The other day, I heard a well-known pastor talking about how most of Israel is secular today. They don’t really want to be known for, and associated with God. The Jewish people have had a pretty rough history with enormous challenges that has caused a lot of them to defy God.
Their history reminded me of the challenges God allows each of us to go through. Will we end up turning away from God after wrestling with life’s challenges? Or, after wrestling with it all, will we let God rename us “Israel?”
Like Jacob, I will take the new name God gives those who come out on the other side of all of life’s challenges – of the refiner’s fire – surrendering them all to Jesus.
Israel – One meaning of the name is that after wrestling with God, I belong to God for His purposes. When we finally belong to God, when we surrender to His purpose, I believe we see all of our life as God – somehow – working it all together for good. That’s how He wants us to see it. What joy there is for those who do not give up on God in the midst of their struggles, and for those who turn it all over to Him for Him to use for His wonderful purposes.
The following is taken from chapter 13 of the book, “Encountering Our Wild God” by Kim Meeder. At the age of 8, Kim was picked up early at school one day by a family member and driven to her grandmother’s home. Kim sensed something was terribly wrong. At her grandmother’s home, her grandmother sat her down and told her the grim news. “Kim, this morning, your father (Kim had seen her father as her superhero who could do no wrong) has shot and killed your mother and then taken his own life.”
Kim’s family were not churchgoers. Kim’s reaction to the incredible news was to yell at her grandmother, “No, it’s not true” over and over again. Then, Kim ran out the front door and ran until she could run no more. She fell face down in the dirt and cried out, “Jesus, help me!”
Today, Kim Meeder is one of the most powerful Christians I have ever seen. She and her wonderful husband have a ranch in Bend, Oregon. Kim travels all over the world sharing the amazing life Jesus has given her. She is alive in Jesus like few Christians I know. That’s why I wanted to share some of her words with you. Below is the part of Kim’s book I wanted to send you today.
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“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts…Where once there were thorns, cypress trees will grow.
Where nettles grew, myrtles will sprout up.
These events will bring great honor to the Lord’s name;
they will be an everlasting sign of his power and love.”
Isaiah 55:8-9, 13
Perspective is an untamable thing. A multitude of people can all experience the same event and yet have completely different views of their encounter.
Our human perspective dictates that we view our circumstances through the veil of what is best for our immediate needs. We want to be happy, peaceful and comfortable – and that is okay. Few want to be depressed, stressed out and in pain. Yet sometimes, our complete upset is the exact stage God uses to move His best plan forward and deeper into our lives.
At times, God allows occurrences in our lives that, in the moment, make no sense at all. Despite our best-laid plans, things will go wrong. Occasionally, they go horribly wrong.
When it comes to perspective, I often consider my love of mountaineering because it has such tremendous correlation to my relationship with God. The higher I go in the mountains, the more powerful the experience. Reaching the lofty heights is where the spectacular views and vast perspectives are most profoundly experienced. But one of the frightening realities of this elevated place is the potential for avalanches. From a distance, they are one of the most beautiful events I have ever seen. Yet when caught up within them, I have a unique perspective. A perfectly quiet, flawless environment can unexpectedly turn into a tumbling, catastrophic disaster.
Life can be like that.
Despite our efforts to maintain balance, life can shift and crack without warning. Suddenly, before our horrified eyes, our peaceful landscape collapses, and we fall in a thundering rampage. Instantly, we get swept up, plummeting downward in a roaring avalanche. We feel as if we are being torn limb from limb. We find ourselves upside down, right side up, bending, twisting, gasping for life. Finally, when the cataclysm subsides, our first discernible breaths tell us we are still alive.
Often, in the unfolding of the crumpled heap at the bottom of the chasm, our fist thought, our first perspective is, “Why?” In that immediate moment of wreckage, we lack understanding. We fail to comprehend the depth of His plan. We cannot receive bedrock verses like Romans 8:28, which promises that all things “work together for the good of those who love God.”
Good? How?
Instead of falling forward into His waiting arms of trust, we fall backward into the black pit of despair. The longer we stay there, the harder it is to leave. We get stuck in the pain of the moment, fully believing this is our new lot in life. This dark, broken place will become our new home. And this will become our truth as long as our vision remains locked on our narrow perspective of the “now.”
Thankfully, our perspective has no hearing on His.
Some say that life is like watching a parade pass by. We only see a narrow window while God sees the entire parade – from beginning to end – all at once. Since He sees everything together, He also sees how it all fits together within the beautiful whole. Because of this truth, we can trust Him with our narrow window, our pile of wreckage. We can trust Him with our rubble, knowing it can never cover His mountain range of reason. We can trust Him enough to stop looking downward at our broken circumstances and start looking upward to the wonder and power of His wild perspective.
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God bless,
Mark