Turn on the news. Every media outlet is talking about the vaccines that are slowly becoming available to prevent us from contracting swine flu. Will you go get vaccinated?
There are upsides and downsides to every vaccination. Because of vaccines, we've eradicated things like polio. Now there are concerns over whether these drugs cause things like autism, but it's still a risk that many are willing to take. Why? Because the virus or disease you could get otherwise is awful enough that you want nothing to do with it.
Sadly though, many people look at their faith as a vaccine by itself. There's a belief that many hold that if you believe in God and trust your life to him, that everything will be just fine. You'll develop an immunity to hardship, poverty, disappointment, and tragedy. Unfortunately, when people believe these things, and bad things happen to them, usually the first response is anger at God for not having prevented tragedy from striking.
I've seen it too many times. One husband and wife that are members of this church and still live in the community will never be seen coming to church. Why? Because they're angry with God for a tragedy that struck them six years ago. Another friend has completely turned away from God because he's dealing with terminal cancer and feels betrayed.
Why do we do this to ourselves?
I got to thinking about this over the course of the last ten days because, frankly, I've been having a pity party for myself. I returned from vacation to a pile of work that seems to be increasing:
- Major staff problems that have now resulted in beginning to search for a new staff member.
- A death in the congregation.
- A near-death in the congregation.
- A two-story flood in the church building from a busted water fountain.
- Insurance companies.
- Frustrated trustees.
- Communication breakdown with a leader that I trust and respect greatly.
- and as of Sunday night at 10:30, I'm dealing with personal ID theft.
I've come to realize that often times when we choose to follow Christ and serve Christ in life, we don't become immune to hardship. We actually become magnets for it.
Think about it. If you're doing good things for the Kingdom of God, who isn't going to be happy? So what do you think Satan is going to do about it? He's going to try to slow us down or stop us altogether. Two days after the leadership of this church had a serious discussion about making better use of our facilities for community ministry, the building flooded (it was literally raining in the youth hallway). It was a setback. Good came out of it though. We're getting a new paint job in our youth and children's ministry areas which we desperately needed.
Paul says to the Corinthians, "I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." Christ's grace is sufficient, his power is made perfect in our weaknesses.
Here's the Good News: God doesn't cause the bad stuff to happen - that's a part of the broken world we live in. BUT, because God is who he says he is, we never have to go through the hard times alone. In fact, when we do, we endure only by our reliance on Christ to get us through.
I'm leaning on God a lot right now. That means I'm leaning also on other Christian brothers and sisters. I've got a lot of ground to cover, but I know that by the grace of God, it will all be done.
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