When things are all right

It occurs to me that I tend to use this blog for down-beat moments. But what about those times when things are going all right? Is there something to say then? At the moment things are quite sunny here, both literally and metaphorically - and I'm grateful. I've written elsewhere about my cousin, Grace Sheppard, wife of the cricketing bishop, who even when she was suffering the same cancer as had killed her husband, maintained her attitude of gratitude to the end. She wrote a beautiful book about caring for her husband, David, called Living with Dying. It seems to me that if Grace could be full of thankfulness in such a hard situation, then when "the sun's shining down on me" there's no excuse for not saying, "Blessed be your Name!"

Ironically, I've just discovered from the lovely iBenedictine nuns that today Catholics remember Our Lady of Sorrows. That's of course Mary, the mother of Jesus, and recalls the prophecy of Simeon that a sword would pierce her soul - looking forward to the agony of seeing her Son tortured to death before her eyes. I cannot conceive of the depth of suffering that was for her. I am fairly sure that she'd have said what a friend once said to me: "I wish it had been me, not him." There's no comfort for that moment, just the company of "the beloved disciple". I can't imagine there was blessing in her mind at that point, just bewilderment. Maybe she thought back to her poem of praise when her Son was conceived and she said about the Almighty, "Holy is his name" - meaning that his nature is incomprehensibly different.

There were naturally huge questions for Mary throughout the lifetime of her Son, from being asked to be an unmarried mother to becoming a widowed single mother, from seeing her Son quitting home as an itinerant teacher to his ending up on a cross and then leaving her at the ascension. And yet the song which is her trademark was "My soul doth magnify the Lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour". Though we will certainly have major questions in life, may we have a prevailing attitude of gratitude because there have been moments when the shutters have been open and we have seen the goodness of God.

The lifestyle of lovers

Here's something else that struck me from this year's New Wine. I think this came from Alan Scott.

"Ask questions in His presence. Asking questions is the lifestyle of lovers."

It is after all the nature of love to ask questions - that's how lovers get to know each other. It's all right for us to ask God questions. Ask Him questions not about our brokenness but about His love. I think he's right, that asking each other questions is natural in a healthy relationship. Isn't it natural for us to ask, "Lord, I don't understand how this comes out of your love. Can you tell me?" There can be a difference in the context of our questions, of course. You can ask really not wanting the answer, like Pilate's "What is truth?"or even not believing that God is real. Or you can ask sincerely, because you don't understand how your experience and God's love match up, like "My God, why have you abandoned me?" That's a lover's question.

That rings true, doesn't it? Asking questions of God is the stuff of a true relationship with Him. My friend, Nicky, calls God "Daddy". He is the perfect Father. Who more appropriate to bring our concerns to? Who more natural to seek explanations from? Who better to trust?

The question Why?

"It often seems that God will answer a simple need before a great one. We can pray for car parks, and we do, but we still unload our wheelchairs from our cars. Why is that?" Roderick Mallen commented a couple of days ago on this blog. Strangely enough, I'd been thinking about that sort of thing after Jane and I had been reading about Jesus healing the ten lepers. Because I have to say there are times when I wish he'd just do the same for my friends with MND and that sort of thing (and, yes, for me). It's really not a picnic, you know. At the moment, mine's not bad, but in the advanced stages.... 


I know I wrote about the question in I Choose Everything, and I should really be sorted. And on the whole I'm content to live with the mystery of it all. I don't believe there are easy answers or easy solutions. I really like the folksy song There is a reason, not least because I think Alison Krauss has a lovely voice, and because, in its simple-faith way, it represents someone struggling with the question "Why?" "There must be a reason for it all." I don't believe that hurtin' is designed in order to bring us to God, though it may have that effect. However in the middle of the song is the nugget where the answer lies hidden: "The love that shed His blood for all the world to see -
This must be the reason for it all". It doesn't explain it. It simply points to the cross as the proof that Love not only underpins everything, but also allows Himself to be impaled with us in pain.

I also like the song because, despite that glimpse of the mystery of love, just as it starts with a question, so it also ends with an admission of doubt. "I do believe but help my unbelief... I've been told
There is a reason for it all." Someone said, "Faith without doubt isn't faith." 


That really doesn't answer your question, Roderick, why God doesn't answer the really big ones. I guess you and I would willingly trade the parking spaces for our wheelchairs. But then I think of Bruce Almighty and the mess he made of answering prayers, and have to admit it's way beyond my competence. I have a feeling St Paul was right: "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known." I like the translation: "Now we see puzzling reflections in a mirror." I suppose that God is working out THE REALLY BIG ONE. Then we'll know, and be amazed. Till then it's a matter of hanging on in there - like He did.


I've seen hard times and I've been told
There isn't any wonder that I fall
Why do we suffer, crossing off the years
There must be a reason for it all

I've trusted in You, Jesus, to save me from my sin
Heaven is the place I call my home
But I keep on getting caught up in this world I'm living in
And Your voice it sometimes fades before I know

Hurtin' brings my heart to You, crying with my need
Depending on Your love to carry me
The love that shed His blood for all the world to see
This must be the reason for it all

Hurtin' brings my heart to You, a fortress in the storm
When what I wrap my heart around is gone
I give my heart so easily to the ruler of this world
When the one who loves me most will give me all

In all the things that cause me pain You give me eyes to see
I do believe but help my unbelief
I've seen hard times and I've been told
There is a reason for it all