Sun v Shade
... Did you know that shade doesn’t make temperatures cooler. In fact, air temperature is actually the same in the sun or shade. It’s solar radiation hitting our bodies which makes it feel hotter. On average, solar radiation makes the air feel 10 -15 degrees warmer than it actually is.
This is why official air temperature is always measured in the shade. If the thermometer were placed in the sun, the solar radiation would heat up the thermometer and the resulting temperature would be measuring the warmed up thermometer and not the air around the thermometer. -- ABC News
In the heat of the day, we run to shade for shelter -- some measure of relief from the searing radiation that makes our bodies sweat and our skin burn.
However, the exact reverse is true when we are cold and shivering. We long to step out from the shade, in the hopes of capturing any measure of warmth from the sun's rays to warm our bodies and alleviate the chill.
Scripture is repleat with references to the metaphorical, protective wings of the Lord, spread over us to shield and protect. Often times, as we duck under for cover, we find instant relief from whatever drama, trial, or tragedy has befallen us.
Yet sometimes, we step under the shelter of the Lord's wings and we find no immediate relief. We find the cold and cruelty of our circumstances "feel" no different, no warmer there.
The Lord's protection is no instant panacea, defined quite literally as "a solution or remedy for all difficulties or diseases." As often as not, the Lord's "protection" will take us through the cold hard trial, rather than around it.
Corrie ten Boom, a WWII concentration camp survivor, in her acclaimed book, The Hiding Place, described the pain of standing for hours, at attention before her Nazi captors, in the freezing cold of the pre-dawn hours, or huddled on the wooden bunks, sharing blankets and body heat against the crippling chill of the winter nights in captivity. Why was there no relief from her cold, hard trials? Where, in those moments, were the wings of God's protection?
They were spread wide over her, just as He promised!
Speaking of their times gathered around a small, smuggled bible, she would write,
Like waifs clustered around a blazing fire, we gathered about it, holding out our hearts to its warmth and light. The blacker the night around us grew, the brighter and truer and more beautiful burned the Word of God.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ... Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
I would look about us as Betsie read, watching the light leap from face to face. More than conquerors ... It was not a wish. It was a fact.
We knew it, we experienced it minute by minute--poor, hated, hungry. We are more than conquerors. Not 'we shall be.' We are!
Life in Ravensbruck took place on two separate levels, mutually impossible. One, the observable, external life, grew every day more horrible. The other, the life we lived with God, grew daily better, truth upon truth, glory upon glory."
Indeed, in the cruelest of firey trials or chilling challenges, His wings are spread over us. Though we often find no immediate relief for our circumstances, we can (and DO!) find relief for our souls!
"For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless" (Psalm 84:11, NIV).
"Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed. I cry out to God Most High, to God, who fulfills [his purpose] for me" (Psalm 57:1, ESV).
“Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the SHADOW of thy wings” (Psalm 17:8, NIV)
Don't Throw In The Towel (Errr, The Sock)
Did you know that China produces, markets, and distributes more socks than any other country in the world?TheFlag.com reports:
When you put on your socks in the morning, there’s a good chance that unless you knit them yourself they came from somewhere outside of the United States. Roughly one-third of the time the socks came from China. In fact, the Datang District in eastern China is one of the top sock producers in the world and has been aptly named, “Sock City.”
Because they are produced in such volume, and by means of cheap labor and often inferior materials, these socks are more affordable, often pushing other manuafacturers right out of the market. Listen to one man's experience:
A number of years ago, around 2008, sock manufacturers in South Africa faced a huge challenge in their business of selling socks. Extremely cheap and of poor quality ... Chinese imports were flooding the market, making it difficult for local sock companies to survive. These companies were in distress ... and as a result, most closed down. Our very own Millennium Socks was one of those companies. Those were extremely trying times in the industry.
One company though refused to throw in the towel ... [knowing] that to compete they had to do something different. Falke South Africa realized that they had to respond strategically to the challenge they faced, or their business would die. They made the decision [to] continue in business, but to change the way they approached the market.
They developed a niche market for their product by deciding not to compromise on the quality of their product. They took the step and committed themselves to the task at hand … Falke South Africa, over the last 10yrs has increased its staff by 50%, and in 2017 sold 17 million pairs of socks and fine hosiery. They are now planning to expand into Australia, all because, in a hard time of distress and despair, they made the decision to focus on what was to be done, without compromise, and they have more than survived, they have become a great success.
As Christians, we must know that a time of distress or despair is NOT the time to throw in the towel. It is the time to take decisive action and shore up our resolve to "focus on what must be done without compromise." Only in this way will we not just survive, but thrive.
"Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain" (1 Corinthians 15:58, ESV).
"Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong" (I Corinthians 16:13, ESV).
