God’s Healing for Life’s Losses: How to Find Hope When You’re Hurting
Spiritual Mathematics
Countdown to God’s Healing: I’m excited to announce that BMH Books will release my fifth book in May. To read a sample section of God’s Healing for Life’s Losses: How to Find Hope When You’re Hurting click here. To pre-order your autographed copy at 30% off, visit here. As we countdown to the release, I’ll be sharing periodic excerpts, such as today’s post: Spiritual Mathematics.
The Journey
To understand our grief journey, let’s track the world’s typical grief and acceptance process thus far. Suffering crashes upon us. In shock, we deny its reality. At some point, our emotions can no longer suppress the truth and we explode with anger. Anger doesn’t get us what we want, so we switch tactics and try bargaining—behaving, being good, and doing good works. However, in spite of everything we try, we can’t manage our loss. Depression sets in, alienation strikes.
At some point, the depression lifts a tad. We figure that we have to get on with life somehow. So we regroup. We re-enter the game, not with a new heart, but with no other choice. The game’s still rough, it still hurts, so we do what we can to deaden and suppress the pain—maybe work-a-holism, maybe ministry-a-holism, anything and everything. But life assaults us again, only worse. None of our strategies work. Now what? What do we think? What do we do? What do we feel? Since we pursue what we perceive to be pleasing, it all depends upon our perspective. Do we perceive with grace eyes or with despairing eyes?
Despair: The Negative of Hope
If we attempt to handle our loss without Christ, then we despair. We doubt. We give up any hope of ever making life work, of ever figuring out the mystery of life, or of ever completing the puzzle. We trudge on in doubt, despair, and darkness. Despair is the negative of hope.
That’s the world’s typical response. It is not God’s healing path. In God’s growth voyage we move from regrouping to waiting (stage five), from deadening to wailing (stage six), and from despairing to weaving (stage seven)—perceiving with grace.
Weaving: See in This Some Higher Plan
Our eyes darkened by despair, we need grace-eyes. We need to weave in another way of looking at life. Biblical weaving is entrusting myself to God’s larger purposes, good plans, and eternal perspective. I see life with spiritual eyes instead of eyeballs only. I look at suffering, not with rose colored glasses, but with faith eyes, with Cross-eyes, with 20/20 spiritual vision.
Joseph’s Story
Hear Joseph’s words to his fearful family in Genesis 50:19-20. “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”
Joseph uses “intended” both for his brothers’ plans and God’s purposes. The Hebrew word has a very tangible sense of to weave, to plait, to interpenetrate as in the weaving together of fabric to fashion a robe, perhaps even Joseph’s coat of many colors.
The Old Testament also used the word in a negative, metaphorical sense to suggest a malicious plot, the devising of a cruel scheme. Other times the Jews used “intended” to picture symbolically the creation of some new and beautiful purpose or result through the weaving together of seemingly haphazard, miscellaneous, or malicious events.
“Life is bad,” Joseph admits. “You plotted against me for evil. You intended to spoil or ruin something wonderful.” “God is good,” Joseph insists. “God wove good out of evil,” choosing a word for “good” that is the superlative of pleasant, beautiful. That is, God intended to create amazing beauty from seemingly worthless ashes for those who grieve (Isaiah 61:3).
Join the Conversation
How could you apply Genesis 50:19-20 to your life? “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”
Trackbacks/Pingbacks