In H. G. Wells’s novel The Time Machine, a character called the Time Traveler finds himself in a seeming paradise thousands of years into the future. The Eloi, the people who inhabit the lush, fertile community, seem to have no problems or stress. Their days are filled with food, recreation, and rest, but it isn’t long before the Time Traveler discovers that a breed of creatures that the Eloi call Morlocks live underground and come out at night to feast on the Eloi. Like cows in a pasture, the Eloi bumble through their days thinking they live in paradise when in actuality they are being systematically farmed by the Morlocks. The Eloi are aware of the Morlocks, but they rarely speak of them. The loss of a member of their group is met with a sort of indifference—as if to say, “At least it wasn’t me.” They prefer to pretend the Morlocks don’t exist rather than to admit the fate that ultimately awaits them all.
In a way, we do the same thing. “Life is a terminal affair”—I’ve heard more than once. Yet like the Eloi, we live our daily lives pretending that pain and suffering happen to other people in other places. That works well until it comes knocking upon our door and we can no longer ignore it. That is when we, like the Eloi, seem surprised that tragedy happens. In a way it is astonishing that we can be so naïve as to ask, “How could this happen?” Shouldn’t we expect it?
But the amazing truth of our faith is that tragedy isn’t the end of the story. In Wells’s novel, the Time Traveler escapes the land of the Eloi by the skin of his teeth, leaving the reader relieved that the fate that awaited the Eloi wouldn’t befall him. But even though Wells’s novel ends before the eventual death of the Time Traveler, the fact is, he would eventually die. Death catches us all. I’ve seen many a scary movie where a character tries to escape a specter only to see the ghost in front of him no matter which way he turns. How tragic it would be if that was our final moment. But for the Christian, we know that death is not the end. Something better awaits us beyond this world.
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02.
Did God Mean What He Said?
A cursory reading of Scripture makes it seem that we just need to sit back and relax and everything will be fine. In Psalm 55:22, we are told: “Cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you” (NIVAll Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™ ). In Matthew 6:25ff, we are told that the birds of the air don’t sow or reap, but God takes care of them. In Luke 12:24ff, we read something similar—God cares for the lilies of the fields, even though they don’t do anything. In Matthew 11:28, Jesus tells us to let him carry our burdens.
I’m not convinced this means that our faith will keep tragedy at bay. In Philippians 4:6, we are told to present our requests to God, but many times I have done so and God seemingly didn’t hear me.
Some years ago, I was teaching a college counseling course in Chile. One of my students was a Christian man who had taken several of my courses over the years and knew of my Christian faith. “I have a question,” he said to me. “I know God will provide for me, but sometimes I worry. I have been out of a job for almost a year. But God will find me a job, won’t he?”
What could I say? Could I promise him a job? Could I speak for God? Platitudes might help perpetuate the myth that “all will be fine,” but they also ignore the truth that things don’t always work out the way we want.
“Let me be honest with you,” I told him. “I know our Scriptures teach us that God sees the sparrow and the f lowers of the field, but the truth is that people die of starvation every day. People lose their jobs, and tragedy sometimes finds us. But this doesn’t mean that God doesn’t care for us.”
I tried, hopefully not in vain, to impress on him that the comfort of God’s care goes well beyond this world. At Gethsemane, God’s own Son prayed for his burden to be taken from him, but God said no. Tradition teaches that well over half of the apostles met tragic, unnatural deaths. Why would things be any different for us? The lesson is that our home is elsewhere and what happens in this hour is irrelevant in the context of eternity. It just seems relevant when we are standing in the midst of sadness.
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03.
What Is Our Promise
As a young boy, I was walking one morning with my grandmother through the forest around her home picking blackberries for breakfast. The sun was warm on my shoulders, and the weeds were dewy on my bare feet. Ever the leader, I was fifteen feet in front of my grandmother and my cousin, scampering toward the next bramble I could see, when my grandmother yelled at me to stop. Just in front of me was a huge copperhead that lay hiding among the weeds. My grandmother told me not to move, and she sent my cousin to fetch a shotgun. I stood stock still for nearly ten minutes, trusting my grandmother.
I couldn’t see the snake, but I wasn’t the least bit afraid. I assumed she knew what to do. After the snake was shot and killed, she led me over to where its headless body lay. It was so cleverly disguised that we were nearly on top of it before I could see the five-foot-long serpent.
I could easily have lost my life that day, but I didn’t. I didn’t have to know the snake was there or even how to look for a snake. Even though I eventually learned this skill, my grandmother did that for me when I was a child. I trusted her, and she took care of me.
What a great analogy! We don’t have to be afraid, even when the world seems to be collapsing around us. Proverbs 3:5–6 teaches us not to lean on our own understanding. Thank goodness. If I had to do that, even in this temporal world, I very likely would have died of a snake bite on a summer morning when I was eight years old. How much more so can we find comfort in this truth when we face things of an eternal nature? Terrorists with car bombs, IEDs, or airplanes can’t change the fact that in the end, God walks with us. Over our shoulders, when we think we are leading, he whispers to us like my grandmother—I’ll take care of you. Our walk in the woods is part of a bigger plan. I don’t have to know the plan because I know the Way.
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04.
Be Not Afraid
When my children were growing up, I regularly felt the urge to make sure they didn’t face any pain or difficulties, but I knew in my heart that I would be cheating them if I did that. They didn’t need a life that was pain-free. They needed me to teach them the skills they would require when inevitable pain arose before them. Teaching those skills was a much better gift to them.
Teaching our children to manage fear begins with managing it ourselves. Children watch us and how we handle fear and anxiety. We have to live our faith as we face our troubles. Our conversations and our behavior should portray a solid belief that nothing in this world can threaten us. Matthew 10:28 says, “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (NASBScripture quotations marked (NASB) are taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.lockman.org)). As Jesus knelt before the Father on the night of his betrayal, he faced exhaustion, humiliation, and brutal pain. But his example shows us as parents how to manage our fear. Not our will, but thine, our Father.