No Consolation In Someone Else's Demise
When I was in kindergarten, corporal punishment was still practiced in the schools. My experience with it is one of my earliest memories of my school years.
One of my classmates, we'll call him little Johnny, had been acting up. So the teacher took him by the ear and led him to a large closet that connected our class to an adjoining classroom.
The purpose of this arrangement was to allow one teacher to assist another with discipline. As little Johnny was led into the closet and the door was closed, we could hear our teacher lecturing him about his behavior. Then we heard the rapid paddle blows, presumably to his little bottom, which was followed by a loud outburst of tears.
When the teacher emerged with little Johnny in tow, something about the visuals struck me as humorous, so I let out a loud laugh. That was the first big mistake of my academic career! The next thing I knew, I was the one being dragged by the ear into that same closet where I received a similar lecture, only to emerge with the same sore bottom and my eyes full of tears — except this time no one laughed!
Like a game of backgammon where the board is turned to reverse the fortune of the players, I could not have been more surprised to have the tables turned on me that day. Nevertheless, I limped away from the experience having learned a valuable lesson:
There is no consolation to be taken in someone else’s demise, only a warning that judgment comes to us all.
Scripture speaks clearly to this point.
When news of a grievous atrocity reached his entourage, Jesus used it as an important opportunity to teach a similar lesson. In Luke 13:1-4 we read,
About this time Jesus was informed that Pilate had murdered some people from Galilee as they were offering sacrifices at the Temple. "Do you think those Galileans were worse sinners than all the other people from Galilee?" Jesus asked. "Is that why they suffered? Not at all! ... And what about the eighteen people who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them? Were they the worst sinners in Jerusalem?” (NTL).
If God governed the world by the principle of justice, then certainly these events would provide an accurate barometer of divine intent. In the minds of Jesus’ disciples, the message behind these dramatic events seemed obvious. Given their stern religious instincts, the disciples would have naturally interpreted these events as God’s judgment on those who died. “Image how enraged God must be,” they would have thought to themselves, “to have these people killed in the very act of offering their sacrifices at the Temple! What terrible things must they have done?”
But Jesus would offer a very different take on these tragic events. Rather than see them as signs of God’s displeasure, he interpreted them to be the kinds of things that could have happened to anyone. Notice, after raising the question of whether they the worst sinners in Jerusalem, Jesus concluded with a resounding, “I tell you, no!” (Luke 13:5, NLT).
The implication was that the Galileans who were murdered by Pilate, as well as those who died when the tower of Siloam fell on them, were simply subject to the arbitrary nature of life, just like the rest of us. They weren’t the worst sinners in Galilee or Jerusalem, they just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time!
That old saying, “we’re all in the same boat” comes to mind. Of course, this is consistent with a world governed by the principle of grace. In a random world, anything that happens to one could just as easily have happened to the rest.
But just because something is indiscriminate, it doesn’t mean that there is no intended message behind it. Whether it’s a blessing, like the rain, or a tragedy, like a falling tower, Jesus attributed divine meaning to it, but never the significance his audience expected.
"But unless you repent,” Jesus would explain, “you too will all perish” (Luke 13:5, NIV). With these words, Jesus inferred that incidents such as these send a message, not that judgment has come to those directly affected by trial or tragedy, but that judgment is coming to all.
Like tremors that forewarn of impending doom, the catastrophes of life offer an ominmous forewarning of God’s impending judgment on all who fail to repent.
When we pass judgment on the victims of a catastophe, it lulls us into a false sense of security. We think the danger has passed and that the message was delivered to those who deserved to be punished. But Jesus made it clear that when a random event strikes down a few, its message is actually meant for those who aren’t even directly affected by it.
Tragedy is like a warning shot, fired for the benefit of all who are within earshot. The message isn’t meant for those who perish. If a tower falls on someone, it’s a little late for them to learn a lesson from the experience. If there is a message behind the tragic events of life, it has to be for those who are left behind. Ironically, most people tend to think that these experiences bear no relevance to the rest of us, when the only real relevance is to the rest of us!
So, whether it’s God’s correction of Job’s friends (Job 42:7), or Jesus’ correction of his disciples in this passage, the Bible offers numerous examples of how ill advised it is to assume that we know why someone else has suffered. That’s not possible to know in a world governed by the principle of grace, where the trials and afflictions of life say nothing about what we deserve or what God thinks about us.
In such a world, being spared is not a consolation, it’s a warning! But it’s even more humbling than that, because we are being forewarned at the high cost of someone else's peril!
Thus, rather than judging those who have suffered, it behooves us to be humble and receive the message their tragedy was meant to convey to us. Just as I learned in kindergarten, there is no consolation to be taken in someone else’s demise, only a warning that judgment comes to us all.