Someone has so rightly said, "Life is ten percent of what happens to us and ninety percent how we respond to it". During my year residency in CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) at Children’s Hospital in Detroit, I learned as an eyewitness and a Pastoral Care Giver, the contrasting responses of those who sought or had no faith system for the fires of their trauma’s or tragedy’s, and those who had a faith system already present for the their trauma’s and tragedy’s. Those with a faith for their fires did not experience a lesser degree of pain and misery, or neither was their grief period shorter, but their response to their grief was quite different. I was assigned to the Renal and the Intensive Care Units as a Pastoral Care Giver in the Hemo-Dialysis Unit, this area was reputable for their work in the care of children with End Stage Renal Disease. Transplants were done with frequency and had a high rate of success at Children’s.
One of my most memorable experiences involved a little angel of a girl whose name was Tina (name has been changed). She was about four or five years old, and the seventh child born to this family. She had six other sisters, their love for each other and their love for God and Church knitted this family together. Tina had been under the watchful care of one of the best Nephroligists in Renal Care. She had several excellent matches from her family, her father was one of them and he decided that he would be the donor of a kidney for her. The family was present for the surgery, other members of the family accompanied them as well, and the transplant itself went well. They were told by the physicians that she would spend at least four to five days in ICU as all transplant patients did, and the father would recuperate in the Renal unit until his release.
Tina’s first couple of days were as expected, but during the third night something happened, an aneurysm in her brain developed. The family prayed and hoped for the best, but the aneurysm took her at the close of the following day. When we told the family that we had lost her, the tears and hurt was overwhelming. The father was still sore from the operation; therefore, he was limited to move around. He wanted to be with her, he wanted to see her, other members of the family had been in the room with her, but he could not go. We pushed Tina out of her unit to his room, and cleared the room so all the family could be there together. I heard him say, "Daddy loves you, and Daddy did all that he could". I watched as his other daughters surrounded his bed, and the mother crawled up in the bed with her. They brushed Tina’s long hair, I remember hearing one of them saying, "Tina, you’ve been with us, now you are with God". As I held two of the sisters, I also remember the older one crying saying, "God help us, God give our family strength". Then there began the soft moaning of a familiar hymn that I had learned to love and appreciate while pastoring the Missionary Union Baptist Church in Columbus, Mississippi. "Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take Him at His word, just to rest upon His promise, just to know, "thus saith the Lord." Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him! How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er! Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus! O for grace to trust Him more!" I literally could not believe my ears, this family was actually moaning this hymn in the midst of immediate pain and loss. What a remarkable display of courage and faith they displayed.
And on another occasion, I had a young girl who was 16 years of age. She had been in and out of the hospital for several months. Latisha (name has been changed) was in a stage of Renal Failure; her mother was struggling with an addiction to drugs and alcohol. She was doing the best that she could with her life and her daughter’s life. Latisha was the apple of her mother’s eye. When Latisha was well, she watched her little sister and brother; taking on a mother’s role for them. When her mother was using drugs or drinking alcohol, she managed the home life. But now, her body was deteriorating; she developed a serious infection. She was placed on a respirator, and for over a week she lingered. One night Latisha started to fade rapidly, her mother had been there all evening, she decided to step out for a few moments with a friend. Latisha died while her mother was out; two of her Aunts were present. Her mother returned within a few minutes of her death, I had to tell her that the Physicians wanted to see her. She sensed the worst, and when she saw the aunts she had an intuitive feeling that something had gone wrong. The staff entered and she was told, suddenly, she screamed, she began to curse God, I remember her saying, "Out of all these other children here God, you took mine". She said, "I hate you God, I hate you chaplain (preacher), I hate all of you." She threw a chair across the room, beat the walls and ran down the corridor. She even asked God, "Why me? Why me? How could you be a loving God". She was in pain; she had lost the child that she gave life to. She was angry and hurt, she had not only lost someone who not only helped her, but also enabled her.
The difference in the two situations was, Tina’s family had a faith for the fires of life, and Latisha’s mother had none. Nor did she attempt to seek a faith in this fire. So often people in the midst of a crisis find God or a faith. A crisis faith can be very meaningful; if it is nurtured and developed after the crisis has passed. But too often it only becomes a crisis faith, a crisis faith only needs God during the crisis and in a crisis.
So, the lesson or issue for the faithful is: "What do you do when you are in the midst of the furnaces of life? What do you do when the flames of circumstances and crisis have encircled you? What do you do when the fires of frustrations are burning in your life? What do you do when you are feeling the heat of pain and pressure? Is there anything in the Christian faith and principles that answers those questions? Do we have a paradigm in scriptures that address this experience? In the story of the Hebrew boys in Daniel, there is a biblical blueprint, a meaningful and moving message that is conveyed to the faithful when we experience life’s fires.
