s passing:

“Kea [one of Elisabeth’s caretakers] and I were with her at 1am when she suffered what appeared to be a massive stroke, and it was evident after this that her time with us was drawing to a close. Over the next 5 hours, Kea, Anna [another caretaker] and I continued reading and comforting Elisabeth with our hands, songs and prayers, with Valerie on speaker phone with us for some of the time; granddaughter Elisabeth rang from England and sang to her as well.

More than once, Elisabeth had told me if I ever came in and found her on the floor not to call 911, but just wait. Valerie and I agreed to follow this, and I also spoke to our doctor who confirmed this decision and told us how it would go. It was as he said, and nearing the end there was a quickening to the weakening breath.

At some point I had read aloud a poem Elisabeth used to often quote, “In Heavenly Love Abiding”, and as her breathing grew quieter I read it a second time. As I read the final line, Elisabeth opened her blue eyes once more, then closed them and with a slight smile became very still. I placed my hand on her lips, then checked for a pulse and said, “I believe she has left us,” and for the moment it was the sweetest of times at 6:15am on Monday the 15th.”

— http://www.elisabethelliot.org/ramble/ramblings071415.html

I often think of Elisabeth Elliot. All the suffering and pain she endured in this life are completely gone, and now she stands in the presence of pure love and joy. She has met her Reward, and I'm sure she'd tell all of us who have yet to meet Jesus face-to-face that He is more than worth any suffering we might experience here.

“I wonder if one of the reasons God doesn’t give us more clues about what heaven is going to be like is that we would never manage to keep our minds on our work if we knew. It would be like telling little children ahead of time where Christmas presents are hidden.”

— Elisabeth Elliot, Be Still My Soul

And now she knows just what heaven is like, in all its glory. And she will for all of eternity.

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Lars and Elisabeth's Love Story

The day after Elisabeth Elliot's second husband, who was a professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, passed away, Lars Gren, a student at Gordon-Conwell, moved into her home as her second boarder. (See my first blog post for more details on that.) Lars lived there for 2 years, but after the first year, his feelings toward Elisabeth started to change. He told me, "I was eyeballing her a little bit differently than just as a landlady, and she didn't think I knew that she knew. But by the end of the second year, she knew that I knew that she knew!" So one morning as she was standing at the kitchen sink doing the dishes and he was making something to eat, backs to each other, she told him that he needed to find another place to live. He agreed—although he said his blood pressure sky-rocketed!—and then he went on about his day.

Lars and Elisabeth

When Lars returned home later that night, he asked to see Elisabeth: "We sat down, and I said: 'You have every right to ask me to leave. There's no problem in that, but I don't appreciate the way you did it. ... I'm not some kid coming out of high school here. I've been around a little bit; I've been in business. We do things in a more gracious manner.' Well, she just listened nicely and politely and thanked me for what I had to say. That was the end of it—there was no discussion."*

Lars moved out, but he kept pursuing Elisabeth, and they ended up spending quite a bit of time together.  When I asked Lars why Elisabeth spent so much time with him knowing his intentions toward her, he said it was because she was sure he couldn't possibly be serious about her. (Elisabeth was in her late 40s at this point and had already been married twice, and Lars was 9 years younger and had never been married.) But Lars stuck around, and the Lord started working on Elisabeth's heart.

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Lars and Elisabeth in Ecuador in 1994. Used with permission from Lorrie Orr.

