My husband, Kevin, likes videos of people on extreme journeys. Yesterday he watched a video of people who were in a race, where every few months over the course of year, the runners will run across four deserts. For each desert, they spend a week running 20 miles a day. I saw some of the video where they ran across the Gobi desert in China. They went through a lot! One guy had this huge blister; I had never seen one that big before, and he kept running with a huge blister. Another guy was vomiting, he couldn’t keep food down for a day, but he still ran his 20 miles. A woman was running a stretch alone, and a strange man grabbed her, took her into the bushes, but luckily a motorcycle came along just then and the man ran off. She was extremely upset and you saw here at the camp for the day. She thought she had best call it off, and go home. But in the end she decided to go back where she left off. She kept running! You saw the service vehicle drop her off where she had stopped, and she took off running alone! Those people were tough as nails!
I am not like that. I don’t like to be subjected to extreme circumstances! We are all facing our own extreme circumstances. We are going stir crazy at home. There are job worries, financial strains, and no clear answer on when things will get back to normal, totally normal, like things were before. Kids can’t play sports or get together with friends. And there are extra worries if you have to go to a doctor, or hospital or stay in a nursing home, because you could catch the virus.
What are we supposed to do to stay sane, and find peace in extreme circumstances?
In the gospel story today, a couple of disciples are trying to understand what to think after they have been subjected to extreme circumstances. They were walking seven miles, from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Some walks seem longer than others, not because of the miles, but because of the burdens you carry. They were talking with each other on the road about everything that had happened, when Jesus came along and walked with them! But they didn’t recognize him. He said, “What are you discussing as you walk along?”
They stopped walking, looking very sad and asked. “Are you the only one who doesn’t know what things happened in Jerusalem lately?”
‘What things?” asked Jesus.
“We had so many hopes that Jesus, a powerful prophet, would be the one to redeem Israel, but the chief priests and rulers handed him over to death. But some of our women saw angels who said he is alive. And his tomb is now empty.”
Jesus said, “The Messiah had to suffer, and then enter his glory.”
That’s a hard message to hear. That a good person has to suffer. How do you trust God, when Jesus said he had to suffer, and we have to suffer? After all, Jesus said if we want to follow him, we have to take up our cross. We have to suffer, too!
We are Americans. When we say, “God bless America,” we are thinking, part of that blessing is prosperity, and part of that blessing is freedom to do whatever we want to do, and part of that blessing is moving forward. And why shouldn’t we think that, that’s been our experience for decades. Things get better in America, we make progress.
But for these two disciples, if you could interview them in heaven, and you asked them, “When was your darkest moment as you followed Jesus?” They would say, “That was our darkest moment. When we walked along the road and realized we had wasted our time following Jesus. We left Jerusalem, and gave up on our hopes and dreams we had in Jesus.”
But if you asked them, “When in your time with Jesus, was God doing his greatest work in you?” They would say, “When we met Jesus on the road!” At the very time they thought Jesus was gone, and God was absent, in the darkest hours, God was doing his greatest work in them. God in Jesus was actually right in front of them. And it took them a while to realize it was Jesus! But when they sat and ate a meal together, and Jesus took the bread, gave thanks to God and broke the bread and gave it to them. They realized it was him and they saw Jesus! Later they said, “Weren’t our hearts burning within us, weren’t we fired up on the road when when he spoke about the Scriptures?”
Your darkest moment as you follow God, is when God does his greatest work in you. That’s our story, for those of us who have placed our faith in Jesus. God seems to take broken things and do his most amazing work. God seems to take broken up, hopeless situations and show up somehow, not the way we would choose because we would never allow things to get as bad as often times they get. God doesn’t choose the bad. But God never wastes a hurt. God uses it to help us grow.
That doesn’t make things going on now better. It doesn’t make your worries disappear. But it does let you know, when life is uncertain, God is not uncertain. God still has the whole world in his hands. When you know that, it helps you sleep through the night, instead of staying up and worrying. It helps you find peace in the storm. It teaches you to keep an eye out for the good God is doing that may take you by surprise.
When Kevin and I were finished with seminary training, we lived in Iowa with his parents. Kevin preached at a little Disciples of Christ church for a couple of months. A family in the church had us over for Sunday dinner after worship. They told us their story of how a tornado destroyed their house. The husband and wife were on a trip at the time. There was a tornado warning, and their adult daughter and the dogs hunkered down under the basement stairs. A tornado came and destroyed the whole house, except where their daughter and the dogs were. They had an ice cream stand, where they sold ice cream, beside their house. The sign for the ice cream stand was later found in Wisconsin! They wondered, “How in the world did it travel so far?” After the tornado they decided to build a new house partially in the ground to save on heating and cooling. In this new house they saved so much on heat, the husband found he could quit his job driving a school bus. He was very happy for that! A lot was lost in the tornado. But they could see blessings received. They could see with the eyes of faith the hand of God.
Even though life is uncertain God is not uncertain, and he still has the whole world, he has your entire world, in his hands!
My homework for you this week is to read this verse: Romans 8:28: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.”
God is still in control. God is still a God we can worship. He will not abandon us. God is a God we can continue to trust. When life is uncertain, God is not uncertain, and he still has the whole world in his hands. Amen.
April 26, 2020
Maureen Duffy-Guy's blog 