Clearing the Way
As most of you know, I’m an avid runner, running about 25 miles most weeks. I run on the sidewalk because it’s more level and less dangerous than the street. The only issue with sidewalk running is sharing it with people. Sometimes they’re pushing strollers or walking their dogs and they take up the whole sidewalk.
Since Dallas is so flat, I can usually see people on my side of the street at least two blocks before our paths cross. I always play this game with myself whenever I’m approaching people. How close will I get to them until I jump into the street and pass them? What I’ve found is that about 80% of the time, if I just persevere on the sidewalk and patiently wait, I won’t have to move. The people almost invariably turn up the walkway to their house or cross the street and head in another direction. My strategy rarely fails me. I call that “God clearing my way.”
I think that’s a lot like life. 80% of the time, the things we worry about never come to fruition. We trust God to handle life’s obstacles, and usually He clears them from our way. But what about the other 20% of the time when God does not remove obstacles? Last week was difficult. In Nashville, a transgender woman with mental health issues murdered three students and three adults. Nine soldiers died during when two Blackhawk helicopters crashed in Kentucky. Over 20 people died in the tornadoes that swept through Mississippi and Alabama, which tore a 60-mile trail of devastation.
Closer to home for me, a missionary our church supports died suddenly of a heart attack in Iraq while teaching the Bible to Iraqi pastors to better equip them to teach their congregations. His wife in the U.S. received that awful call on Wednesday night. A mother of several children, and friend of my wife, who attends the church where my wife works during the week, received a breast cancer diagnosis. It’s an aggressive form of breast cancer, and she’s starting six months of chemo soon, and then faces surgery.
Why is it that these national and personal tragedies occur on such a regular basis? As Christians, we know the answer is that we live in a fallen world because of Adam’s sin. In a fallen world, mental illness abounds, natural disasters occur, diseases like cancer are prevalent. We know these things are true, but still, God is sovereign. He could stop these things from happening. Why doesn’t He? Why doesn’t He simply clear the way for us?
The main reason is that God always clearing the way would thwart His purposes. God pronounced a curse on Adam, his progeny, and the entire world when Adam sinned, curses He will not reverse until Jesus comes again. Tragedies on national and individual levels remind us the world is not how God created it.
Romans 8:22 says: “the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.” Sin has consequences. The effects of the fall should drive us to our knees in repentance for our sin. They should make us beg God’s forgiveness and pray for Jesus’ second coming when He will restore all things.
If God always cleared our way, we might forget that we depend on Him for breath and everything else we need to live. Suffering reminds us that God is sovereign and we desperately need Him to survive each day. Often pain and suffering are the tools God uses to draw people to Himself. God has saved many people who finally realized they couldn’t make it on their own and cried out to God for help. Suffering reminds us that this world is not all there is.
One day God will redeem creation and give eternal life in heaven to those who believe Jesus died for their sins and rose from the dead and trust Him to save them. No one wants to suffer, but we won’t even remember it when we get to heaven. Paul wrote in Romans 8:18: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” But don’t waste your suffering. Persevere through it. Use it to grow deeper in your relationship with God.
When God clears your way, thank Him for sparing you whatever was in your way. When He makes you go through the pain, remember as Good Friday nears, that God did not spare Jesus from the cross. He required that Jesus die for the sin of the world, but then He raised Him from the dead on Easter. God can use pain in ways we can’t see from our human perspective. Depend on Him to walk through it with you and praise Him for the lessons He teaches you in it.
Application Questions:
When has God most recently not cleared the path for you?
Did you become angry with God for making you walk through it?
What lessons has God taught you through your pain?
Can you thank God now for those lessons and be thankful that He didn't clear the way?
How can you use those lessons to minister to others?
