Most days give us a measure of security. And then suddenly tragedy shatters the familiar. Sorrow comes with its almost unbearable pain. Most people in their anguish almost instinctively turn their thoughts to God for help. If we are Christians, we do so with the assurance that He who has been faithful in the past will now be faithful in our great need. We believe He can be trusted who said, "I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you." So let us turn to Him and His Word for strength and help.
There are some gentle words of wisdom and comfort in I Corinthians 13. Hear his truth.
FIRST, LIFE IS A TRANSIENT POSSESSION.
In verse 8, Paul speaks about the things religious people may hold on to--things that give them status with others. He mentions prophecies, tongues and knowledge. Paul says that as desirable as each of these may be they are only temporary. They disappear with the passage of time. Prophecies fail, tongues cease, knowledge vanishes away. Indeed every physical and earthly thing is subject to decay and death. How penetrating is the reminder of James in the New Testament when he states, "For what is your life, for you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes." From the day we are born, as someone said, we begin our journey to the grave.
In his book Spirit Life, D. Stuart Briscoe put it in a memorable way. He writes, "When I moved to the United States, I was impressed with the number of total strangers who visited my home to wish me well...they all sold insurance! One day my visitor was talking about the necessity to be prudent in the preparation for all possibilities. 'If something should happen to you, Mr. Briscoe--'' he started to say, but I interrupted with, 'Please don''t say that. It upsets me.''
"He was a little startled, but tried again, 'But with all due respect, sir, we must be ready if something should happen to us.''
"'Don''t say that,'' I insisted. He looked totally bewildered and said, 'I don''t understand what I said to upset you.''
"'Then I''ll tell you,'' I replied. 'It upsets me that you talk about life''s only certainty as if it''s a possibility. Death isn''t a possibility, it''s a certainty. You don''t say "If," you say "When," whenever death is the subject.'' Then I added, 'By the way, when something happens to you, what will really happen to you?''"
Death comes to all living things, yet it is still a shock to us. A hundred or even a thousand years would not prepare us completely to give up those that we love.
Death comes, and we feel adrift at sea with no anchor. But there is one who would be our anchor in the sea of sorrow. He helps us let go of physical things we cannot hold on to and open our hearts to the eternal things which we can never lose. In this dark hour we need to depend on Him. If we can, His promise to those who trust Him will comfort our souls. "If anyone believes in me, though he were dead yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die."
Life is temporary in this world and so are we. Let us make the prayer of the Psalmist our prayer, "So, teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom." The greatest wisdom is to trust our lives into the hands of Jesus Christ who is eternal life and to follow him all of our days. Life is a transient possession.
SECONDLY, OUR KNOWLEDGE IS FINITE.
Life is temporary. Knowledge is finite. We can''t determine all the reasons for the death of our loved one nor for so much of the troubles of life. We don''t even understand ourselves completely. For as Paul says, "We see in a mirror dimly, our knowledge is imperfect, we only know in part."
Sometimes, under the mystery and the darkness, we want to give up on life. We may be tempted to blame God or ourselves, or others or even a lost loved one, but this does not help. No, we need to put away childish things and accept the way of maturity. That is the way of patiently trusting Christ who helps and saves people to the infinite love he demonstrated by his death for sin on the cross. There he won a battle with evil and darkness and death for us. We can trust him that he knows what is best. One day he will make it clear. "For now we see through a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now we know in part, then we shall understand fully, even as we have been fully understood."
The poet says,
"Sometimes, when all life''s lessons have been learned,
And suns and stars forever have set,
The things which our weak judgements here have spurned,
The things for which we grieve with lashes wet;
Will flash before us out of life''s dark night,
As stars shine most in deeper tints of blue:
And we shall see how all God''s plans were right,
And what most seemed reproof was love most true." *
LIFE IS TRANSIENT, OUR KNOWLEDGE IS FINITE, BUT SOME ETERNAL THINGS REMAIN; AND THEY ARE ANCHORS FOR OUR SOUL IN THE STORMS OF LIFE.
One anchor is faith. In this hour more than any other we are called to live by faith. Faith is simply trusting in Christ and his saving and keeping power. It is by putting our lives in his hands that we may say as we face the future, "I can do all things--I am adequate for all things--through Christ who strengthens me." That is the essential meaning of faith.
A family was awakened by the piercing blare of their smoke detector to discover that their house was on fire. The father ran into the children''s room and carried the eighteen-month old baby out in his arms, dragging his four-year-old in tow by the hand. They were halfway down the stairs when the little boy realized that he had left his teddy bear in his room. He broke away from his father to run back to get it. In the furor and confusion, Dad didn't notice that his son wasn't with him until he got outside. By now the boy was trapped by the fire and smoke in his second-floor bedroom. Smoke swirled around him as he coughed and cried out the window, "Daddy! Daddy! Help me!"
His dad yelled from below, "Jump out the window, Andy! I''ll catch you!"
"But I can''t see you, Daddy!"
Daddy shouted back, "That''s O.K., son, I can see you! Jump!" Faith is the first anchor.
Hope is another. Hope comes from the presence of the Lord in a believer''s heart. It also comes from believing His promises. Hope finds security in God''s will. Hope looks to heaven and reunion and rejoicing with our loved ones who love the Lord. Paul said, "If in this life only we have hope, we are of all men most to be pitied." Christ Jesus rose from the dead and he has prepared a place for his people in heaven. He will take us home.
Love is the third anchor. Love is our shield and help against useless regret, guilt, bitterness or resentment. It is God''s gift also. He sets His love abroad in the hearts of His followers through His Holy Spirit. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Entrust your future with all its unknowns, all the joys and sorrows it may hold, into the hands of Him who said, "I will never fail thee, nor forsake thee."
He will keep to the end;
He's your dearest friend.
Place your hand in the nail-scarred hand.
* Poem cited is "Sometime" (stanza 1) by Mary Riley Smith, as found in MASTERPIECES OF RELIGIOUS VERSE, edited by James Dalton Morrison, (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1948), pg. 99.