My friend Matt who serves as a pastor in the Deep South has had a rough couple of years, to say the least. Two years ago, his four-year-old son died unexpectedly of a heart attack. One year later, a pastor in another part of the country with the exact same full name as Matt made some extremely ungodly statements about the homosexual community. A group of online vigilantes mistook Matt for the perpetrator and began to stalk him both online and in-person, terrorizing him and his family for months—all while he was still grieving the loss his son.
Last December, he and his wife learned that they were expecting their sixth child. They were elated. However, days later his wife was diagnosed with cancer. Her cancer just happens to be fed by the hormones that are elevated during a pregnancy. They were left with a terrible dilemma. Should his wife have surgery and begin chemo immediately, both of which would jeopardize the pregnancy? Or should they let the pregnancy feed the cancer until the second trimester when the surgery and chemo would be less dangerous for the baby? They chose the latter. His wife had her first chemo treatment this week.
As I stared at a picture of their smiling faces at the hospital as she began her treatment, I wondered, “For what grand usefulness must the Lord be shaping this man and woman?” Many of us have heard the great quote from A.W. Tozer, “Whom the Lord would use greatly He would hurt deeply.” Makes me think of 2 Corinthians 1:3-6:
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
5 For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
6 If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.
We prefer the easy road, free of trials; the days of deep, joyful fellowship with the Lord when there are no doubts and every step of life seems smooth. However, consider how useful to others we would be if our Christian walk consisted only of those days. The person in the valley of depression is not easily helped by the person who has only ever known the mountaintops of the Christian life. Patience and sympathy with the suffering comes most surely from having suffered.
The Scriptures commend the Lord Jesus to us as a sympathetic and gracious High Priest. He has walked the road we walked, been tested as we have, and suffered as we have—yet sinlessly. He is therefore able to help us and we should come to His throne of grace for that help in time of need (Heb 2:17-18; 4:15-16). As His hands and feet, we should expect that if His desire is to make us as useful as possible to the rest of the body, He will similarly give us a broad range of suffering and testing, so that we too are able to sympathize with our brothers and sisters. Surely, this is what Paul had in mind in 2 Corinthians.
I’m reading a pastoral theology with a couple of brothers right now. The author makes the point that a broadly useful minister is one who knows not only the peace and glorious hope of Romans 5:1-5, but also the “dark night of the soul” of the last half of Romans 7. That is, he has known the wonder of close fellowship with the Father AND the ongoing wrestlings with indwelling sin.1
If we are tools in the Lord’s hands, these varied experiences, in a sense, turn us from a hammer or screwdriver into a multi-tool. The more we experience, and—by His grace—grow, the more broadly useful we are to the body and the more people He can bring into our lives to be helped.
You may be enduring something right now and wondering, “Why is the Lord asking this of me?” Perhaps, He is attaching another blade to that multi-tool. Those who have had the pleasure of ministering to people in varied circumstances can attest that being used of the Lord is one of the greatest privileges and joys of this life. Trust the Lord and expect that He does not intend to waste this difficulty of yours.
I love my friend Matt. I have great expectations for how his multi-faceted joys and sorrows will be wielded in the deft hands of a Master Craftsman.
______________________
1 Albert N. Martin, Pastoral Theology, Vol. 1, p94.
Comments