Chasing Shadows

This blog is designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking time each day to spend time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob Shaw, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord as well. I encourage the use of a devotional, a scripture reading and prayer, then finally some form of artistic mark to tie it all together. 

Today's devotional is taken from: Zacharias, Ravi. The Logic of God: 52 Christian Essentials for the Heart and Mind. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2019. [E-Book] Chapter 10: Chasing Shadows

Opening Thought: When we looked at Nick Vujicic’s book Limitless prior to our current book, I spent some time reflecting on Ehlers Danlos Syndrome; a condition to which I suffer from. During that devotional time, I was sitting in the reflective camp of, God bless the broken road. I was finding time to appreciate the pain and suffering in my life, because God used it to help shape who I am today. In today’s reading, Zacharias shares the passage of the paralyzed man in Luke 5:17-26 and Christ asks us the question, what is the bigger miracle – the healing of the body or the healing of the spirit (the forgiveness of sin). This is a powerful question with so much elegant and troubling theology. Elegant because its simplicity and complexity paint a beautiful tapestry and troubling because so many do not know or appreciate it. Let us begin with the pericope and go from there.  

The devotional begins with: Luke 5: 23-25

Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So, he said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.”  Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God.

Second Thought: I have a feeling that keeps returning in my mind and heart, though I struggle with the mental and emotional complexity of it, the feeling is, since I know what it means to physically suffer and I am use to it, I feel a want to take on more suffering if I know that my pain gain would equally take away the pain within other people’s body and hearts. I do not even like to admit that because it sounds so horrible pretentious, as if I were virtue signaling or something. The other night, after reading some news headline about some of the atrocities in the world and a conversation about the mental and emotional struggles of my generation (millennials), I said to my wife, “I wish I could just jump on these grenades.” She asked me what I meant, and I explained that I wish I could just take all the pain and all the suffering on to myself, especially from children. It kills me to know that little ones are suffering. But really, we are all children, some just a little bit older than others.

 It has begun to pain me so to witness people in their struggles, particularly people who do not have faith to anchor themselves. That is why this passage for me is so important, it reminds me of something beyond my scope of understanding; that God’s reality is transcendent to our own, and in that God can heal all. God can heal all, even if it does not seem like it to us in our contexts. Jesus tells us that the forgiveness of sins is more difficult than the healing of the body and then Christ does both. Christ knows that people can get focused on the physical, so he challenges these followers of his with the question of which is harder, but also urging us to consider which of the two we should be focused on. We can become so wrapped up in the material, that we forget what is important. I think that is why I sometimes want to take all the pains away, as someone who has found so much strength from living in my faith, I just want to clear the air enough for other to see what I see.

Continual Work: Often people believe that if they had the perfect health, body, or beauty that suddenly life would be easy. If that were the case every celebrity would be perfectly healthy and happy, which is just not the case. People who have the health of body, have just as much struggle in spirit as the rest of us. Often, it is those who have suffered in one way or another who have a deeper understanding and appreciation for life? So, ask yourself this: if you have the perfect body, where would you still be hurting? Maybe you have emotional, mental, spiritual struggles. If you were perfect in all material ways, where would you need forgiving for your sins? This second question is the bigger because no matter who you are, we are all broken in spirit!     

What Rev. Jacob is Working On: I keep thinking I would like to investigate ministry that helps children who suffer. After spending time in hospital with my son, this is something that I feel a calling towards. I do not think it is something for right now, other ministry issues have my dedication and responsibility, but down the line I might consider chaplaincy in a children’s hospital or something along those lines, to help bring hope to those little ones who need it.

Rev. Jacob’s Scripture time: John 6:35

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

Recently I read a debate online between ministers about the old expression, “God won’t give you more than you can handle.” Now this statement is not a Bible quote, though some use it as if it were. It may come from some influence from 1 Corinthians 10:13 which says, “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” Now some of the debate about this is focused on what Paul meant when he said this, some have made the point that Paul is not talking about suffering at all, and is only addressing sexual sin and temptation, (though resisting temptation could be argued as a virtuous suffering), as the context which this pericope is pulled is about sexual deviancy. Fair enough. Some scholars would see applying general suffering to this as a form of falsity, again fair enough, but just because the phrase “God won’t give you more than you can handle” is not found word for word that does not mean it is not a valid position.

There are a lot of things that are not found word for word biblically, but we still hold them to some truth, like the word “Trinity”. This is a title given to Christ, God, and the Spirit during the early life of the Church, to quickly reference the three persons of God we encounter in the bible. It is a time saver. So somewhere, at one point, someone took what they saw as a general theme in their bible interpretation, and it caught on and now we have this phrase. So, we can say at least to some, this statement speaks to their faith and what their faith has gifted them.

So, why bring this up? This phrase, I think, has taken bad press because people use the praise in place of actually helping people who suffer. I have seen people try to rephrase this as “I can get through anything with God” or “with God I am stronger”, but the same critiques usually hit those statement too. Some people also condemn the phrase because not everyone, (some also being Christians), don’t make it through and lose faith and/or take their own life. But, to me, the biggest problem with the phrase is that it is used instead of offering real help. One thing that we see with Christ is God came down and suffered with us. We cannot get away from pain and suffering, but we do not need to do it alone. I know from much personal and shared experience that pain is much more manageable when we are with other, particularly other in faith. If you fell into the hard times in your life and someone drops this phrase, but then does nothing to offer support, friendship, compassion and caring then the phrase become empty words, just a band aid solution.

If you are going to use any generality in life, you must be willing to live it out. One of the biggest critiques I hear about Christians is that we are hypocrites. Of course, the funny part is that is our faith tells us that this is our nature to an extent. But if we calm to be faithful but we do not move to help those who suffer, then we are actively denying them the love of God working through us. So, do not leave it to chance, make ever effort to help people and the nuances of a biblical generalities will not be so painful to people.   

Closing Words: I hope you enjoyed and were lifted by this devotional time; it is enormously important to take time for God each day. By doing so, you welcome God into your life, and in turn you will be able to better see the world through the eyes of God, rather than God through the world's eyes.

Prayer for your day: Lord, give us the heart to live out of faith. Give us the courage to go out into the world and speak of your triumph over sin, death, the devil and yes even suffering. But remind us that your triumph over these dark things does not mean we are not going to encounter them, but rather we do not need to fear them. That even in our bodies our destroyed, in your mercy our spirits will be saved. Let us have faith in this and live out your love no matter our context. In Christ name, Amen.

Artistic Close: Christ suffers with us!

Tyrolese Crucifix (1914) by John Singer Sargent. Original from The MET Museum. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel.