Why is Morgan Freeman so grumpy? Hoping against hope can make you lose it! He's in prison, and he can't see a way out. There may, in fact, be no way out. So why hope? But Tim Robbins' notes that hope, in and of itself, is an escape. It's deep. LOVE that flick.
Easy things are consistent, but faith can ebb and flow (depending on our issues). We alternately saw our heroes give up hope (like Sarah) and then find it again. Like I said last week...faith can be a roller coaster.
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| Faith is the fall...and the check. |
Living by faith is a trust fall into the arms of a person you only know is standing behind you...by faith! We enter in by faith, and we keep going by faith. And where in the Bible does it say that it's easy? It says it doesn't take much (Matthew 17:20), but the life of faith is never presented as a cake walk.
So to close that point: faith = hard.
Q: ...And, how would you explain suffering in the context where there is no happy ending?
This is a big deal question. What makes this question so messed up is that, it too, requires faith. A hard faith. There are so many scriptures about suffering:
More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that
suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and
character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame...
- Romans 5:3-5
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And
let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and
complete, lacking in nothing.
- James 1:2-4
In these scriptures (also see 1 Peter 1:6-7), suffering serves to strengthen and increase our faith/hope. Which makes sense, because "by it [faith] the men of old gained approval." That happy ending is being stamped "approved." But...no one wants to hear that. We want the happy ending to be hearing the doctor say: "the cancer is gone." And that can happen. We want the happy ending to be the house, the car, the spouse, and the kids. We want sit on a church pew with tears of joy streaming down our face because of all the many blessings in our lives. All that can happen. But is that the happy ending? In reality, though it seems out of reach now, the true victory is sitting anywhere: the church pew, the unemployment office, or on the hospital bed with joy in your heart over "just another day the Lord has kept me." That is to say, kept you in faith. And dude...I want that! I'm still wanting to praise about all the other things too, but truly living by faith has you recognizing that death, burial, and resurrection is all the blessing you need.
I'm reading the Bible in a Year plan, and last week I was struck by something that Jacob said in Genesis. Please understand that Jacob is in the Hall of Faith, stamped approved. We see him worshiping at the end of his life, literally on his death bed with a praise. But he had this encounter with Pharaoh upon arrival in Egypt:
Then Joseph brought his father Jacob and presented him to Pharaoh; and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How many years have you lived?” So Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my sojourning are one hundred and thirty; few and unpleasant have been the years of my life... - Genesis 47:7-9
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| The Happy Ending we want...is very Disney |
So we see that, in Jacob's eyes, happy ending has not been attained. He lives 17 years in Egypt, and then he dies. He lives 17 years in Egypt, not the Promised Land, and then he dies worshiping up to his last breath. I can't pretend to get it. But, for some reason, I like this scripture. It's OK to recognize that life can be sucky. Jacob was not trying to disrespect God. He wasn't throwing his faith down in front of Pharaoh, he was just acknowledging: "I've had some hard times!"
But he could praise, because he knew it wasn't over. For us the happy ending has to be attained here. But the happy ending is beyond the time we spend on this Earth (faith time). I'm not saying we can't have happy times here. We can laugh. We can play. We can experience what we think is true joy. But, the Bible doesn't call anything that happens here our "happy ending."
Job knew it: And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God (Job 19:26)
David knew it: As for me, I will be vindicated and will see your face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness (Psalm 17:15)
John knew it: Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not
appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will
be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is (1 John 3:2)
The happy ending is (tragically, but truthfully) not yet. That happy ending is in "seeing" God. The happy ending is the full realization of your faith. It's seeing the invisible person you've believed in for so long. And in seeing Him, becoming as He is. That's the happy ending. And no one in Hebrews 11, maybe no one in the world, has experienced it yet...because we all see the happy ending together.
And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect. - Hebrews 11:39-40
Great series of posts and lots of good points along the way. How would you summarize them? And, how would you explain suffering in the context where there is no happy ending? Is it still somehow part of God's plan, as you seemed to suggest in your earlier post? I don't mean to sound like an a**hole by asking these questions, by the way. They are questions that I have trouble answering . . .
In terms of a summary: faith is the hardest thing.
The one thing every Christian could use more of is faith. But faith is difficult because (as noted in the series) it requires you to lay aside pride:
- The pride that thinks we deserve something because of our "righteousness" (i.e. Cain and Abel)? Faith makes you give that up and look at yourself as only good enough through Christ. Hard pill to swallow. We want to be good in and of ourselves.
- The pride that is really fear of rejection/disappointment so we decide to walk alone, rather than with God (unlike Enoch)? Faith jettisons that way of thinking.
Faith makes you hope when it hurts to hope. I'm talking Shawshank Redemption style hope here: