A Blessing in Disguise

You, O God, have tested us;

You have tried us as silver is tried.

You brought us into the net;

You laid a crushing burden on our backs.

You let men ride over our heads.

We went through fire and through water;

But You brought us out to full satisfaction.

—Psalm 66:10-12

“You…You…You…You…You…You." The psalmist sees God in every ordeal: Temptations, trials, obstructions, burdens, oppression, fire and rain—all these crises are mediated through God's hands. 

It’s an enigma: Though others afflict us, or we afflict ourselves, God accepts responsibility for all that befalls us. Scripture affirms it. I can not explain it. I can only state it.

One of the most startling statements in the Bible occurs on an occasion in which Satan, having done all he could to torment Job, appears a second time before God, who takes responsibility for all that Satan did to Job: "You incited me to act against Job" (Job 2:3). 

If events are random the world becomes a very scary place, filled with random, meaningless, gratuitous heartbreak and sorrow. But if God in His Love and Wisdom orders all that happens to us here, we can accept each sorrow though we may not understand it. “Why?” we ask in our despair. God says, “Dear child, you wouldn’t understand it if I explained it to you. Just trust me.”

“Though you slay me,” Job said, “I will trust you” (Job 13:15). Job did not enter into acceptance lightly. He struggled with frustration and anxiety as you and I do. But despite his perplexity, he knew that God was good and could be trusted. He could then accept all that God brought his way.

Acceptance brings an inexplicable sense of well-being that the biblical writers called "blessedness"—a point the psalmist also makes: "You brought us out (of suffering) to full satisfaction." (66:12). “Full satisfaction.” It’s the word David uses in his Shepherd Psalm: "My cup overflows" (Psalm 23:5).

Good when He gives, supremely good;
Nor less when He denies:
Afflictions, from His sovereign hand,
Are blessings in disguise. —author unknown

David Roper

9.21.17

In Acceptance

He said, ‘I will forget the dying faces;

The empty places,

They shall be filled again.
O voices moaning deep within me, cease.’
But vain the word; vain, vain:
Not in forgetting lieth peace.

He said, ‘I will crowd action upon action,

The strife of faction

Shall stir me and sustain;

O tears that drown the fire of manhood cease.’

But vain the word; vain, vain:

Not in endeavour lieth peace.

He said, ‘I will withdraw me and be quiet,

Why meddle in life’s riot?

Shut be my door to pain.

Desire, thou dost befool me, thou shalt cease.’

But vain the word; vain, vain:

Not in aloofness lieth peace.

He said, ‘I will submit; I am defeated.

God hath depleted

My life of its rich gain.

O futile murmurings, why will ye not cease?’

But vain the word; vain, vain:

Not in submission lieth peace.

He said, ‘I will accept the breaking sorrow

Which God tomorrow

Will to His son explain.’

Then did the turmoil deep within me cease.

Not vain the word, not vain;

For in Acceptance lieth peace.

—Amy Carmichael

“Back They Come at Nightfall”

“At evening they return, they growl like a dog...” (Psalm 59:6,14)

Many years ago, when I was a college student, my father and I hiked through a portion of the Big Bend country of Texas. 

One night we were rolling out our sleeping bags when a young couple with a dog asked if they could camp nearby.  We welcomed their company and turned in for the night. They tethered their dog to a stake outside their tent. 

Some hours later my father nudged me awake and turned his flashlight into the darkness. There, illuminated by the light, we saw dozens of pairs of eyes peering out of the shadows. We were surrounded by a pack of coyotes, some sitting on their haunches licking their chops; others snapping and snarling, closing in on the dog.  We chased off the coyotes and our neighbors put the dog in their tent, but, needless to say, we all slept less well that night. 

I think of that incident and David’s metaphor: “At evening they return, they growl like a dog.” David was thinking of Saul’s army that was closing in on him. I think, however, of predatory thoughts that return in the evening to menace me. “Back they come at nightfall, snarling like curs” (NJB). They snap and snarl at me: “You’re old and useless; who needs you?”

But like David, I can turn my heart to heaven and revel in God’s unconditional love. His steady affection is my refuge in the dark night of self-doubt and fear (59:16). I can say with David, “My refuge is God Himself, the God who loves me!” (59:17 NJB).

David Roper

9.14.17

Putting Up Hay

“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven” (Romans 4:9).

One summer, when I was in college, I worked on the Taussig Ranch near Kremmling, Colorado. One evening, tired and hungry after a long day of mowing hay, I drove the tractor into the yard and, acting like the hot dog I considered myself to be, cranked the steering wheel hard to the left, stamped on the left brake and spun the tractor around. 

The sickle was down and swept the legs out from under a 500 gallon gasoline tank standing nearby. The tank hit the ground with a resounding "CRUMP!" The seams split and all the gasoline spewed out.

Mr. Taussig was standing nearby surveying the scene. 

I got off the tractor, stammered an apology and—because it was the first thing that popped into my mind—offered to work the rest of the summer or the rest of my life—whatever came first—without pay. 

The old rancher stared at the wreckage for a moment, and turned toward the house. “Let’s go have supper,” He drawled.

A vaguely-remembered scrap of a story Jesus told passed through my mind—a story about a young man who had done a terrible thing: “Father, I have sinned against you” he cried… “Make me like one of your hired servants.”  But before he could get all the words out of his mouth his father interrupted him. “Let’s go have supper” he said (Luke 15:22-24). 

Such is God’s amazing grace.

