Tornadoes, Death, and the Goodness of God

Mike Leake

Tornadoes ripped through Joplin, MO this past weekend.  Over 100 hundred people died. 

My wife’s grandmother battled cancer for years and finally “lost” that battle on Tuesday. 

Those are only two of the events of suffering that happened in the last few days.  There were many more.  Somebody’s daughter was raped.  A little boy lost his father.  A child died of starvation.  A young man lost his job.  A little girl’s puppy ran away.  Suffering, suffering, suffering. 

Yet there was also sunshine.  Some little girls puppy came home.  A young man finally secured a job to support his family.  A child on the brink of starvation was rescued and adopted.  A little boy was reunited with his estranged father.  A dad joyously gave his daughter to away to a godly young man.  Joy, joy, joy. 

The truth is you never know which paragraph you will be in.  And furthermore, the paragraph break isn’t always so noticeable.  Sometimes you have joy in the midst of suffering.  Sometimes your joy is a tad bittersweet (like the father giving away his daughter in marriage). 

There is one thing that we all hold in common.  We’ll be in both paragraphs at some time or another.  In the good times it can be easy to forget that these are blessings and grace that come from a very good Father.  And in those really dark times it can be easy to forget that God is good and that the Judge of the earth ALWAYS does what is right. 

It seems to me that I always vacillate between believing God’s power to the exclusion of God’s love or I believe God’s love to the exclusion of God’s power.  But the biblical narrative is that God is not only powerful He is also loving and He is also good.  In other words God is powerful enough to accomplish His loving purposes. 

Good and Powerful in Genesis 18

At the beginning of Genesis 18 we see the Lord revealing His plan to Sarah.  Within one year Sarah, who is “advanced in years”—and according to her own proclamation “worn out”—will have a son.  Her response is a doubting type of laughter: “Seriously?!  It can’t happen.  I’m too old.”  Sarah will slowly be learning that God is powerful and can do what he wants. 

At the end of Genesis 18 we see the Lord revealing His plan to Abraham—concerning Sodom.  He is going to destroy them.  Abraham was a tad confused.  “How could God sweep away the righteous with the unrighteous”, Abraham thought.  So, he begins to barter a little with God.  He stops at “if there are ten righteous people” in Sodom.  Abraham is slowly learning that God is good—He’d never destroy Sodom if they were righteous. 

So, this (and numerous other places in Scripture) leaves me with this one conclusion.  The sovereign Judge of the universe will always do what is right and He is powerful enough to do that which is right. 

What does that mean for tornadoes and a dead grandmother? 

I’m only left with one option: trusting a good and powerful God that promises He will eventually work all things together so that we are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus.  It would be one thing to help us “get through” the suffering.  But God promises to do more.  He promises to turn those bad things on their head so that eventually somehow tornadoes and dead grandma’s are actually a GOOD thing because they brought us into conformity with Jesus—and this is our GREATEST good. 

Praying Expectantly

Mike Leake

When Isaiah was only a few months old we had a little problem with him.  He couldn’t poop.  It had been something like 5 days since he had went potty and we were starting to get concerned. 

Isaiah made a good amount of trips to the doctor in his first few months because he had what is known as GIRD.  That’s the medical term for exorcist puking.  Seriously.  Somehow my little guy would drink four ounces and spew up six—or at least that is how it appeared.  Because his belly was like a trampoline we were frequently worried about dehydration.  One way to check how well a little guy is hydrated is to monitor how often they are peeing and pooping.  So, when little guy hasn’t pooped for 5 days mommy and daddy start to get a little worried. 

So, Nikki and I did the only thing we knew to do.  We prayed. 

It felt really weird praying for my son to poop.  I realized that I had entered into a new phase in my life when I was praying that another human would be able to go potty.  But we prayed, and we prayed pretty desperately. 

No sooner did I say, “Amen”, then my son let out a wild grunt and filled not only his diaper but a good portion of his back too.  God answered prayer.  Nikki and I were completely shocked.  Maybe not shocked that he had answered our prayer but that he had done it so speedily. 

But why is that?  Why are we so often shocked when God comes through and answers our prayers. 

Apparently we aren’t alone in that.  When we read the story in Acts 12 we see that these pillars of the church are praying fervently for Peter’s release*.  Peter has been arrested and now the other disciples are together, probably praying for Peter that the same fate as James will not befall him.  In verse 13 the story gets somewhat humorous:

13 And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. 14 Recognizing Peter’s voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. 15 They said to her, “You are out of your mind.” But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, “It is his angel!” 16 But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed.

First of all, it is hilarious that she didn’t let him in but shut the door in his face and left him outside.  Secondly, notice that the men can’t believe that God would have answered their prayers so quickly.  It’s not Peter—it must be his angel.  Certainly, he’s dead. 

Now, again, we do not know for certain what these men were praying.  But it is not a leap of imagination to believe that they were praying for Peter.  But maybe they weren’t praying with a ton of faith or at least they weren’t praying expectantly. 

I want to learn today to pray expectantly.  As for me, I don’t think it is God’s power that I doubt.  I have to humbly confess that it’s his love and care that I doubt.  I don’t want to do that.  So, would you pray for me today (expectantly even) that God would continue to convinced me of his absolute love and dedication to me.  I’m still growing in learning that.

