When tragedy strikes

Rick Warren is an American Christian pastor and author.  He is founder and senior pastor of Saddleback Church, which has grown to became one of the largest churches in the United States.  He is perhaps best known for his book, The Purpose Driven Life, which has sold over 32 million copies.  In 2009 he delivered the invocation at Barak Obama’s inauguration. 

Of course, however well known a person is, or however high their public profile, they are not immune from many of the ups and downs of life which are part of human experience.  Earlier this month Rick Warren and his wife Kay suffered what must be about the worst experience any parent can go through, when their youngest son, Matthew, committed suicide at the age of 27 after a long battle with depression.  

As Rick Warren himself has said, ‘the ultimate test of faith is not how loudly you praise God in happy times but how deeply you trust him in dark times.’  When tragedy strikes, we have a clear choice: we can either turn our backs on God and believe that he has let us down, or we can run to him, trusting that his love will see us through.  When tragedy hit the Warren family, no doubt the world watched to see how they would respond.

I follow Rick Warren on Twitter, and I have been so impressed and encouraged by the messages he has sent since the death of his son.  Here are just a few:

My great comfort in pain isn't in knowing that God will someday use it for good, but that RIGHT NOW HE'S SUFFERING WITH ME.

In the first shock of an unspeakable tragedy, don’t speak. Hug them! Weep with them! Just be there. Use touch, not words.

In crisis? Release your grief.  Receive help from others.  Refuse to become bitter.  Refocus on what matters most.  Rely on Christ!

Real hope doesn't deny tragedy. It faces it head-on. Hope says "Yes, it's really bad, but I still trust God."

The real tragedy is that most people never trust God until they have to, and then they have no experience to fall back on.

Explanations don't bring comfort. The love and presence of God does.

Grief comes in waves.  When a big wave hits, you can’t ignore it. You surf it and ride it out. My surfboard is talking to Jesus.

"Broken heart” originated in the Bible. “The Lord is close to the broken-hearted and saves those crushed in spirit” Psalm34:1

Here is a man who is practising what he preaches, and demonstrating an unshakable confidence in God in the face of personal tragedy.  I hope that I would respond to tragedy in the same way.  My thoughts and prayers continue to be with Rick and Kay and their family.

I hope you've learned your lesson!

“I hope you’ve learned your lesson!”  I guess that most parents have spoken those or similar words to their offspring, usually when the child concerned failed to take heed of a warning their parents had given, and suffered the consequences.  I can vaguely remember hearing those words from my parents, and it’s quite likely that I said something similar to my children when they were young.  Perhaps it’s not the most helpful of comments, but the underlying desire is that the one who has made a mistake will use it as a learning experience; it is quite natural for parents to want that for their children.  My problem is that right now I can hear (in my mind) one of my daughters saying the same thing to me!  Let me explain…

During the church service which I led yesterday morning I used several short passages from the book of Psalms to help us think about why followers of Jesus should regularly meet together.  A passage from Psalm 119 included these words:

‘I delight in following your commands more than in having great wealth.  I study your instructions; I examine your teachings.  I take pleasure in your laws; your commands I will not forget.’ (v14-16)

One of the things Christians do when they gather together is to learn the ways of God, particularly as we find them in the life and ministry of Jesus.  We acknowledge that God is our Creator and it makes sense to do as he says, understanding that despite what we may sometimes think, ultimately God knows best!  Many of the problems in our world and in society today have arisen because human beings have ignored the ways of God and have decided to go their own way.

At the end of the service I was moving a piano stool a short distance; when I bent to put it down I felt a sharp pain in my back.  I have been suffering ever since, especially when I awoke this morning after a night’s sleep.  My back had become stiff and very painful.  It must have taken me about 15 minutes to manoeuvre my body out of bed!  My daughter Steph is a nurse, and as I have been hobbling around the house I have been thinking of words which Steph has said to me on more than one occasion, “bend your knees, not your back”.  Now I can almost hear her saying, “I hope you’ve learned your lesson!”  Having experienced such discomfort over the last 24 hours, I sincerely hope that I HAVE learned my lesson!

It got me to considering what God thinks when he sees us human beings making the same mistakes over and over again.  Why is it that we seem so slow to learn the lessons of life and of history?  Why are we so slow to accept that God knows best?  Thank God that he is so gracious and forgiving with us!