David Roper

9.17.17

A Waste of Breath

I balanced all, brought all to mind, 

The years to come seemed waste of breath, 

A waste of breath the years behind 

In balance with this life, this death.

 —W.B. Yeats

David was furious with God, but he didn't want to vent his rage in public: He said, “I will guard my ways; I will guard my mouth as with a muzzle…” (Psalm 39:1).

But David could not restrain himself: "My heart was hot within me, While I was musing the fire burned; Then I spoke with my tongue”: Why have you made us this way: short-lived, transient, ephemeral—”mere breath?" (39:11)

We work hard to accumulate things only to leave them for others to enjoy (39:6). We have nothing to show for a lifetime of effort but suffering and a solitary grave. Hobbes was right: Life is "nasty, brutish and short.” 

At least, that’s the way David felt on this occasion: Life is short and full of trouble. And then we die.

There's no resolution in the psalm. No respite; only resignation and a bitter cry: “Give me a break, cut me some slack before it's too late and I'm out of here" (39:13 The Message)

It’s significant to me that God allowed this psalm to stand as it is—a witness to the fact that He understands how frustrated and angry we can be when things aren't going our way. 

God is safe. You can tell Him off now and then. 

David Roper
8.23.17

Thoughts on 9/11

Carolyn and I knew one of the passengers in United Airlines Flight 175, the plane that crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center.  On board was Rev. Francis Grogan, a Catholic priest who ministered in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts. In his most recent e–mail, Fr. Francis wrote,

Since I last wrote I have been asked to move on to be Chaplain for a retirement home for our Holy Cross Teaching Brothers. They have need of a new Chaplain having lost their Chaplain of some 23 years in an accident on their property. So, I'm packing up and moving on… I go from Massachusetts to New York State (to Valatie, just south east of Albany.) Actually I'll have less responsibility. Can relax in my 76th year and share my last years with retired teaching Brothers!

A few hours later he was gone…

Life’s uncertainty has inspired numerous metaphors in literature—it is a dream, a flying shuttle, a mist, a puff of smoke, a shadow, a gesture in the air, a sentence written in the sand, a bird flying in one window of a house and out another. The most apt symbol was suggested by a friend who reckoned that the short dash that separates the birth and death dates on a tombstone represents the brevity of one’s life. 

It’s good to ponder the transiency of life now and then. I think of Moses’ prayer: “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalms 90:12). Life is too short to treat it carelessly.

The country parson, George Herbert, said he used to frequent graveyards to “take acquaintance of this heap of dust,” and wrote…

Dear flesh, while I do pray, learn here thy stem

And true descent; that when thou shalt grow fat,

And wanton in thy cravings, thou mayest know,

That flesh is but the glass which holds the dust

That measures all our time; which also shall

Be crumbled into dust. Mark here below

How tame these ashes are, how free from lust,

That thou mayest fit thy self against the fall.

Herbert finds himself in a graveyard and ponders his own pasasing. He pictures the “dust that measures all our time” running through the hourglass of our flesh, which would itself in time become dust and be laid to rest with the ashes of those who lay beneath his feet. “Mark here below (in the grave),” he writes, “how tame these ashes are, how free from lust”—how unmoved by passion for money, sex or power.

It’s high time we took acquaintance of our dust, its transient lust and what alone will last…

David Roper

9/11/17

Waiting

Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad;

Let the sea roar, and all its fullness;

Let the field be joyful, and all that is in it.

Then all the trees of the woods will rejoice before the Lord.

For He is coming, for He is coming to judge the earth. 

—Psalm 96:11-13a

Once, "the morning stars sang in harmony" (Job 38:7). Now creation sings off-key.

We wait for the day when nature will be put back in tune (Romans 8:19-21). Then, when grace has perfected nature, we will join with all creation in a rousing, rip-roaring chorus of praise. We will sing in sync with the heavens and the earth, the seas, the fields and the forests, and we shall "clap our hands" with the trees (Isaiah 66:12), for we will have been set free from all that frets us to enjoy the freedom for which we were made. 

“Truly my soul waits in quietness for God…” David wrote (Psalm 62:1). May I too wait with calm resolve and submissive spirit for that day on which God will make everything that's gone wrong with the world irrevocably right.

David Roper

9.8.17

Our Lot

Cast your burden on the LORD,

and he will sustain you. —Psalm 55:22

The word translated "burden" only occurs here in this form in the Old Testament and means an allotment or "that which is given." (The noun means “a gift.") This is the portion God gives us each day, the circumstances in which we find ourselves.

This is the text that lies behind Peter’s oft-quoted words: ”Casting all your care upon Him, because He cares for you" (1Peter 5:7).

Peter's Bible, The Septuagint, translated "burden" as merimna, "cares," referring, by metonymy, to the uncertainties and anxieties that grow out of the burdens we bear: The worry of a hard marriage, the sorrow of a difficult child, the strain of a broken relationship, the pain of an aging body, the care of an elderly parent, the nagging weight of an intransigent congregation—this may be our portion. 

But, the poet assures us, if, by prayer, we cast our burdens on the Lord He will sustain us. Interesting. He does not promise that He will take our circumstances away, for they may be ours for a lifetime. But He will sustain us in our circumstances, giving us grace for every hour. He will “strengthen and help (us) and cause (us) to stand, upheld by His righteous, omnipotent hand!”

“As your days so shall your strength be” (Deuteronomy 33:25).

David Roper

9.6.17