Whose World? Which World?

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him....This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil....whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God (Jn. 3:16-21). 

 

As I go through my days, I listen to people tell me of so many different "worlds" in which they live that it often weighs me down and makes me sad. 

 

I listen to those who suffer from loneliness and depression, those whose world hates them and is determined to somehow harm them, and I think of David, who experienced the wrath of Saul and who had to spend part of his life hiding in caves, being pursued by Saul's army.  In Psalm 25, David writes:

 

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul;

in you I trust, O my God.

Do not let me be put to shame,

nor let my enemies triumph over me.

 

No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame,

but they will be put to shame

who are treacherous without excuse.....

 

My eyes are ever on the Lord,

for only He will release my feet from the snare.

 

Turn to me and be gracious to me,

for I am lonely and afflicted.

The troubles of my heart have multiplied;

free me from my anguish.

Look upon my affliction and my distress

and take away all my sins.

 

See how my enemies have increased

and how fiercely they hate me!

Guard my life and rescue me;

let me not be put to shame,

for I take refuge in you.

 

May integrity and uprightness protect me,

because my hope is in you.

 

Why on earth did God allow David, His "anointed," His "chosen" to experience the kind of sorrow and grief that David had to go through in his young adulthood?  Why did the young man have to flee to the wilderness in fear of his life and hide out in caves night and day, knowing that he was a hunted man -- so much so that he could not even leave a cave to get water when he was thirsty?  Maybe for the same reason that God allows each one of us to experience sorrow and suffering -- so that we can say with David:  I was hard - pressed and was falling, but the Lord helped me....He reached down and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me.  They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support.  He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me (Ps. 18:16-19).

 

Jesus said to Nicodemus:  "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life" (Jn. 3:14-15).  In other words, Jesus is not "waiting' for us get to heaven, but He has come into our world, our desert, our wilderness of pain and suffering and has allowed Himself to be cast down and overcome by our pain and grief in order that He can take us up again into His world of peace, of joy, of truth, of fellowship with the Father and the Spirit.

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When I listen to people speak of their pain and loneliness, their grief and inescapable sorrow, I want to say to them, "God has so loved your world that He has sent His only Son...not to condemn, but to save....The Light has come into your world....to deliver you from its pain."

 

The reading today from Jesus Calling is this:  The more aware you are of My Presence, the safer you feel.  This is not some sort of escape from reality; it is tuning in to the ultimate reality.  I am far more Real than the world you can see, hear, and touch.  Faith is the confirmation of things we do not see and the conviction of their reality, perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses.

 



If we would be convinced of the reality of Divine Providence and Care for us, we must not believe that the world we see and experience through the senses is the only world.  There is another world that controls this one; it is the world of Divine Protection and Promise.  And Jesus Christ is the entrance, the door to that world, if we but come to Him with faith.  David experienced in the wilderness a Real Presence, a Real Protection from Saul's army.  Will the Lord do less for us than He did for David?

 

A good beginning is to read Psalm 25 with thanksgiving in our hearts for the deliverance that God is sending to us.