Resting on Dad's shoulders

The Bible never ceases to amaze me with its ability to surprise.  Two or three months ago, I came across a website called 365 Promises.  There is the opportunity through the website to sign up for daily e-mails, each of which contain an image and a promise from the Bible (as the website title suggests, there is a promise for each day of the year, though I’m not sure what happens in leap years!)  I have been blessed and encouraged by receiving the daily email promises.

Usually the promise verses are quite familiar to me.  Although there have been a few times during my life when I have read through the Bible, this morning I received a verse with words which I can’t ever remember reading!  This verse from the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy (33:12) conjured up such a powerful image in my mind:

Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in him,
    for he shields him all day long,
    and the one the Lord loves rests between his shoulders.

When I was a young child I made a trip with my parents into Hull city centre.  To a young boy who lived in a small village, it felt a bit like being in the land of the giants; the streets were crowded with grown-ups, and there was a noise and bustle which I wasn’t used to.  At the same time, the shop windows and other sights held a great attraction; and my attention was drawn by all the new sights and sounds.  I began to enjoy the experience - until something dreadful happened.

I can’t remember how it happened, but there came a point when I realised to my horror that I had become separated from my parents!  I knew that I was completely lost, with no idea how to locate my parents, and with no chance of finding my way home again.  I felt desperate, lonely and afraid.

I’m not sure how long I was in such a state of panic; probably not too long, although it felt like an age.  It didn’t take long for my parents to realise that I wasn’t with them, and they very quickly managed to locate me.  Waves of relief flowed through my body when they reappeared.  I’m pretty sure that from that moment on I clung to my parents until we arrived back home!  Alone, I had felt a great sense of vulnerability; with them, I knew I was safe.

This memory has surfaced through my meditating on the words from Deuteronomy.  They speak of the wonderful truth that in an often frightening world, we can find security in God, our ‘shield’.  I particularly love the phrase, ‘the one the Lord loves rests between his shoulders.’  What an amazing image of the intimacy of relationship which we can have with God!  What little child doesn’t love to rest between the shoulders of their mum or dad?  Isn’t it astounding that God wants to draw us into that kind of relationship with him? 

The happiest place on earth

My brother Phil is National Director of Church Army New Zealand.  He and his family moved to New Zealand in 2009, and by all accounts are thoroughly enjoying life in the southern hemisphere.  A couple of weeks ago Phil arrived back in the UK in order to attend a conference of Church Army leaders.  It gave us a good opportunity to spend a few days with him and catch up with family news etc. 

Phil brought a friend called Ben with him.  Ben is from Vanuatu, a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean.  Ben was also due to attend the Church Army conference.  I must admit that geography was not one of my stronger subjects at school (I didn’t have many!) and I before I met Ben knew next to nothing about Vanuatu.

One thing I now know about Vanuatu is that the average temperatures are considerably higher than those we experience in the UK.  When Ben arrived at our house on a cold March evening he was very well wrapped up, and I’m not sure that he really appreciated our climate, even though the sun did eventually make a belated appearance during his stay.  Ben was somewhat bemused when snow started to fall from the sky as we walked down to church one morning!

Ben is a lovely Christian guy, with a broad smile and a winsome manner.  He has a humility and gentleness about him, and it was a real privilege to get to know him a little.  Phil and Ben had spent a day in London on their arrival in the UK.  From what Ben told us, it had been an awe-inspiring and overwhelming experience for him as he was able to see in person places which he had only ever heard about.

Ben gave us an idea of life in Vanuatu; it is clear that many of life’s so-called ‘necessities’ which we in the UK take for granted are just not available in Vanuatu.  Many people do not have access to electricity (think of what that would mean in your life!)  Only the very well-off have any sort of motorised transport; for most, travelling is by foot.  Over 80% of the population lives in rural, isolated villages with minimal access to basic health and education services.  It is clear that life in Vanuatu is like a totally different world from what we experience in the UK.

Materially speaking, people in Vanuatu have very little, and yet, according to a "happy planet index" published by the New Economics Foundation, Vanuatu is the happiest place on earth (whereas the UK languishes in 108th place).  We in the UK have so much in terms of material possessions, and yet many people in the UK seem to have a desperate lack of joy or happiness.  As Jesus himself said, ‘life is not measured by how much you own.’ (Luke 12:15).  I am grateful to have met Ben, and for the reminder that true joy and happiness cannot be found in “things”, however much we might crave them.