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In the Family Life Today interview (see footnote*), Elisabeth said that she was absolutely closed off to the idea of a third marriage until Lars said something to her in the living room one day that changed her perception of him completely. According to Elisabeth (Lars doesn't remember this), he said, "I would like to be the one building the fences around you, and I want to stand on all sides."*

Shortly after Lars' bold declaration, God convicted Elisabeth. In her own words, she said,

“I was convicted by the fact that God was saying to me: ‘You have not asked Me one thing about this. You just made up your mind that you were going to stay single the rest of your life.’ Well, then I had to get down on my knees and repent and say: ‘Well, you know, Lord, I want to do what You want me to do,’ and ‘How could I possibly have failed to, at least, mention this in prayer?’ I then opened my Bible, and to my utter astonishment—

Well, I have to say, before I tell you that, that I was constantly comparing Jim Elliot to Addison Leach. Jim could do a lot of things Add couldn’t do; Add could do things Jim couldn’t do. Lars could do a lot of things that Add and Jim couldn’t do—I was making these odious comparisons. I opened my Bible and, lo and behold, it was staring me in the face: ‘Men have different gifts, but it is the same Lord who accomplishes His purposes through them all.’”

— *

Through prayer, Scripture, and the counsel of many trusted friends and advisers, Elisabeth opened her heart to Lars and a third marriage.

After four years of knowing each other, Lars and Elisabeth married. I asked Lars if he formally proposed to Elisabeth, getting down on one knee, pouring his heart out to her and so forth, and he started laughing and said, "No, no, it was horrible!" Come to find out, it wasn't that horrible, but he didn't ask her to marry him. Instead, he simply told her, "I want you to be my wife."* She told him she'd pray about it, and two weeks later she sent him a letter accepting his proposal. (A letter! I just can't get over how "Elisabeth Elliot" that feels!) She accepted his proposal in July, and they got married the following December.

Something else Lars told me that had the "Elisabeth Elliot feel" was that Elisabeth gave Lars her second husband's wedding ring to wear as his own! Lars explained, "It was a nice, flat ring on top with my initials on it—ELG. I thought it looked familiar, but I didn't think anything of it. I don't know how it came about—whether I asked her or not—but come to find out it was Add's ring. So it had had AHL on it." It turns out, Elisabeth had Add's initials shaved down and Lars' initials engraved over them. Lars told Elisabeth he wished she would have asked him before doing that, because he would have told her to leave Add's initials. "What a great conversation piece," he said to me, laughing. "If I'm sitting at a table and someone sees my ring and says, 'AHL—what does that stand for?' I could say, 'Oh, that's my wife's second husband.'"

Shortly after Lars and Elisabeth married, they moved to Atlanta so Lars could do a chaplaincy program in Milledgeville, Georgia. He was commuting to Milledgeville during the week, and she traveled on the weekends for speaking engagements. One weekend he decided to travel to one of her speaking engagements in Virginia, and he told her he'd bring some of her books to sell, which no one had ever done before. He wasn't prepared for how well it was going to go: "I had no idea what to expect," he told me. "I had some $5s, some $10s, and some change in my pockets, and I didn't have anything to put the money in, so I wound up putting it in 4 or 5 coffee cups in a box under the table!" When Lars saw how eager women were to buy her books, he talked with Elisabeth, and they decided that he would travel with her to all of her speaking engagements and sell her books. "It became my job," Lars said. "I couldn't think of anything I'd rather do." The rest is history!

Check back next week for the final post in the Elisabeth Elliot series!

*(Quotes from Family Life Today. To listen to the audio, click here for Part 1, and here for Part 2. It's absolutely hilarious!)

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My Visit to Elisabeth Elliot's Cove

Anyone who knows me knows that Elisabeth Elliot is my favorite author. I discovered her books in 2010, and I’ve been reading and re-reading them ever since. So, you can imagine how excited I was when Lars Gren, Elisabeth’s widower, called me in response to a letter I had written requesting to visit him in the house he and Elisabeth lived in until she died in 2015. He told me he’d be glad if I visited.

When I arrived at the quaint cul-de-sac of Strawberry Cove, Lars was outside hanging sheets on the clothesline. I was on time, down to the minute, and he commented that I must have been parked somewhere, waiting it out so I wouldn’t be early. In actuality, I left my hotel early but hit so much traffic I made it on time by the skin of my teeth. And thankfully I did; I would have been so embarrassed if I were late!

