Someone I love has been in and out of the hospital for a couple weeks now. The good reports have been followed by not so good ones, swinging back and forth like a pendulum. Home to the hospital to home to the hospital. They’re exhausted.
When I think about the situation and wonder, “What can I do?” I feel anxious. What can I do? Even if I were in the same room, their problems aren’t ones I can solve. But when I think about God, who is there and who can do something and who knows that He already has a plan in which it all turns out for good, I feel calm again.
I’m not saying it’s easy.
The circumstances are hard but we don’t grasp at any old line. Only the one that is firm and secure, an anchor for the soul. It reaches down into the unseen depths to grab hold of the only sure rock that will not be moved. That hope steadies us when the storms of life are tossing us up and down. We don’t pin everything on calm seas, or clear skies. Instead “We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings (hardships, distress, pressures, troubles) knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:2-5, parentheses added).
Sometimes when I come across a word that I find hard to define, I look it up in an etymological dictionary, which traces the roots and development of a word over time. So as I was thinking about the passage in Romans, I looked up ‘rejoice’ and read: “to own (goods, property), possess, enjoy the possession of, have the fruition of” (etymonline.com). It blew me away. Rejoicing is about taking hold of something that belongs to you. Happiness comes later.
Imagine a person living in impoverished circumstances when news comes that a wealthy distant relative has died and now the entire estate is theirs. At that moment, their life is still unfolding in the middle of a run down house, an overdrawn bank account and an unreliable car, but the truth of their bottom line has changed dramatically. This is the reality for followers of Christ. Hardships are the atmosphere in which our rejoicing takes place, not the catalyst for our joy. Our circumstances, no matter how terrible they are, are powerless to take away our inheritance.
Our hope can’t rest on a good report. Our hope has to rest on the Good News that God really is with us everywhere, all the time, actively working to redeem and restore us. His mercy doesn’t run out in the night and His love never fails. He cares for us, and He will care for us. What joy to find Him in the places we never expected!
“All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance – an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while.”
1 Peter 1:3-6