Dear church family,
We live fear-full times, surrounded by threats (disease, social unrest, violence, economic uncertainty, international conflicts, grief, etc.) whose ability to make us feel anxious is exacerbated and exploited by media, politicians, advertisers, and our own indwelling sin (i.e. unbelief). Through these circumstances, however, the Lord takes away the veil and forces us to look straight in the eyes of what our society otherwise seeks to hide from our view: man’s impermanence (i.e. mortality). Yet the Savior tells his people repeatedly in the Scriptures not to fear but to believe (i.e., trust him and his word) in the face of trials, suffering, and the end of our own earthly life.
The Scottish missionary John G. Paton went through many harrowing experiences while evangelizing the cannibals of what was then called the New Hebrides. During one particularly desperate occasion, he was given this profound insight: “My peace came back to me like a wave from God. I realized that I was immortal till my Master’s work with me was done.” (Autobiography, p. 207) As I laid in a Cambridge hospital bed in January 2017 after a close brush with death, a kindred thought pressed itself on my weary (i.e., oxygen-deprived) mind: the Lord has more for me on this earth yet!
The Christian’s faith and peace is not based on wishful thinking (“everything’s gonna be alright”) or on a fanciful (i.e., idolatrous) picture of God that turns him into a cosmic Santa Claus or a doting grandfather figure. Jesus never promised us that following him would be a bed of roses. On the contrary, he sternly warns his disciples that there are only two options: the painful path of the cross or the highway to destruction. Our hope and confidence are found in a Creator-God who can be fully trusted, who lovingly adopted us as his children in Christ, who is with/in us at all times in the person of the Spirit, who has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass, and who sovereignly controls every single event in the world and each of our lives (check out chapters 2, 3 and 5 of the Westminster Confession of Faith). Could anything be more comforting than this gospel truth?
This means we know that the day and hour of our passing through “the valley of the shadow of death” to eternal pastures is set and perfectly timed (and fore-ordained). None of us can live one second too many or one too few (who would be foolish enough to wish to, other than Hezekiah?). Neither might we miss out on any of God’s blessings and good gifts which he has allotted to each one of us from all eternity. One’s passing has nothing to do with God failing us or with our failing him. In fact, as Paul so movingly expresses in Philippians (see 1:21–30), the Christian life is one of longing to be with the Lord while patiently and expectantly pursuing the task(s) he has set for us on earth (cf. Ephesians 2:10). Paul’s desire is not suicidal, depressed or morbid. On the contrary, it is characterized by contentment, trust, hope and love for the most-precious-one who is physically absent but Spiritually present in his church.
WIth Christ's love,
Flavien