I was beyond excited to be able to see their house. Elisabeth often wrote about things she saw from her study window, which overlooks the sea. Lars told me that Elisabeth designed the house so that there are large windows all along the back of it. In the living room, hanging over the large window overlooking the sea, there’s a wooden plaque with Psalm 95:5 on it: “The sea is His, and He made it.”

As I walked around the living room, looking at all of the books and pictures, I noticed 2 triple-hinged frames on one of the bookshelves. In one of them was a picture of each of Elisabeth’s husbands — Jim Elliot (her first husband) on the left, Addison Leitch (her second husband) in the center, and Lars Gren (her third husband) on the right. In the other, was a picture of Elisabeth with each of her husbands in chronological order. I had never before seen a picture of her second husband, so I was thrilled to see what he looked like.

Photo of Elisabeth and Jim

Elisabeth became well known when her first husband, Jim Elliot, and 4 other missionaries were speared to death by Auca Indians in the jungle of Ecuador in 1956. They had only been married 27 months (after waiting 5 years to get the green light from God to marry), and they had a 10-month-old daughter, Valerie. Elisabeth told the story of Jim’s and the other men’s martyrdom in her book Through Gates of Splendor, and she tells her and Jim’s love story in her book Passion for Purity.

Elisabeth stayed in Ecuador after Jim’s death, and 3 years later moved into Auca territory with Valerie to bring the gospel to the very people who killed her husband.  Her experience there is recounted in her book The Savage, My Kinsman.

Elisabeth and Valerie moved back to the States in 1963. Thirteen years after Jim’s death, in 1969, she married a professor at Gordon Conwell, Addison Leitch, who was 18 years her senior. Three years after they married, he was diagnosed with cancer. He died less than a year later.

While Addison (whom Elisabeth called “Add”) was sick, she invited a seminary student to live with them in order to help her with Add’s care. Just days before her new boarder was supposed to move in, Add died. Well, she figured she could still use some help, so she invited him to come anyway, and called the seminary to let them know she could use another boarder, too. She got one. And in God’s unbelievable providence, one of her boarders married her daughter, and the other one married her. Lars Gren and Elisabeth were married from 1977 until June 2015, when Elisabeth passed away at the age of 88.

Photo of Elisabeth and Lars

One thing I’ve always wondered was whether or not it bothered Lars that Elisabeth’s ministry was birthed out of her and Jim’s love story and his eventual martyrdom. When I asked him about it, and if it bothered him that she was married twice before, he burst out laughing and said, “Don’t be ridiculous! Why would it?” Then he said, “I used to encourage her to talk more about the second husband because he never got mentioned. Sometimes at the platform in between sessions [at one of her speaking events], I’d tell Elisabeth, ‘Why don’t you tell them something about Add? Poor guy doesn’t get mentioned’.”

Lars has a great sense of humor, and I had so much fun spending the afternoon with him. I can’t fit even a fraction of what we talked about in one blog post, so I’m going to write 2-3 (maybe even 4). Stay tuned!

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Last Days Kind-of-Living

Anne Graham Lotz believes she will see the return of Jesus in her lifetime. She might very well be right, although only the Father knows the day and the hour when He will send His Son back. Even Jesus doesn't know when that time will come! (Mark 13:32.). But it certainly seems like the "end times" prophecies are starting to fall in place.

I was telling Matt about all of this a couple of days ago, and the thought came to my mind: If I knew Jesus was coming back in the next 15 or so years, what would be most important? I thought about the money I'm putting into my 401k, the investment property I'm planning on buying with my sister, the vacations I'd like to take, the anxieties I have about doing well in my work, ... all those things that fill my mind daily that seem so important.

When I thought about these things in light of Christ's return, though, they all seemed so small and insignificant. My perspective was drastically altered. What am I doing now that will actually matter for eternity? was the question I kept asking myself. Trying to be fiscally responsible is important — even biblical — but it's not my sole purpose on this earth. And neither is being the best employee ever.

