He Will Lift You Up
“Lament
and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to
mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in
the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up”
(James 4:9-10)
Why does God let it happen?
The world seems to be full of sickness, injury,
unhappiness and death, and yet Scripture assures us,
“with God all things are
possible” (Matthew 19:26). Jeremiah the
Prophet said, “Nothing is
too difficult for Thee” (Jeremiah 32:17).
He’s OMNIPOTENT (all-powerful) and He can do
anything! God can heal your loved one. He can heal
YOU. He can make you instantly happy, and
considering that “all things
are possible” for Him, death could vanish
from this earth in an instant. Why doesn’t He do
it?
The answer is another question
that is asked of you and me – Why don’t WE do it?
Why don’t we GET it? Why don’t we do OUR part? The
troubles allowed in our lives are intended to be
CORRECTIVE in nature. Our greatest need is – HIM!
and most of us never devote ourselves to the Lord
until we finally HAVE to because there is no other
choice! There is a streak of SELF-reliance in
humanity which runs to the bottom of our souls.
Only absolute NEED makes ANY fully trust in our
Creator, our Lord, our God.
This week, my wife, Genevieve
and I were once again in Washington, DC. I was
unexpectedly there six times last year and she was
with me five of those times. It actually is more
accurate to say that I was with HER on those trips,
and even the sixth was on her behalf. Gen has often
referred to me as her “spiritual
bouncer” on these journeys. She is the
activist who directly helps people and my first and
most important “job” is to pray.
This time we were in
Washington, DC, on behalf of the Veterans’ Widows
International Network – “VWIN,” a national group
that works HARD to help Veterans’ survivors gain
benefits that are due them. They have other goals
as well. In the U.S., there is a Veterans Day for
those who have served in the military and a Memorial
Day for those who did not return; but there is no
special day for the widows and other survivors of
those Veterans. Gen is a California representative
for VWIN, and has been for a number of years. The
group wants June 28th of each year to be
set aside as a day in the U.S., especially for
Veteran Widows and other survivors of those who died
because of their service.
Many we listened to during our
time in DC, had a story, a compelling, heart
wrenching narrative of terrible loss. Often the
losses were compounded by additional circumstances
that for the most part, will not be repeated here.
All concerned were taken out of lives that contained
at least moderate satisfaction and happiness and
were dumped into situations where they would “lament
and mourn and weep” as in our Scripture for
today. Their “laughter
(was) turned to
mourning” and their “joy
to gloom” (James 4:9-10).
It was unclear in some cases
whether or not they had previously known or cared
about the Lord in a personal way, but those we
talked to, now had a relationship with Him that had
deepened as a result of loss. I remarked to a small
group at one point that God WANTS us to have a
personal relationship with Him, and it is so
important, that He will strike us out of
self-absorbed complacency, in order to bring it to
pass. I mentioned to Edmée, the National
Chairperson of VWIN, that God will “wound” us in
order to save us from our selfishness and bring us
into concert with His will. Edmée, who has seen
much suffering, nodded and then responded with great
feeling that He will cause us to “bleed”
if that’s what it takes to bring us into His
service.
Edmée, herself a widow for
twenty-three years, was raised in Algeria, in what
was called “French North
Africa,” a place and time when World War II
was raging all around. She remarked, “If
the Americans weren’t bombing us, the Germans and
Italians were.” When she and the other
students arrived at school in the mornings, there
would be empty seats which represented other
children who had been bombed to death during the
night. She has been made to “bleed”
emotionally on numerous occasions and has responded
by building an organization dedicated to helping
other survivors of war.
She has done it and is
continuing to do it because her own “laughter”
was turned to “mourning,”
and knowing how others feel when they suffer, she
wants to help them. Here’s what she gets out of it:
Not only the satisfaction of helping others, but
even more than that. She has what we all need – the
deep fulfillment of consciously doing God’s will.
She has become a person who prays about everything
that she and her organization called “VWIN” does.
What are we supposed to do?
Must we behave like martyrs, like victims? To
deliberately live sad and wretched lives? Must we
always be “gloomy” like it says in our verse for
today? The answer is – emphatically NO! We can
live life to the FULLEST, doing what we are able to
do for others along the way; but also understand
that if God decides to “lift
you up” to some “mountaintop” of His
choosing, you may have to go through a difficult
“valley” in order to get there. Trust Him and
follow Him – no matter what!
A few days ago, I sat in a
darkened room within ABC Studios, in Washington, DC,
and watched as Genevieve was interviewed for the ABC
News “Nightline” show, under a spotlight in the
center of the room. The interviewer was a
relatively young man named Jonathan, who will
undoubtedly be “dubbed out” of the interview if it
is actually placed on the air, because that’s how
they do those interviews. Why was Gen in such a
place? Because she became a widow through the
untimely death of her first husband, Bob. And like
Edmée; out of her grief, she 1) trusted in
God, and 2) became willing to help others who
are in similar distress (2 Corinthians 1:4). In the
studio, Genevieve was answering questions about the
Agent Orange herbicide that had taken the life of
her Bob. (And I lost him, too, for Bob was my
friend).
Your life is not your own –
it’s God’s! It always was. Edmée’s life belongs to
Him, as does Gen’s, Bob's, yours and mine. Do you
have a gentle and pleasant life? Then praise the
Lord every day. Have you been brought low by Him?
Then praise the Lord, for He has in mind that you
will be “lifted up” to help others. God is good.
He is VERY good – His goodness is much greater and
more profound than any of us truly understand.
Let’s pray: Thank You, Lord,
that our lives are Yours, and You will see us
through. Help us to trust in you in everything,
even when things don’t go well. “Lift”
us “up” at the
proper time and let us be useful to those You love.
In Jesus Name. Amen.
