Going Under The Knife... For A Few Decades (II of III)

In my prior blog, I noted a recent disaster in my own life (a debilitating hand injury) and then revisited the book of Ruth, where Naomi faces her own life's disasters. We ended with a question. Is Naomi right? Is it indeed the hand of God himself that is against her? Well... I've already suggested that this is a rather inescapable conclusion, given how Jesus responded to a similar question.

John 9:3
‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned,’ said Jesus, ‘but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

I've reflected a bit on this verse already, but to those observations I'd like to add a few more. First off, note that where Naomi is depressed, Jesus is optimistic. He speaks words of hope, and the reason why is clear. Jesus sees past the present situation. He knows what's coming, and it's good. What's more, Jesus' optimism is infectious. The blind man catches it.

John 9:6-7
After saying this, he spat on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. ‘Go,’ he told him, ‘wash in the Pool of Siloam’ (this word means ‘Sent’). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

The passage doesn't directly speak of optimism, but, speaking from personal experience, I think that this blind man had plenty. Injuries breed efficiency. I sincerely doubt this blind man did extra laps around town for kicks. "Trip to the pool? Yeah, I'll swing by there on the way home." But No! He heads to the pool to wash his eyes. Immediately. That's optimism. Optimism rewarded, too! He comes back seeing.

The story does end on a high note, but a dark mystery hangs over it: Why would God have set all this up the way he did in the first place? From the fuller passage we know that the blind man is legally of age. I suppose that means he is at least 13 yrs old, but given how forcefully he debated with the Pharisees, I'd guess that the man is at least twenty years old. He's been blind for decades.

Let that sink in. Decades. For decades he lived in darkness. If we ran across a parent who kept a child imprisoned for twenty years so as to display the works of God in the child by eventually setting them free? We'd call that sick. And we'd be right. But mysteriously, that seems to be what God stands in the docket for in this story. What's worse, stories like these are a dime a dozen.

Take Naomi, for instance. Why did she and her husband first move to Moab? Famine drove them. Given the reputation Moab had with Israelites, I'd guess they were pretty desperate. And of course it gets worse from there. The husband dies. The two sons die. And if you stitch together a time frame for all these events, it would appear that Naomi has herself been living in another form of darkness for several decades.

The problem of evil is not a recent discovery and I have no shocking new solution to it, but I do find it odd that we cope with this problem in some arenas much better than we do in others. Examples? How about this... No pain, no gain. We wear these words on exercise t-shirts, and they apply to academic endeavors just as well. Or how about this one... Better to have loved and lost than to never have loved. Yes, we understand that those who studiously avoid all pain in life never really live.

So when we speak of exercise, education, and even of love... we get it. Pain is the route to gain. How strange, then, that we fear the trials that beset our souls and are frankly terrified at the thought that God himself might be engineering them. But that is indeed what he does. My wife read to us from the book of Deuteronomy tonight after dinner. I wasn't asking for them, but these words found me all the same.

Deuteronomy 8:2
Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.

For this crime we have a written confession. Can we acknowledge what God himself acknowledges? That his trials can span decades? Four of them?

She's sixteen now, but I still remember her crying as an infant. Tears streaming from eyes shot through with blood. Strabismus surgery for her eyes was a good thing, but we didn't ask her for permission. To the extent an infant could vote, it's a sure thing she would have declined surgery. Infants avoid all pain. But we ignored her wishes. We gave her what she needed.

I do believe that God does put us under the knife. Without asking our leave. Our vote gently ignored. God sometimes lets us thrash and suffer. For decades at a whack. Can that really be good? In faith I will say Yes, but it's a fact that I am a spiritual infant. I always avoid those trials whenever I can.

And when I can't? Well, that's why I love the book of Ruth.

To be continued...