I read a book once where a Christian woman was telling the story of her near death experience. She said that when she died momentarily on the operating table, she saw Jesus face-to-face, and when she did, her first thought was, Why didn't I do more for Him? It wasn't rooted in self-condemnation or painful regret but in a deep longing and love for Jesus. That stuck with me. (Even if you're not fully convinced that people have gone to heaven and have come back to tell about it, you can likely resonate with wanting to do more for Jesus, and not wanting to feel like you wasted your time here on this earth when you see Him face-to-face, right?)

It's hard to keep focused on eternity because the present is what seems to matter most. After all, it's all we see and experience. And even though we're supposed to be thankful for the day we're in and not worry about the future, God's Word does tell us to live in light of eternity because doing so gives us perspective on what really matters. For example, Paul calls our trials here light and momentary (2 Corinthians 4:17). This doesn't mean the suffering we experience isn't painful, and that we can't grieve or mourn loss. But what it does mean is that in comparison to eternity — and to the eternal weight of glory suffering produces in us— our trials are like a blip on the radar. Being eternity-focused will help us keep a healthy perspective of what actually matters in the present.

Peter gives us an idea of the things that matter:

“Now the end of all things is near; therefore, be serious and disciplined for prayer. Above all, maintain an intense love for each other, since love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaining. Based on the gift each one has received, use it to serve others, as good managers of the varied grace of God. If anyone speaks, it should be as one who speaks God’s words; if anyone serves, it should be from the strength God provides, so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in everything.”

— 1 Peter 4:7-10

Prayer, love, hospitality, service, speaking words of God, giving glory to God. These are the things, Paul says, we should devote our time and energy to while we wait for Jesus to come back. These are the things that matter most. So, ask yourself today: What would I change if I knew Jesus was coming back in my lifetime? Allow the Lord to bring some perspective to the things that consume your thoughts. Are they what really matter most?

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Betty Scott Stam: A Life Surrenderred

I first learned about Betty Scott Stam through an Elisabeth Elliot talk.

Elisabeth Elliot's parents, who were missionaries in Belgium, moved back to the States when she was still a baby. Even though they were no longer “on the mission field,” Elisabeth's parents entertained dozens and dozens of missionaries, including Betty Scott, who was heading to China to marry her fiance and fellow missionary John Stam.

One year after Betty and John married in China and began missionary work together, they were captured by Chinese communists, held for an exorbitant ransom, and eventually marched to their execution by beheading. Betty was 28 years old, John 27. They had a daughter, not even a year old, whom they managed to hide before they were executed. A few days later, a Chinese Christian found the baby and delivered her safely to Betty’s family.

John and Betty Stam

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When news of Betty and John Stam’s death reached the Elliot household, Elisabeth, who was just a young girl, was deeply impacted. She memorized the following prayer that Betty had written when she was only 18, and she wrote it in her Bible:

“Lord, I give up all my own plans and purposes, all my own desires and hopes, and accept Thy will for my life. I give myself, my life, my all, utterly to Thee to be Thine forever. Fill me and seal me with Thy Holy Spirit. Use me as Thou wilt, send me where Thou wilt, and work out Thy whole will in my life at any cost now and forever.”

This prayer was written by a woman who had no claims to herself, who never told God, “I deserve this or that,” who never considered her will above her Father’s will for her. She had made the decision early on to live a life wholly surrendered to the Lord, even unto death.

Surrender doesn’t come easy to me. When things aren’t going the way I think they should, Satan is quick to plant seeds of doubt in my mind about the goodness of God: “What kind of good God would allow that very bad thing to happen (or prevent that very good thing from happening)?” As soon as I start doubting God’s goodness, surrender is nearly impossible — why would I willingly surrender to a God I’m not sure is even good?

That’s when I have to go back to the Word and renew my mind with truth. One of my lifelines is Psalm 119:68: “You are good, and You do what is good; teach me Your statutes.” Another is Psalm 18:30: “God — His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is pure. He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.” And another is Psalm 84:11: “For the Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord gives grace and glory; He does not withhold the good from those who live with integrity.”

