A Proclamation of Hope

This post is dedicated to a dear friend, mentor, and teacher.  His lessons of love, compassion, faith, justice, reconciliation and ministry will forever and always impact my life.  I know you are face to face with Jesus, Richard.  But we miss you already.

This past week I had the opportunity to be the speaker at Covenant Park Bible Camp in Mahtowa, MN.  It was a privilege to share the gospel with a bunch of junior highers and see how God was intersecting and impacting their stories.  Throughout the week I kept reiterating the truth, “We were not meant for brokenness and we were not made for death!”  We experience both this side of the Eschaton, but that is not the end of our stories.  We are not defined by death because there is hope for wholeness, reconciliation, healing and life found in Christ.  As one theologian once put it, “We experience the full brunt of death in this life.  We feel the pain, loss, and outrage.  But the gospel points us towards hope in the midst of that heartache.”

There were times this week when I was overwhelmed by the pain and suffering that these young people had or were experiencing.  Parental suicide, cancer, substance abuse, broken families…so much death and brokenness woven into their lives.  And what about God?  Where is He in all this?  Why the brokenness?  For these questions I want to speak against the standard Christian responses that try to explain away pain.  God is not a crutch in the midst of this hurting; He is not allowing these afflictions as part of His divine plan.  It is not His will that we experience death.  NO!  God is outraged at their pain!  He is weeping for their suffering.  It was NOT His intention to stick these kids into shitty situations and see how that would impact their faith.  He never created us to experience brokenness.  His plan for our lives was and has always been life and life with Him.  He sent His Son to die on the cross so that redemption could break into the reality of death and transform the fallen nature of this world. 

God has given us the freedom to walk towards Him or walk away from Him.  In that autonomy brokenness entered the world.  We experience brokenness we choice for ourselves and the consequences of others brokenness.  But Christ was never a backup plan.  God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, always intended a way for all humanity and creation to come back into relationship with Him.  Back to life and life to the full.  But in the midst of the plan of redemption and the Kingdom of life coming near we still experience the full brunt of death.

But death is not the end of our story.  God is with us in our pain, our loss, our outrage, our suffering.  There is hope for the present, but ultimate hope for all that has been broken to be set right.  That is the message of the gospel.  That is the hope I pray those kids take home with them….Then today, as I prepared to reflect on this past week I received the news that my friend Richard passed away.  Instantly I was filled with outrage, pain, a sense of loss as an amazing and faithful man was taken too soon from this world.  I know he is with God.  I know death does not define his ultimate story.  But today I am again overwhelmed by the brokenness of the world.  I weep for the loss of a friend.  I weep and am outraged that death is part of our human experience.

I pray for Richard’s wife, for his children, his family, his friends, and all those who are impacted by his death.  I pray that God would meet them in their pain and give them peace and comfort.  I pray that hope would break into the reality of death.  We are not meant for brokenness…we are not meant for death.  Our story will one day be defined by life, redemption, healing, reconciliation, and wholeness…in the meanwhile I pray our stories would be defined by the hope and promise of life found in God.  In the face of death I proclaim hope…not to nullify the experience of death, not to explain it away or lessen the loss, but to remember that this is not the end of our stories.

A Proclamation of Hope

This post is dedicated to a dear friend, mentor, and teacher.  His lessons of love, compassion, faith, justice, reconciliation and ministry will forever and always impact my life.  I know you are face to face with Jesus, Richard.  But we miss you already.

This past week I had the opportunity to be the speaker at Covenant Park Bible Camp in Mahtowa, MN.  It was a privilege to share the gospel with a bunch of junior highers and see how God was intersecting and impacting their stories.  Throughout the week I kept reiterating the truth, “We were not meant for brokenness and we were not made for death!”  We experience both this side of the Eschaton, but that is not the end of our stories.  We are not defined by death because there is hope for wholeness, reconciliation, healing and life found in Christ.  As one theologian once put it, “We experience the full brunt of death in this life.  We feel the pain, loss, and outrage.  But the gospel points us towards hope in the midst of that heartache.”

