Make Us Thankful For This

This promise has continued to captivate my attention: "There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions..."

This sounds like a comfort--lucky me!--a no-brainer. Leave one and get a hundredfold more. In the business world, that's a good profit, a wise investment.

But then we reach that tiny interjection that makes everyone do a double-take. "What was that? Did I hear you correctly?" Yes, with persecutions too. Not so much a no-brainer after all, and not for the weak of heart. There is determination here, a commitment, a perseverance. It's not a free ride.

(Why would we think that carrying a cross daily would be?)

I have to admit, there are days when I am quite tempted to say, "You know what? You can keep your hundred-fold family, God. The persecution doesn't seem worth it, and I was content with my original family anyway."

In my more sane and stable moments, though, while I can't deny those feelings, I must admit they're a bit short-sighted. Persecution is no fun, but it's not without its benefits, either. This is where several other authors join the conversation with a loud *AHEM*.

James: "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."

Peter: "In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ."

Paul: "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..."

It's still tempting to say, "No, thank you," but here the offer becomes a little harder to refuse. The hundred-fold family doesn't come just with persecution, but then also with steadfastness, perfection, completion, rejoicing, a genuine faith, praise glory and honor to Jesus Christ, endurance, character, and hope. That sounds like a nice package, more of a blessing than you might have thought originally.

Still easier said then done. In the midst of real life, I find it hard to take comfort from James, Peter, and Paul. They knew from experience what they were talking about, but the way they present it here makes it all sound so heady or theoretical. Yeah, we can hear that trials produce those things--but it's still unpleasant. People like me with a low pain threshold are tempted to avoid it all together no matter what the promised benefits are, just like we do with exercise.

But again, on sane and stable days, I can admit the foolishness of avoidance. Because God, from the beginning of the fall of man, has never once wasted a trial. It might even be true to say it's his preferred method of working.

Enter Psalm 90, another passage occupying my thoughts lately. Most of it discusses the frailty of man in comparison to God's greatness, probably not the first place to turn for a pick me up: "You return man to dust...we are brought to an end by your anger...we bring our years to an end like a sigh..."

But it's followed by this simple prayer:

"Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
and for as many years as we have seen evil."

Here are the Israelites, stuck wandering in the desert for forty years, wondering what in the world their God was up to, wondering if he could in fact be trusted, if he was in fact good, and maybe most of all just trying to get through each day with some sort of smile, some sort of laughter or enjoyment, looking for silver linings and bright sides. All they can do is pray: "Satisfy us so that we can rejoice. Make us thankful for these years in the desert." We want to be happy but we don't feel like we have any reason to be. Help us.

God was not wasting those years in the desert. In fact, the people of Israel are eventually told exactly what he was up to:

"...And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart...And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna...that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD..."

Like us reading James and Peter and Paul, the Israelites know intellectually that God must be up to something, but that doesn't make it pleasant. Rejoicing in trials is not a natural response. It's tempting to resent, to falter, to give up and run the other way. And so the humble prayer: "Make us thankful for this."

And we know someone else who passed through a difficult time in the desert. Before his ministry begins, the Spirit leads Jesus into the desert for forty days, without food and water. I have a feeling he was reflecting on the Israelites similar experience, meditating on this same passage of scripture, and so he quotes it when being tempted: "Man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord..." as though he is saying "I'm being taught the same thing they were." It was this time in the desert that turns the theoretical into experiential, perhaps in some way giving him what was needed to face the even more serious trials and persecution coming three short years later.

This is the longest random spider-web of thoughts I've produced here in quite some time. I don't know if you'll be able to connect the dots with me or not. But I suppose what it all means is this: the theoretical is becoming experiential for me too.