What these verses tell me about my Heavenly Father is the truth; what my hard circumstances might lead me to believe about Him is not the truth. Therefore, since what God’s Word has revealed about Him is my reality, I can gladly surrender all to Him — my plans, purposes, desires, hopes — and accept His will for my life “at any cost now and forever.”  

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Two Men Asleep in a Boat

I've been listening to a sermon series by James McDonald called God in Pursuit — A Study in Jonah, and I noticed something I never had before — Jesus wasn't the only man who slept on a boat in the middle of a storm.

We know the story of Jonah well: God called the prophet to go to the wicked Ninevites and preach salvation, but Jonah didn't want to go. He didn't think the Ninevites deserved the chance to repent of their sin and receive forgiveness. So in an effort to run away from the call of God, Jonah got on a boat to Tarshish, which was in the opposite direction of Nineveh, foolishly thinking he could hide from God. "But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the seas, so that the ship threatened to break up" (1:4). The sailors on the boat with Jonah were terrified. They started throwing stuff overboard and calling out to their gods to rescue them. And where was Jonah? Fast asleep below deck.

When I was reminded that detail of Jonah being asleep during the storm, it made me think of the story in Mark 4. Jesus told His disciples that it was time to "go to the other side," so they got on the boat and started their journey. When a terrible storm hit, the disciples started panicking because they were convinced they were going to die. And where was Jesus? Sound asleep in the stern of the ship with His head on a cushion.

There are some similarities in these stories, but the reasons behind the storm and why Jesus and Jonah were sleeping are very different.

First, let's consider why God sends storms into our lives. In Jonah's case, God sent the storm to wake him from his rebellious slumber and to bring him to a point of crisis (because crisis is oftentimes the only thing that gets the stubborn person's attention and ultimately leads to surrender). His sleeping wasn't indicative of an inner peace, but of what Matthew Henry calls "carnal security":

“Sin is of a stupifying nature, and we are concerned to take heed lest at any time our hearts be hardened by the deceitfulness of it. It is the policy of Satan, when by his temptations he has drawn men from God and their duty, to rock them asleep in carnal security, that they may not be sensible of their misery and danger.”

But God, being "a merciful and compassionate God, slow to become angry, rich in faithful love," loved Jonah too much to let him remain asleep in his rebellion (Jonah 4:2). He pursued Jonah relentlessly, doing whatever it took to draw him to Himself, which included a storm and a giant fish Jonah was sure would kill him. You see, God will go to great lengths to save His children who are wandering in sin, rebellion, and spiritual lethargy, but this "rescue mission" is often a painful one. As Tim Keller writes, "Sometimes God seems to be killing us when He's actually saving us." Or as Job put it, "He crushes but also binds up; He strikes, but His hands also heal" (Job 5:18).

In Mark 4, we find another sleeping Man on a boat in the midst of a storm, but the sleep and the storm were for entirely different reasons. In this case, God sent the storm "to try the faith of his disciples and to stir up prayer," as Matthew Henry notes. It seems so upside-down in our limited understanding, but suffering actually strengthens our faith: "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness" (James 1:2-3). God already had the attention of the disciples, and they weren't in rebellion, but He wanted to bring them to a deeper knowledge of Himself, and so He sent a storm to do just that.

Since Jesus had perfect faith in His Father, He was able to peacefully sleep in the storm because He knew He was safe in His Father's will. The psalmist wrote, "In vain you get up early and stay up late, working hard to have enough food—yes, He gives sleep to the one He loves" (Psalm 127:7). This kind of sleep — the kind Jesus was experiencing in the middle of the storm — comes when we don't spend our energy worrying and fretting and catastrophizing about the "what-ifs" and "could-bes" of life, but instead trust that, whether awake or asleep, we are never out of God's sovereign care. We trust Him so entirely that, even in the midst of what feels like absolute chaos, we can rest.

