Laurel Hunsinger, who grew up in Little River, Kansas, flew combat missions in the Korean War. On April 1, 1953, his plane was shot down 15 miles inside North Korea. He was severely injured, but he and his entire crew survived and were rescued, for which Hunsinger received a Purple Heart. He passed away last year (January 6, 2018) and is buried at the Bean Cemetery in Little River.
Before he died, Hunsinger told friends and family that when he worked on the flight line in Korea and flew combat missions, there was a post set in the ground that everyone had to walk past. Someone had carved into the post these words: “You always have two chances.”
When Hunsinger asked what that meant, he was told that when you fly a combat mission, you have two chances: You'll make it back to the base or you'll be shot down. If you are shot down, you have two chances: You'll survive the crash or you won't. If you survive the crash, you have two chances: You'll evade the enemy or you'll be captured. If you are captured, you have two chances: You'll live through being a prisoner or you won't. If you die as a prisoner, well, you still have two chances. (Hunsinger, “Musings of a Small Town Boy,” unpublished Hunsinger Family book, p. 103; submitted by Ted Weis, Little River, Kansas; www.PreachingToday.com)
Sometimes, life seems like a series of random events. However, for the believer, nothing is left to chance! Our Sovereign Lord works everything together for good, and even death is not left to chance. For the believer, death becomes the sure and certain entrance into the very presence of Jesus Christ Himself.
In the meantime, though, how do you handle it when life doesn’t go in the direction you want it to go? How do you survive, and even thrive, when life takes a turn you do not expect? How do you learn to enjoy life when the so-called wrong “chance” presents itself and you feel cursed?
Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Joshua 13, Joshua 13, where we see what happens to one of the cursed tribes in Israel, the tribe of Levi. As the land is being divided among all the other tribes of Israel, look at what Levi gets.
Joshua 13:14 To the tribe of Levi alone Moses gave no inheritance. (ESV)
They don’t receive any land in the Promised Land, because Jacob cursed his son, Levi and Levi’s descendants, more than 400 years previously. On his death bed, Jacob recalls the way Levi and his brother, Simeon, in an act of violent rage, killed all the men of Shechem, because one of those men had raped their sister. Levi’s anger is understandable, but what he did with that anger was unforgiveable – slaughtering an entire city of men. So Jacob declared that Levi and his descendants would have no inheritance whatsoever. He declared that they would be scattered throughout all the land of Israel (Genesis 49:5-7).
Now, the tribe of Levi had lived under that curse for more than 400 years, but look at what happens when they finally get to the Promised Land. You’re in Joshua 13, look at verse 33.
Joshua 13:33 But to the tribe of Levi Moses gave no inheritance; the Lord God of Israel is their inheritance, just as he said to them. (ESV)
The tribe of Levi gets no land, but they get the Lord! Unlike any other tribe, they get to minister in the presence of the Shekinah Glory, i.e., in the presence of the Lord Himself in the tabernacle. God had turned their curse into a blessing, and that’s what He does for everyone who depends on Him! So when you feel cursed…
APPRECIATE YOUR BLESSINGS.
Be grateful for what you DO have. Don’t grumble about what you DON’T have. Be thankful for what God gives you, because in any and every situation God gives you Himself.
The Bible says, “Be content with what you have, for [God] has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper, I will not fear…’” (Hebrews 13:5-6).
Kara Tippetts, an author, mother of four, and a pastor’s wife, went home to be with the Lord on March 22, 2015, after a long battle with breast cancer. As the cancer spread, Kara courageously embraced her situation, trusting in a Sovereign God. She believed that cancer was not the point, but Jesus was. As Kara and her family processed what God was calling them to live out, she invited her family and friends to join her journey through this seemingly impossible ordeal.
