Real Bad

The following is a quote by Tim Keller (from a post online titled "Real Bad"). I feel compelled to share in light of many responses I've seen and read as it relates to the shootings in Aurora, Colorado:

"The story of Jesus standing before the tomb of Lazarus is an endless source of insight for me. As he was about to raise Lazarus from the dead, Jesus was not smiling. He was angry. He was weeping. Why? Because death is a bad thing! Jesus wasn't thinking, "They think that this is a tradegy, but no harm done! I'm about to raise him from the dead. This looks like a bad thing, but it's not. It's really a good thing! It's a way for me to show my glory. It's really exciting! I can't wait!"

He wasn't thinking that.

Jesus was weeping at the tomb, because the bad thing he's about to work for good is BAD. The story of Lazarus does not give you a saccharine view of suffering, saying bad things are really blessings in disguise or that every cloud has a silver lining. The Bible never says anything like that! God will give bad things good effects in your life, but they're still bad.

Jesus Christ's anger at the tomb of Lazarus proves that he hates death. He also hates loneliness, alienation, pain, and suffering. Jesus hates it all so much that he was willing to come into this world and experience it all himself, so that eventually he could destroy it without destroying us.

There's no saccharine view in the Christian faith. The promise is not that if you love God good things will happen in your life. The promise is not that if you love God, the bad things really aren't bad; they're really good things. The promise is that God will take the bad things, and he'll work them for good in totality."

I've read a lot of opinions/posts regarding the shootings. Undoubtedly, what happened is horrible. I feel so sorry for everyone involved (victims, families of victims, witnesses, families of witnesses, etc.) What happened so quickly altered so much for so many people. It is truly heart-breaking.

Oftentimes, when tragedies like this emerge, God is brought into question. A lot of comments I've read include thoughts like "how could a loving God let those innocent people die?", "Why did God allow the shooter to cause such evil?", "How could God allow some to live and some to die?," etc, etc.

But if we're all truthful...that's life (in general!)

And something we should be pondering everyday (not just when a national tragedy forces us all to stop and think about eternal implications!)

Why would God allow one of my friend's husband's to succumb to cancer right before their second child was born (or succumb to cancer, period)?

Why would God allow Laura Black to pass away from cancer before being able to watch her children grow up?

Why does God allow the unexpected car crashes, diagnoses, shootings, etc. to invade our lives?

I want to answer these rhetorical questions with another quote by Tim Keller (yes, I clearly am a Keller fan!):

"Jesus Christ did not suffer so that you would not suffer. He suffered so that when you suffer, you'll become more like him. The gospel does not promise you better life circumstances; it promises you a better life."

I want to wrap up this post by highlighting some people who have suffered much and shown themselves to be much like Christ throughout their suffering. The first two links are to survivors of the Aurora shooting. The third is to a blog of a friend of mine (who lost her husband to cancer 1/2 a year ago, the friend mentioned above). The fourth is to the caring bridge site of Laura Black (also mentioned above), who recently passed away.

http://bstrait.wordpress.com/2012/07/22/a-miracle-inside-the-the-aurora-shooting-one-victims-story/

http://aminiatureclaypot.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/so-you-still-think-god-is-a-merciful-god/

http://mikeaprilbailey.blogspot.com/2012/07/happy-birthday-daddy-mike.html

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/lblack/journal/4

All of these people have chosen to glorify God through their sufferings. Praise God for them and for their endurance to "fight the good fight." I want to end this with a quote from Laura Black that was included in her post above (yes, I am really good at quoting people!):

"Nothing grabs someone’s attention like seeing someone suffer and living out the Christian life during it. Let’s face it, you can sing the Hallelujah chorus when you just won the lottery, your first grandchild was just born on your birthday, or you just got a huge promotion, but who cares? I’m not saying it’s not good to praise God for those things. Of course you should praise God for those things and rejoice in them. But that doesn’t point people to the cross. When you rejoice and praise Him in the good times, that is expected. However, when you rejoice and praise God in the middle of the suffering, that points people to the cross. The fact that our family has gone through five years of cancer and is now watching my body slowly fail and yet we still praise God and rejoice in His plan, that points people to the cross. There’s no way we could ever do that. There’s no way we would ever choose to do that. When people see us do that, they know it’s nothing but the blood of Jesus. Only the love of Jesus, only the faithfulness of the Father, could bind our hearts so closely to Him during these times. That is why suffering for the Gospel is such a privilege – it gives us a chance to point people to Jesus. And isn’t that what this life is all about? We have all of eternity to live with Jesus in health, wealth and happiness. But we only have a brief blip on the timeline of eternity to point people to Jesus. And that’s the only chance we have of making any type of real impact during our lives – to point people to Jesus."