Has God sent a storm into your life? Is it to bring you to a point of crisis in order to wake you from a rebellious slumber, or is it to build your faith and take you deeper with Him? Whatever the case, respond with surrender, and trust that God knows exactly what He's doing.

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*Results May Vary

"[Yahweh] raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the garbage pile in order to seat them with nobles—with the nobles of His people. He gives the childless woman a household, making her the joyful mother of children" (Psalm 113:7-9).

I love this passage, because is shows that God is a god of divine reversals. God takes the poor and needy and sits them with princes; He takes the childless woman and He gives her children and a household. Divine reversals imply that every human option has been exhausted. There is no hope for a change... but God.

But God takes the jobless and He gives them a job.

He takes the lonely and places them in community.

He takes the weak and makes them strong.

He takes the prodigal and brings him home.

He takes the broken and makes them whole.

If you think about it, most of the stories in the Bible are dramatic. They're filled with divine reversals. God took Joseph from a dingy prison cell and made him ruler of Egypt. He took David from hiding in desert caves and made him king. He took Ruth the Moabitess and made her the great-grandmother of David. And in the greatest divine reversal of all time, the Son of God became man.

These are things only God is capable of.

Jesus' words to His disciples are evident all throughout Scripture: "With God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26). But most of us would probably put an asterisk by that and write in the fine print: *results may vary. We say, "Sure, God did it for Joseph and David, and for my sister and my friend, but God won't do it for me. My situation is too hopeless" or "I've made too many mistakes."

We say we believe in God's promises, but when it comes down to it, we think we're the exception, the one the fine print is meant for, the only one God's promises don't apply to.

Betsy Childs Howard, in her book Seasons of Waiting, writes, "Although you may be in a place where you feel forgotten by God, ask yourself, are you really the first person He has ever lost track of?" In other words, you're not the exception, and the results never vary on God's promises. He is always faithful and good and kind in all of His ways. "His way is perfect" (Psalm 18:30).  Always. There are no exceptions, because He is the same yesterday, today. and forever.

If you're in need of a divine reversal, you're in luck. The same God who rescued Joseph, David, Ruth, and every other one of His children, will also rescue you.

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Broken to Feed a Multitude

Yesterday, when Matt was editing a freelance project about the life of Christ, he asked me, "When Jesus fed the 5,000, why did he tell the disciples to collect all the leftovers and not to waste them?" We looked up John 6 to see exactly what it said: "When [the crowds] were full, He told His disciples, 'Collect the leftovers so that nothing is wasted'" (v. 12). I honestly didn't even know that detail was in there! But then the Lord brought to mind a short passage from Elisabeth Elliot's book Passion for Purity:

“One morning I was reading the story of Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand. The disciples could find only five loaves of bread and two fishes. ‘Let me have them,’ said Jesus. He asked for all. He took them, said the blessing, and broke them before He gave them out. I remembered what a chapel speaker, Ruth Stull of Peru, had said: ‘If my life is broken when given to Jesus, it is because pieces will feed a multitude, while a loaf will satisfy only a little lad.’”

Ultimately, Jesus is the Bread of Life, whose body was broken for us. Each time we take communion, we remember this. But as we share in the suffering of Christ, we're broken, too, for the good of others. And from John 6:12, we know Jesus doesn't waste a thing. Those times when we feel like our suffering is pointless, that God can't possibly have any good purpose in it? Even those He doesn't waste. Even those will ultimately fit into a pattern for our good, the good of others, and His glory.

I can look back over my short 32 years and see how God has used my few Hosea 6:1 seasons — "Come, let us return to the Lord. For He has torn us, and He will heal us" — to help others along in their journeys. For example, I was single for all of my 20s - I didn't meet Matt until I was 30. There were some difficult times during those years when I had to lay my singleness at the foot of the cross over and over and over again. But since the Lord allowed me to go through that season, I am able to minister to other young women who find themselves there. I know the fear, the heartache, the loneliness that comes with singleness because I've been there.

