Glimpses Of Grace

We could say that God is removing his covering from us as a nation because of our sinful lifestyles. You could say that if you wanted to be another voice in the long line of voices who have spoken in the legacy of Job’s friends.

Honestly I don’t know what to tell someone who asks the question, “What does this mean?” But I am willing to listen to someone who reinterprets their own tragedy through the eyes of faith. I heard a chaplain tell about someone who did just that. The buildings had fallen. He was milling around the area where the WTC complex once stood. She stopped him, “What does this mean?” He had a great response. He asked, “What does it mean to you?” She said, “All my values have come crashing down.” “Is that right? Now what?” “I need a new set of values.” Let me tell you something men, that is a door through which the gospel can come in and stay in someone’s heart. So many people have put their trust in things, or in ideas, or in glorious, glass buildings. Now they are rethinking that trust.

The question we have to ask then is “Whom will I trust?” When your world has fallen down, who will you believe in? Who are you going to trust?

I had a strange reaction to the falling down of the towers. On a clear day you could see the Towers from the highway we travel on to get to our house. We were out of the city that week and coming in on the 12th we looked up to where we used to see the Towers. You know what we saw–the same thing could be seen even from outer space–a plume of smoke rising in the sky. A while later I drove to a point on Staten Island where we have a good view of the city. My reaction was how unimpressive the skyline now is. I began to mourn for the very buildings. I suppose there are a lot of psychological explanations for that, but I had to check myself to make sure I wasn’t mourning for some of the things the buildings represented. Was I mourning for the economic strength of our country? Was I grieving the blow to the power of men to create something so big? Was I simply upset about the loss of prestige the loss of the buildings gave to our city and our nation?

I was very concerned that these things were going through my thought process. It concerned be because it exposed a part of me I had convinced myself didn’t exist. There is a part of me that trusts in the things of this life instead of the creator of this world. I should trust God. That is a lesson worth taking from such a horrific situation.

The question begs itself: “How do we trust in God when something so horrific has taken place?” It is easy to say I should trust God, but what is the empirical evidence for trusting him? If you get food poisoning from the food of a nice restaurant, you aren’t going to invite the chef to cater your daughter’s wedding. If the bus driver runs the bus on the curb when he stops for you, you might think twice about getting on his bus. When your world is falling apart, why should you trust more in the creator? That is a legitimate question. Don’t be afraid to ask that question. Don’t be afraid to ask God that question. He has the answer. I don’t really have the answer, but I do get some insight from Paul’s words in II Corinthians. In the midst of talking about the great things God has done for and through him, Paul brings up what he calls a thorn in the flesh. “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”