In the fall of 2014, David C. Cook published her story, The Hardest Peace. She refused to be defined by cancer and considered every moment a gift and an opportunity to learn more about grace and trusting God; she believed suffering was not an absence of beauty, but an opportunity to understand God's love on a deeper level. Near the end of her life Kara wrote:
My little body has grown tired of the battle, and treatment is no longer helping. But what I see, what I know, what I have is Jesus. He has still given me breath, and with it I pray I would live well and fade well, by degrees doing both, living and dying, as I have moments left to live. I get to draw my people close, kiss them and tenderly speak love over their lives. I get to pray into eternity my hopes and fears for the moments of my loves. I get to laugh and cry and wonder over heaven. I do not feel like I have the courage for this journey, but I have Jesus—and he will provide. He has given me so much to be grateful for, and that gratitude, that wondering over his love, will cover us all. And it will carry us—carry us in ways we cannot comprehend. (Blythe Hunt, "Homecoming," Mundane Faithfulness blog, 3-22-15; www.PreachingToday.com)
If you have trusted Christ as your Savior from sin, you have Jesus no matter what life throws your way. You have Jesus, who died on the cross for your sins and rose again, demonstrating His love for you (Romans 5:8). You have Jesus, who has promised never to leave you nor forsake you. You may not have houses and land, but you have the Lord, who is always more than enough!
It’s like the little girl, who misquoted the 23rd Psalm, said: “The Lord is my Shepherd, that’s all I want!” So when you feel cursed, appreciate your blessings, because God always gives you Himself.
In addition to that, God also provides all your needs. He gives you all the essentials of life (and then some). Turn to Joshua 21, Joshua 21, where we see how God took care of the tribe of Levi.
Joshua 21:1-3 Then the heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites came to Eleazar the priest and to Joshua the son of Nun and to the heads of the fathers' houses of the tribes of the people of Israel. And they said to them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, “The Lord commanded through Moses that we be given cities to dwell in, along with their pasturelands for our livestock.” So by command of the Lord the people of Israel gave to the Levites the following cities and pasturelands out of their inheritance. (ESV)
The rest of the chapter goes on to name all the cities the people of Israel gave to the Levites, along with the surrounding pastures. They didn’t get any land, but they got places to stay and pasture for their cattle.
God provided all of their needs, and He will provide all your needs, as well. The Bible says, “My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). So no matter what life throws your way, trust the Lord to do that for you, and be grateful for the good things He gives you every day.
Bert and John Jacobs, were two brothers who cofounded the $100 million Life Is Good T-shirt company. They grew up the youngest of six children in a lower middle-class family in Boston. When the brothers were in elementary school, their parents were in a near-death car accident from which their mother managed to escape with just a few broken bones, but their father lost the use of his right hand.
The stress and frustration from his physical therapy caused him to develop a harsh temper, they explain in their new book Life Is Good. “He did a lot of yelling when we were in grade school,” John told Business Insider. And life certainly wasn't perfect. “There were often difficult things happening around the house,” the brothers write.
But their mom, Joan, still believed life was good. So, every night as the family sat around the dinner table, she would ask her six kids to tell her something good that happened that day. “As simple as mom's words were, they changed the energy in the room,” the brothers write. “Before we knew it, we were all riffing on the best, funniest, or most bizarre part of our day.”
Growing up with a mother like theirs—one who sang in the kitchen, told animated stories, and acted out children's books for them, no matter what bad situation they were going through—taught them an important lesson: Being happy isn't dependent on your circumstances. Bert and John write, “She showed us that optimism is a courageous choice you can make every day, especially in the face of adversity.” (Natalie Walters, "Brothers who cofounded a $100 million company say this question their mom asked every night at dinner is what inspired their business," Business Insider, 12-17-15; www.PreachingToday.com)
Please, make that choice in the face of YOUR adversity. Choose to be grateful. It makes all the difference in the world!
Henry Ward Beecher, a 19th Century preacher, once said, “If one should give me a dish of sand and tell me there were particles of iron in it, I might look for them with my eyes and search for them with my clumsy fingers and be unable to detect them; but let me take a magnet and sweep through it and now would it draw to itself the almost invisible particles by the mere power of attraction. The unthankful heart, like my finger in the sand, discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings, only the iron in God's sand is gold!” (Henry Ward Beecher, Leadership, Vol. 7, no. 2; www.Preaching Today.com)
That’s because He gives you Himself and many rich blessings beside. So when life throws you a curve and you feel cursed, appreciate your blessings. Then…
BE A BLESSING TO OTHERS.