There were times this week when I was overwhelmed by the pain and suffering that these young people had or were experiencing.  Parental suicide, cancer, substance abuse, broken families…so much death and brokenness woven into their lives.  And what about God?  Where is He in all this?  Why the brokenness?  For these questions I want to speak against the standard Christian responses that try to explain away pain.  God is not a crutch in the midst of this hurting; He is not allowing these afflictions as part of His divine plan.  It is not His will that we experience death.  NO!  God is outraged at their pain!  He is weeping for their suffering.  It was NOT His intention to stick these kids into shitty situations and see how that would impact their faith.  He never created us to experience brokenness.  His plan for our lives was and has always been life and life with Him.  He sent His Son to die on the cross so that redemption could break into the reality of death and transform the fallen nature of this world. 

God has given us the freedom to walk towards Him or walk away from Him.  In that autonomy brokenness entered the world.  We experience brokenness we choice for ourselves and the consequences of others brokenness.  But Christ was never a backup plan.  God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, always intended a way for all humanity and creation to come back into relationship with Him.  Back to life and life to the full.  But in the midst of the plan of redemption and the Kingdom of life coming near we still experience the full brunt of death.

But death is not the end of our story.  God is with us in our pain, our loss, our outrage, our suffering.  There is hope for the present, but ultimate hope for all that has been broken to be set right.  That is the message of the gospel.  That is the hope I pray those kids take home with them….Then today, as I prepared to reflect on this past week I received the news that my friend Richard passed away.  Instantly I was filled with outrage, pain, a sense of loss as an amazing and faithful man was taken too soon from this world.  I know he is with God.  I know death does not define his ultimate story.  But today I am again overwhelmed by the brokenness of the world.  I weep for the loss of a friend.  I weep and am outraged that death is part of our human experience.

I pray for Richard’s wife, for his children, his family, his friends, and all those who are impacted by his death.  I pray that God would meet them in their pain and give them peace and comfort.  I pray that hope would break into the reality of death.  We are not meant for brokenness…we are not meant for death.  Our story will one day be defined by life, redemption, healing, reconciliation, and wholeness…in the meanwhile I pray our stories would be defined by the hope and promise of life found in God.  In the face of death I proclaim hope…not to nullify the experience of death, not to explain it away or lessen the loss, but to remember that this is not the end of our stories.

A Proclamation of Hope

This post is dedicated to a dear friend, mentor, and teacher.  His lessons of love, compassion, faith, justice, reconciliation and ministry will forever and always impact my life.  I know you are face to face with Jesus, Richard.  But we miss you already.

This past week I had the opportunity to be the speaker at Covenant Park Bible Camp in Mahtowa, MN.  It was a privilege to share the gospel with a bunch of junior highers and see how God was intersecting and impacting their stories.  Throughout the week I kept reiterating the truth, “We were not meant for brokenness and we were not made for death!”  We experience both this side of the Eschaton, but that is not the end of our stories.  We are not defined by death because there is hope for wholeness, reconciliation, healing and life found in Christ.  As one theologian once put it, “We experience the full brunt of death in this life.  We feel the pain, loss, and outrage.  But the gospel points us towards hope in the midst of that heartache.”

There were times this week when I was overwhelmed by the pain and suffering that these young people had or were experiencing.  Parental suicide, cancer, substance abuse, broken families…so much death and brokenness woven into their lives.  And what about God?  Where is He in all this?  Why the brokenness?  For these questions I want to speak against the standard Christian responses that try to explain away pain.  God is not a crutch in the midst of this hurting; He is not allowing these afflictions as part of His divine plan.  It is not His will that we experience death.  NO!  God is outraged at their pain!  He is weeping for their suffering.  It was NOT His intention to stick these kids into shitty situations and see how that would impact their faith.  He never created us to experience brokenness.  His plan for our lives was and has always been life and life with Him.  He sent His Son to die on the cross so that redemption could break into the reality of death and transform the fallen nature of this world. 

