An in-between-post, between posts on “Letters to my Friend.”

This is just a simple reflection on a question[s] I have been working through with the Lord lately (it is actually a recurring question that I come back to every now and again throughout my life thus far). Currently I have been unemployed for 11 months. I was laid off days after I was cleared to return to work from my oncologist last year; I never actually made it back to work. So we went from me battling cancer, to now being unemployed; and wondering what are you doing Lord? So my thought process continued down this probing question with the Lord “what are you doing?” “where are you at?” We are coming down to the wire. If I don’t get a job in about a month and a half or so (with health coverage, since I need that even more now!); I have no clue what we are going to do, in fact we could have to declare bankruptcy. So my “natural” question to the Lord, realizing that he has all the resources at his fingertips; is, why don’t you just speak a check for $100,00 ex nihilo into existence, and provide a way out of this situation we are currently facing? That seems like a reasonable question, right? He is all loving, all powerful God; I am one of his dearly beloved sons for whom he gave his very life; doesn’t it seem fair to think that given all of this, he should simply have a check in the mail for us to meet our needs? There is actually still some time, I am hoping that he acts this way soon! But then he interrupted my self-pitying questions with the reality that this is not necessarily how he works—he can, and very well might (he has acted like this for us with the cancer stuff)—but often he works differently than “I would think” he should (in fact, usually!). In fact, in his self-revelation in Christ ‘he learned obedience to the Father through suffering’. He didn’t call down a legion of Angels to wipe out the Romans when they came to arrest, and ultimately kill him (thankfully, for us)! He didn’t take the path of least resistance, but he walked through the deepest resistance imaginable. Certainlty the Spirit was there meeting all of his human needs, and he had his sustenance through his communion with the Father and the Spirit; but most often in his life, what he could have done as God (or what he had available to him), he didn’t take advantage of as the suffering servant. And all of this was because of his love for the Father, and for us; he stayed the course because of the ‘joy set before him’. The course led to his death, but ultimately it led to resurrection, ascension, and exaltation. His obedience and Spirit anointed trust of the Father provided salvation for all of humanity; so that ‘by his poverty, we have become rich’! This is what the Lord has been encouraging me with through this season (and I know there are many folks, Christians, going through this same thing right now). Not that he has forsaken us, just the opposite; instead that he is walking with us through the fire, and the deep waters. That his provision and blessing is in each step we take with him in the Spirit. That ultimately, as we walk through this shadowy valley, he has great joy ahead of us. This provides great hope for me! He is faithful even when we are faithless! I am expecting him to meet our needs—he always has and does—he is just doing it his way; but that should be no surprise, for that is the very way he walked with us on this earth. He works in hidden ways (Deus absconditus), unexpected ways. Thomas Torrance provides a good word in the vein I am sketching above about his walk with us on earth:

The patience of Christ and the holding back of his power

The ascension means that Christ holds back the word of his power, the physical transformation of the creation, until the day when he will return to make all things new, and that [sic] meantime he sends the church to live and work in the world in the form of a servant. He calls it to follow his own example on earth, when, as we have seen, in the midst of our hunger in the wilderness he did not call in the miraculous power belonging to him as Son of God in order to make bread out of stones. Although he wrought miracles as signs of the kingdom, as part of his revelation in act and word, he did not call in supernature to help himself, but lived and worked within the nature, weakness and limitations of the creature, to the very end. Even on the cross when the temptation came, ‘If your are the Son of God, come down from the cross’, he resisted it and suffered patiently—and by his weakness and passion overcame all the powers of darkness. (Thomas F. Torrance, “Atonement,” 306-07)

Someone might read this and become discouraged, and wonder if Torrance is saying that God does not break  into our lives supernaturally now? That’s not exactly Torrance’s point; obviously he is talking about the humbling of the Son in his kenotic state, meaning that Jesus was fully human and thus participated in all the weaknesses and limitations that that assumes. That he did not appeal to his divine person to take shortcuts; he was fully human, and he had to go through things that were real and not fun (understatement). But the point I am grabbing from this is that as a follower of Christ, as a participant in his life, I should not expect that God (even though he could, and might, I’m praying 😉 ) is going to write me and my wife a check for $100,00 just to make our lives more smooth. He has something bigger going on here, and we need to learn obedience and trust in him even when it burns. I fully expect him to bring salvation to the Grow house, but not until the third day. Just as Jesus didn’t take the easy way out, and call the Angels down; I don’t imagine his life in us by the Spirit should be any different. Is resurrection coming for us (metaphorically in this instance)? Absolutely! I am counting on the Father to bring us the provision we need just as we need it! Amen.