Chaplain's Corner

This past November, I had the privilege of speaking at the Steinbach Mennonite Church on “Eternity Sunday”. It wasn’t a custom I was familiar with but remembering the people in the congregation that died during the past year has its benefits. Part of my text for the message was from Hebrews 12:1, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses…let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

The verse is about how we live our lives. The verse is addressed to people that are followers of Jesus and is written in the context of faith and disappointment. I run into faith and disappointment everyday not only in my work, but in my own soul. Life is a profoundly disappointing affair and the drive to not be disappointed lies beneath so much conflict and selfish pursuit. I would like to suggest that disappointment might be viewed as a gift not a curse.

I know the curse of disappointment: from disappointment grows discouragement, bitterness, self-centeredness and so much more. I have had each of these “infect” my soul too many times and for too long. It may be that I am a slow learner, but over the last few years I have begun to accept disappointment as one of life’s motivators that directs me to trust God more completely.

Some of you may thinking, “OK here we go again, some preacher selling the snake oil that all you need to do is trust God and all the disappointments of life will evaporate.” Sorry, I lost my snake oil sales license years ago.

Now back to the “great cloud of witnesses”. Who are they? They are believers that didn’t receive what God had promised during this life (see Hebrews 11:39). Hebrews 11 is about men and women of faith who trusted God even though many never lived to see what God had promised become reality. Faith in God, true faith in God is not dependent on “God coming through for us” as we envision God coming through. It is about trusting God even if there is no “evidence” that God is keeping his promises – because we are certain that he will, even if we never see it.

Faith and disappointment are often seen to be opposites, incompatibles. Some think, “I will learn to trust God when he doesn’t disappoint me.” If this is how you think, you may never learn to trust God. God isn’t in the business of making us happy. God is not committed to not disappointing us. This is a shocking statement for many. Years ago I even had a family leave the church I was pastoring after a sermon in which I made this declaration. God is committed to our holiness and one of the primary things we must learn to become holy is to trust God implicitly.  When we rid our hearts of the expectation that trusting God results in God resolving our needs and wants and whimsies and understand that trusting God with all our hearts is the essence of living in relationship with God, regardless of the impact on our present experience, we will be drawn closer to God’s goal for us.

The great cloud of witnesses of Hebrews 12:1 are people who have died trusting God even though they never received what was promised. They trusted God in the context of their disappointment and allowed that disappointment to push them deeper into trusting God instead of allowing it to give them reasons to abandon trust in God.

They are “spiritual cheer leaders”, not mere spectators to our struggles, but people who have experienced the race, finished the race, endures its struggles and disappointments and persevered to the end. Far from the “lounging on clouds and strumming harps” image we often have, those who go before us into glory are in some way witnessing our race and that should encourage us.