Sup guys,
I wont lie, this is a long one and im not even gonna bother to apologize for my tardiness. Heard this from a Tim Keller sermon (http://tinyurl.com/yeg6nw7) and thought it was awesome enough for me to scrap what i had written up before for yesterday's email and use this instead. highly recommend listening to it as i reeeeally didn't do keller justice here. The verse is 1 Peter 1:3-8 and, as the subject suggests, it talks about hope. Specifically for those who don't have much of it because of sorrow, fear, and worries (probably all of us).
Keller points out that Peter writes both the rejoicing and the experience of sorrow in present tense, meaning both are happening at the same time. Peter tells us to rejoice while in sorrow. How is that possible?! I mean realistically speaking, joy is usually the last thing on my mind when im suffering. There're times in my anger or sorrow when I can barely work up the inclination to even pray, much less remind myself to be joyful. In a world where the average person associates hope/joy with perishable things and suffering with the loss of these very perishable things, this doesn't seem possible. I liked the way verse 4 puts it, our hope is in the imperishable.
I think christians often have a wrong view on the way to handle grief, worries, and fear. Scripture is so full of promises of joy and peace in spite of present suffering that some christians (or at least edward) adopt an almost macho/masochistic approach to suffering. Assuming the suffering doesn't crush them outright, i think we (or, again, at least edward) take the position that it is somehow sinful to grieve and take fear/worry and admitting hurt as an indication of a lack of faith. It becomes worldly to grieve, because we're supposed to be strong in the Lord and appear cheerful, if our outward appearance somehow deviate from that there must be something wrong with us. Spiritual macho'ism mistakenly tells us to "jus have faith, dont cry and dont scream in agony. just be ok and whatever you do, dont cause a scene." This sounds very extreme but there're countless ways this manifests itself: distrust of the opposite gender after a painful relationship, blaming ourselves for tragedies when the fault was never ours, develop an uncaring attitude towards a harsh parent. we come up with all sorts of ways to protect ourselves from grief. While none of these three examples of sorrow management sound particularly joyful/happy, i would argue that they share this in common with each other, they don't allow the person to deal with their grief and hurt in an honest way. Instead, these methods channel the sorrow into anger or indifference and both can be equally sinful. That's just the point, hope ALLOWS us to experience fear, hurt, and grief and be strengthened by it. Verse 7 talks about the refining of gold in fire as an analogy.
Even if we are able to grieve openly, i still think most ppl dissociate joy from sorrow because we dont believe the two can mix. We enter into our faith thinking "well of course ill go through rough times, but if i hold on long enough, God will pull me through to the good times." The thing is, it's not about good or rough times, our joy and hope is founded on something beyond our present circumstances and solely upon our Lord and Saviour (romans 8:18 agrees with edward). If we're only joyful in the good times and not the bad, it hints that perhaps our hopes does not rest solely upon Him. God is with us not just on the other side of suffering but in its midst as well - this gives us reason to be joyful even in sorrow. Living hope makes us sadder and more joyful at the SAME time with the loss of a loved one, or job, or pet hamster, or watever else. It frees us to have the humility to grieve openly but at the same time, since our hopes rest in the imperishable and we know that God is working this loss to our good, we can freely rejoice. Christ is the perfect embodiment of this, we see him grieve openly and honestly, especially in the garden of gethsemane. Yet concerning his most sorrowful and painful experience, hebrews 12 says this of Jesus, "for the joy set before him [he] endured the cross." Jesus was not jus sorrowful in the garden, he was joyful at the same time. weird but true.
But lets get practical now, how do we feel joy when our natural inclination in sorrow won't allow us this? Afterall, this is not a natural reaction. Verse 8 tells us that hope/joy is to LOVE him. I think that's probably the key to all of this. I haven't had the chance to field test this yet myself, but I think the promise is that even in the midst of our sorrow, if we remember how much God loves us and how we love Him, we get filled with that "inexpressible and glorious joy" peter talks about. Dont let sorrow or worry distract you from that love for a millisecond, that's where sin and lack of faith truly lies - not in the worry or sorrow themselves, but in the distraction.
Encouragement for the week, practice this next time life sux for u: Allow urself to grieve/worry honestly, but at the same time remind yourself of hte love between you and God, remember where your hope is, and be genuinely joyful and sad at the same time. This is the only way i can think of to worry/grieve in faith and without committing the sin of idolatry.
Happy Thursday!
Edward
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish... In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith...may be be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy..." 1 Peter 1:3-8
Inmates from philippines dancing to jai ho (slumdog millionaire) - awesome way to rehabilitate criminals back into society, they really seem to enjoy themselves =D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTMUZ39UHgo
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