Take what God has given you and use it to benefit others. Reach out to your neighbors and share the Lord with them.
That’s why God scattered the Levites all throughout Israel. He had entrusted them with His Word, and called them to teach it to the entire nation (Deut. 33:10). So God scatters the Levites throughout Israel to position them for maximum impact. Look at verse 41 (Joshua 21:41), the summary verse of this chapter.
Joshua 21:41 The cities of the Levites in the midst of the possession of the people of Israel were in all forty-eight cities with their pasturelands. (ESV)
God positioned the Levites in 48 cities throughout the nation (see map). So that no Israelite was more than 10 miles away from any one of these cities. The Levites had easy access to everyone in the nation, so they could spread God’s Word to the whole nation just through their natural contacts with those who lived nearby. The curse of their scattering became a blessing to the nation.
In the same way, God still scatters His people throughout the world to bless the nations of the world.
In the First Century, Jesus’ followers had concentrated themselves in Jerusalem. Then the Jewish leaders started persecuting the Christians. They stoned Stephen, who became the first Christian martyr. And the Christians got out of Jerusalem fast. They scattered themselves throughout the entire Roman Empire, taking the Gospel with them wherever they went (Acts 8:4). As a result, the Roman Empire was totally transformed in less than 300 years when Constantine, the Roman emperor himself, became a Christian. Persecution was a curse for the believers, but it became a blessing to all their new neighbors and to the entire Roman Empire.
You see, the hope for our nation today is not the donkey (the Democratic party). It’s not the elephant (the Republican party). It’s the Lamb, the Lamb of God, Jesus, who takes away the sins of the world. So wherever you are, in whatever circumstance, realize that God has placed you there to spread the Good News about Jesus to those who desperately need Him.
In a recent Christianity Today article (September 15, 2015), Kim Kuo, talks about her husband, David, who “fought cancer with dignity and courage.” He endured 10 years of chemotherapy, radiation, alternative therapies, and clinical trials. They knew God had a plan in their suffering, and they never stopped believing that God could heal David. But if not, they knew that God would use him fully for as many days as he had.
Three separate times, starting in 2003, the doctors gave David anywhere from 6 to 12 months to live, but God had different plans. David went on to live 10 years, during which time he and Kim had two beautiful children. In those 10 years, David also wrote a book, struggled, fought, and touched many lives.
David had severe seizures. Over time he lost the ability to walk, then to write. His personality changed markedly due to the vicious side effects of surgeries, radiation, and medications. And the end was brutal. Every function of his body slowly collapsed.
“Still,” Kim says, “every day of David's life mattered. Even in semi-lucid deterioration, David challenged his ICU doctor to read Mere Christianity. His conversations with his neuro-oncologist resulted in her later starting a ministry to homeless cancer patients. David's last days healed divides between political enemies and deep wounds among friends and family.”
Kim says, “We had many moments when we thought we couldn't take any more. But the hard truth is that our experience transformed our hearts and radically challenged many others. If our lives are truly about glorifying God, then our only option is to glorify Him here we are.” (Kim Kuo, “Assisted Suicide and Real Death with Dignity,” Christianity Today, 9-15-15; www.PreachingToday.com)
You may not be where you want to be, but God has placed you there for a purpose. Please, believe that, and use your circumstance to honor God! It may feel like a curse, but God can transform that curse into a blessing if you let Him use you for His glory.
So when life takes a turn for the worse, appreciate your blessings and be a blessing to those around you.
I close again with this benediction from Richard Halverson, former pastor and chaplain of the U.S. Senate:
Wherever you go, God is sending you.
Wherever you are, God has put you there.
God has a purpose in your being right where you are.
Christ, who indwells you by the power of his Spirit,
wants to do something in and through you.
Believe this and go in his grace, his love, his power.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