God has given us the freedom to walk towards Him or walk away from Him.  In that autonomy brokenness entered the world.  We experience brokenness we choice for ourselves and the consequences of others brokenness.  But Christ was never a backup plan.  God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, always intended a way for all humanity and creation to come back into relationship with Him.  Back to life and life to the full.  But in the midst of the plan of redemption and the Kingdom of life coming near we still experience the full brunt of death.

But death is not the end of our story.  God is with us in our pain, our loss, our outrage, our suffering.  There is hope for the present, but ultimate hope for all that has been broken to be set right.  That is the message of the gospel.  That is the hope I pray those kids take home with them….Then today, as I prepared to reflect on this past week I received the news that my friend Richard passed away.  Instantly I was filled with outrage, pain, a sense of loss as an amazing and faithful man was taken too soon from this world.  I know he is with God.  I know death does not define his ultimate story.  But today I am again overwhelmed by the brokenness of the world.  I weep for the loss of a friend.  I weep and am outraged that death is part of our human experience.

I pray for Richard’s wife, for his children, his family, his friends, and all those who are impacted by his death.  I pray that God would meet them in their pain and give them peace and comfort.  I pray that hope would break into the reality of death.  We are not meant for brokenness…we are not meant for death.  Our story will one day be defined by life, redemption, healing, reconciliation, and wholeness…in the meanwhile I pray our stories would be defined by the hope and promise of life found in God.  In the face of death I proclaim hope…not to nullify the experience of death, not to explain it away or lessen the loss, but to remember that this is not the end of our stories.

Hope for the Hopeless

Ask any of my friends, I am a verbal processor.  Probably annoyingly so…but regardless, it is how I decompress and gain perspective. Therefore, for the purpose of dealing with life this post is about seeking hope in the midst of the unknown.  Thanks for the space to process.  You may not have signed up for the job of sounding board, but hey, you are the one reading!  May my ramblings be relevant to your ears and your heart.

Okay, this week I was struck by the sheer number of unknowns in my immediate future.  For example…where will I sleep in a month?  Where will I call home?  Where, if anywhere, will I do ministry?  Job? Finances? Future? All are unknown…the last eight years of my life have been characterized by a series of leaps.  Jump first, trust God, and ask questions later.  After all, God said to Abram “Go and I will show you…”  Obviously there is faith involved in following God and not blind faith in the sense of lemmings following to the unknown…but trusting that He is a good God and we don’t need to know all the details to be obedient and follow where He is leading.  Even when we think we know the details, God could be leading us somewhere completely different and the adventure lies in trusting Him and His sovereignty over the grand scheme of things.  So again, I have little hesitation to leap headfirst into the unknown.  Because I follow the Known God.

Yet…this week…I don’t even know where to jump.  One of my life verses is Proverbs 16:9 “Man makes plans in his heart but God directs his steps.”  Again, our faith is worked out as we follow God. All I can do is follow where I believe He is leading and have the peace and understanding to let dreams go and change as they do and pick up new dreams and venture down paths that are opened to me.  But this week I felt as if all doors were slammed in my face.  Plans, contingency plans, and contingency plans for my contingency plans all fell through.  Job search is still in a holding pattern.  Personal life is, well, hard.  It seems like everything I am dreaming for, hoping for, and planning is out of my control and out of reach.  My heart is burdened with the unknown and I do not even know what direction to face, let alone jump towards…

But again, the truth that keeps resonating with my heart is this: in the unknown I am loved by the Known God.  In Him there is hope for the hopeless and peace for the weary.  All those who are burdened and heavy-laden can come to Him and find rest.  I guess I need rest.  Peace.  Patience.  And hope.  I want to plan out the future, but I can’t.  I want to be in control, but I’m not.  That in and of itself should be reassuring…do I really want to be the one in control?  Perhaps not.  All I am saying is that life is hard, but even as it is hard I will continue to look towards God.  I will continue to seek peace and hope for what’s next.  And I will trust that the Good God has good plans ahead.

Life is hard, but God is faithful.  It is the cry of my heart to ask for more faith and peace for the process.  So Lord, hear my cry.