In this story, a mean monarch, an insidious infidel, by the name of Nebuchadnezzar, who is King of Babylon has captured the children of Israel. He has brought them to his land to serve out their captivity; he has made them slaves in a foreign land. He has constructed a golden image, which was really an image erected to himself. The King has decreed that all should bow to this god of his, which would ultimately be bowing to him. To those who would refuse to do so, he would place them in a burning fiery furnace to die. But, there are three men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abendnego, who refused to bow, or bend to the King or his request. They chose rather to die in the fire, than to deviate from their faith. These are three examples of faith in the furnace that helps us to look at our own trials and struggles, and hopefully remain faithful even in the face of the furnaces.
I believe they had, A Faith in an Unseen Presence: When you think about it, that’s what the Christian faith is. Faith is to believe what we don’t see, and the rewards of this faith are to see one day what we believe. Faith in God sees the invisible, believes the incredible, and receives the impossible. God’s ways are behind the scenes, but He moves all the scenes He is behind. Perhaps James Russell Lowell was right when he said "Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne, yet, that scaffold sways the future, but, standeth God in the shadows, keeping watch over His own". They were His and He was theirs, and these Hebrew boys sensed God’s presence in the shadows, watching over them. The presence of God with us in our afflictions, our adversities, helps us to cling to our faith, in spite of our fears. The journey of faith is developing the ability to trust God when it’s difficult to trace God. Ours is a journey of walking by "faith and not by sight" as the Apostle Paul admonishes. In the saga of Abraham’s journey he was required to believe and go to a land he did not see, to move in a direction he had never gone. Without a compass to guide him, without a map to show him the direction, he moved. His faith was trusting in the unseen presence of God to navigate the steps of his life. It is that unseen presence that goes before us making the crooked places straight, the rough places smooth and hewing down our mountains making them mere molehills.
I am reminded of the story of a Preacher who asked a boy about the presence of God. The Preacher said to him, "Son, I will give you an apple if you can tell me where God is". The boy looked at the Preacher, then he looked at the apple, he said, "Preacher, I will give you a barrel of apples if you can tell me where he isn’t." That is our testimony; our God is everywhere, making possible the impossible, even in the midst of fire He is there.
They were aware of the nearness of God, though they were displaced from their Holy Land, they were with their Holy God. Though they were distant from their Temple where their God had resided, God was not distant from them. Because of His presence with us, it does not mean we will not have our furnaces, but it only guarantees His companionship in the fires.
Secondly, they had, A Faith in an Unusual Power: Martin Luther so keenly and insightfully spoke of God’s power in his hymn: A mighty fortress Is our God, a bulwark never failing; Our helper He, amid the flood, of mortal ills prevailing. For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe; His craft and power are great, And armed with cruel hate, on earth in not His equal: God’s power is His constant and conquering ability to over ride evil. To right the wrong, to cure the ills of man, and to rescue and abide with us.
These Hebrews knew that Nebuchadnezzar was great and powerful, but God was equal and greater. Their God had led their ancestors out of Egypt by a cloud in the day, and God was their protector as a pillar of fire at night. God had opened the Red Sea for them to cross, and equally opened the River of Jordan for entrance to the Promised Land. He had fed them with fresh Manna and Quail in the wilderness for food. That is why they spoke to the King as they did, when he asked them of their reason for defying his orders, they said, "Our God is able to deliver us, but if He doesn’t, we still believe He is able."
Lastly they had, A Faith in an Unfailing Promise: God is not obligated to make any promises, but once He makes a promise, He keeps it. God had made covenants with the people that He would never fail them or forsake them. Those covenants are ours as well, He joins us in our pain, He walks with us in our pilgrimages of life, He helps us over our obstacles, and He encourages us in our fears. That’s simply because He has promised us His presence and access to His power. He has given us His spoken word and His written words, they are our promises. In the Psalms, He promised to be our present help in the times of trouble. In the Proverbs, He promised to be our guide and friend. In Matthew, He promised to be with us always, even to the end of the ages. In John, He promised to be the Comforter. In Philippians we are promised that He will supply all of our needs. In Corinthians we are promised that His grace is sufficient. In Jude, we are promised that he can keep us from falling. In I John, we are promised that He hears us, the believer must trust fully and faithfully on those promises. There is a story told of three little girls who are enjoying an evening of play. They started playing the game of counting their money; the object was to see who had the most and the winner would be crowned queen for the day. The first little girl counted thirteen pennies, the second counted fourteen pennies. The last little girl began to count, she had only fourteen pennies like the second, however she counted fifteen. The other two girls argued with her over the count and they counted again, there were only fourteen, but the last girl insisted on having fifteen. Finally, they asked, "How can you say fifteen when you only have fourteen", she replied, "My father promised me another penny when he comes home from work today". And whatever my father promises me, it’s mine at the moment of the promise. That is the assurance we have, what ever the Father has promised, He will provide, whatever He says, it is a word that you can count on. Perhaps we need to affirm our faith as the hymnist has written:
Standing on the promises that cannot fail, when the howling storms of doubt assail, By the living word of God I shall prevail, standing on the promises of God.
Standing on the promises I cannot fail, listening every moment to the Spirits call, Resting in my Savior as my all in all, standing on the promises of God.