—-

*This connection is not original with me.  The first time I had heard this point made it was from one of my college professors, Dr. Morgan.

Faithfulness Under Fire Reviewed

Mike Leake

Our story of what God is doing and has done in our life is vitally important.  Our children need to know our story.  We see what happens when children don’t know our story in Judges 2:

When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land. And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the LORD had done for Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of 110 years. And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel.   (Judges 2:6-15, emphasis mine)

Wouldn’t you think that God parting a sea would be a story you’d want to tell?  Seriously.  Hollywood decided it was good enough to tell and they told it ala Prince of Egypt.  It is an awesome story.  Wouldn’t you think this would be one of those stories you would want to tell your children and their children?  Nope, not Israel.  They are living in the comfort of the promised land. 

But there are a million little stories that may actually be cooler than God parting the Red Sea.  These stories are the lives of believers that have been brought from death to life.  Those of us that are believers are actually resurrected from the dead.  Our children need to hear those stories.

They also need to hear the stories of other people.  They need to hear stories like Polycarp laying down his life in the early church.  They must hear that God left a remnant even in the dark middle ages.  Our children need to know Bernard of Clairvaux.  They need to know the Reformers.  They should be taught about Spurgeon, Whitefield, Wesley, Newton, Luther, Edwards, etc. at the same time they are learning of Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin. 

That is why I am very excited about the series of children’s book from Reformation Heritage Books.  The first one that I was able to get my hands on was Faithfulness Under Fire: The Story of Guido de Bres.  These books are geared towards being read to 2-5 year olds and 5-10 year olds reading them on their own. 

Summary

I had personally never heard of de Bres before getting this book from RHB for free in exchange for a review.  Little did I know that he was the author behind the famous Belgic Confession.  He was also a martyr for the cause of Christ.  He was hanged in May 1567. 

This little book of his life story isn’t much longer than twenty pages and is filled with illustrations.  It is compelling enough to keep the attention of my three year old and the pictures are flashy enough to keep him engaged as well.  They are not overtly flashy and they relate well to the story at hand. 

Guido’s story is very sad but it relates the gospel clearly.  The main emphasis of this children’s story seems to be that “strongly held convictions will produce conflict” but that the gospel is worth it.  It also helps little children to see that God is more important than even our own lives.  These are helpful lessons for children to learn.  And children need to hear the stories of how the gospel spreads through suffering. 

Reflections

On the front cover is a picture of a man climbing a ladder with the threat of being torched.  One particular illustration portrays and angry mob burning a life-size figure of de Bres.  There are a few other pictures that may cause parents of very young children to dismiss this book.  However, I do think that the publishers make a valid case for using this book when they say:

…the reader should know that every reasonable attempt has been made to avoid gratuitous, unsavory detail.  It would be impossible, however, to tell the story of de Bres apart from the theme of suffering…secondly, we don’t believe it is necessary to shield even young children from the ugliness of life as long as we also provide a context in which this life can be lived victoriously.”

I tend to agree.  There is much to be learned from the life of de Bres.  But each parent hopefully knows their own child.  You may find this material a little too sensitive for your youngster.  If you do that is okay there are other books that will serve the same purpose.  However, this book is helpful and the story of Guido de Bres and others like him need to be told.  And eventually, they need to be told to your child. 

If you are interested in this book you can buy it for only $7.50 for your child. 

Our Tower of Babel

Mike Leake

I absolutely love the irony of Genesis 11. 

Here you have a people that are at the height of human accomplishment.  They are motivated by spreading their name.  Of course this turns God’s creation mandate—to fill the earth with His glory—on its head.  These people aren’t concerned with populating the earth or enjoying God’s creation.  Their aim is to habitat one place and make it their personal shrine of awesomeness. 

Their strategy? 

They are going to build a mega city with a gigantic tower in the middle.  It will be a sign to everyone, “LOOK HOW AWESOME WE ARE”.  Surely everyone will see it and think, “This thing is freakin’ huge!!!  These guys must be amazing.” 

But check out verse 5, “And the LORD came down…”   Did you catch that.  It’s the tallest thing they could build but God has to come down to see it.  “Hmmm…nice little tower you boys got going there.  Have you guys seen Jupiter yet?  You cats will love it.  It’s huge.” 

This story serves as a reminder that no matter how awesome we get, it’s but a speck compared to the awesomeness of God.  It’s also a reminder that God isn’t content letting His creation rip themselves off by marveling at a tower at the expensive of the greater good; namely, enjoying God Himself. 

Therefore, he confounds mankind.  Because God knows that some other colony is going to come along and see that huge tower and think, “we can do better”.  And we’ll spend our lives trying to see who can build the biggest tower and all the while we miss out on what really matters—God Himself. 

By the way, you and I are in this story.  We can still have a “Babel heart” that has a tendency to build up a bunch of junk just to show the world how awesome we are.  I pray that God gives us the grace to scatter our plans and bring us down from these haughty places.  It is mighty grace for God to not let us be settled with lovers less wild. 

What is your tower of Babel?