God has also allowed me to go through a season where I couldn't find a professional job in my field for over a year. When God brings people in my path who are in the same boat I was in 5 years ago, I can empathize with them. I can also encourage them that although it seems like God has forgotten them and they'll never find a job, it's simply not true. In due time, God wills set their feet in a spacious place.

I also think about the life of Elisabeth Elliot - what a testimony of a life broken so that multitudes may be fed!

Simply put, God uses our brokenness to feed others. Just like the apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1, we're called to comfort others with the same comfort we've received. So often in our suffering, we say, "Why me?" instead of, "Lord, how can I use this experience to help someone else?" We don't just suffer for ourselves (although that's certainly part of it); we suffer for the sake of others.

Think about what God has allowed you to endure, and then ask Him how He wants to use it. None of it it wasted; it all has purpose.

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There are No Coincidences

I just finished a book by Jerry Bridges called God Took Me By the Hand, which is essentially his memoir. He wrote the book when he was 83-years-old in order to demonstrate to his readers that God's providence is at work in the life of every believer. "God’s providence is His constant care for and His absolute rule over all His creation for His own glory and the good of His people," he writes. In other words, there are no coincidences.

Bridges was able to look back over his own life and trace the hand of God providentially moving him in and out of different circumstances that he had no idea were related at the time. And at 83, he was able to get a glimpse of how everything worked together for his good and God's glory. And that's why I love reading Christian (auto)biographies: I can see how God used everything in that person's life — the good and the bad, the successes and the failures, and even the terrible tragedies — for good. I can read the last chapter and know how the story ends.

Those of us who are still living our stories don't have that benefit, but we do have what every believer before us had: the hand of God guiding us along our journey. Providence. And since we know God's providence is always at work, we can be sure that nothing happens by chance. God is in every detail of our lives.

St. Augustine wrote, "Nothing happens that the Almighty does not will should happen, either by permitting it or by himself doing it." Of course, the truth of God being in complete control provides no comfort unless we also whole-hardheartedly believe the truth that God is good, and everything He does is good (Psalm 119:68). In fact, a sovereign God who isn't good is actually a terrifying thought.

In the Book of Ruth, when tragedy struck Naomi, she never questioned God's sovereignty: "The Lord’s hand has turned against me" (Ruth 1:13). But she did struggle to accept that such tragedy could come from the hand of a good God, and so she became very bitter. “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara,” she answered,“for the Almighty has made me very bitter. ...  Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has pronounced judgment on me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?”

Like Naomi, we all struggle to see God's perfect goodness in the midst of tragedy. In our minds, a good God who has complete control would never allow that terminal illness diagnosis, or that premature death of our loved one, or that birth defect, or that job loss, or that (fill-in-the-blank). He would surely stop every bad thing from happening to us! But God's goodness doesn't shield us from suffering. It didn't shield Jesus from suffering, either. In fact, because God is good and He loves us, He sent Jesus to the cross.

In one of his other books, Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts, Bridges writes, "If we are going to learn to trust God in adversity, we must believe that just as certainly as God will allow nothing to subvert His glory, so He will allow nothing to spoil the good He is working out in us and for us." Or, as Andrew Wilson put it in his article Goodness and Me, "If God has done something, it is good. End of story."

As we get older, we might be able to look back and see how it was God's goodness that led us into a trial, because we have the benefit of seeing what was waiting for us on the other side of it. (Bridges, for example was able to see how God used the 4 birth defects he was born with as a tool later in life to teach him to slow down.) But, for all of those trials we do understand, there will be some that we don't, and likely never will.

While don't have perfect understanding, what we do have is the matter-of-fact truth of God's goodness, and the assurance that God’s care for us is constant, His rule over His creation is absolute, and His glory and our good are the ultimate goals.

"Whenever you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: 'This is the way. Walk in it'" (Isaiah 30:21).

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