From Bitter Tears to Shouts of Joy by Mark D. Roberts
06 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in The High Calling Tags: God, Jesu, Laura Hillenbrand, Louis, Louis Zamperini, Psalm, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival Resilience and Redemption, World War II
Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy.
Psalm 126 begins with a joyful remembrance of a time when God brought “brought back his exiles to Jerusalem” (126:1). It was a time of laughter and joy as the people of God celebrated: “Yes, the LORD has done amazing things for us! What joy!” (126:3).
Yet, Psalm 126 was written in different time and different mood. Verse 4 begins, “Restore our fortunes, LORD.” Though we don’t know the exact context for this prayer, which was meant for Jewish pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem, we can read between the lines. The psalmist and his community are planting in tears, with weeping. They yearn for a time when they will harvest with “shouts of joy” and glad singing (126:5-6).
Most people I know can relate to this psalm, at least to some extent. We have all experienced times of sadness and times of joy. In many cases, our sorrow actually leads to and enhances our gladness. God’s grace reverses our losses and turns them into delightful gains.
I think, for example, of the happiest man I have ever known. I am not exaggerating when I say this. I am thinking of a man who, in my experience of him, was exuberant almost all the time. He lived with gusto and served God with vigor. This is still true, even though he is now 95 and struggles with some of the inevitable pains that come with old age.
The man I’m thinking of is Louis Zamperini. He is now quite famous as the subject of Laura Hillenbrand‘s gripping biography, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. This book tells in unflinching detail the story of Louis’ experiences in World War II, including 47 days in a life raft after being shot down over the Pacific and two years of deprivation and torture in Japanese POW camps. I don’t personally know any person who suffered more physical and psychological pain than Louis Zamperini. Yet, after the war, when he was being haunted with post-traumatic stress, nightmares, and alcohol abuse, Louis met Jesus Christ and his life was never the same.
I first got to know Louis when I was growing up in the Sunday School at the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood. He’d come to our classes and tell stories. As we sat on the edges of our seats, Louis would invite us to live in relationship with Jesus Christ. Later, when I served on the staff of Hollywood Pres, I got to know Louis as a colleague who oversaw a program for senior adults. Louis was always rejoicing about something, always laughing, and often riding his skateboard like a madman all over the church campus, something he did into his late 80s.
No doubt that Louis planted in tears. Yet, by God’s grace, he harvested with shouts of joy…literally. If God can do this in the life of Louis Zamperini, he can do it in your life and mine.
QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER REFLECTION: Have you experienced anything like what is described in Psalm 126? Have your tears ever turned into shouts of gladness? Has God ever redeemed some negative experience in your life, using it for his purposes and your joy?
PRAYER: Gracious God, how I praise you for being a redeeming, transforming, renewing God. Thank you for being with me in my times of sorrow. Thank you for using my suffering and even my failures for your purposes. Thank you for taking that which was planted in tears and allowing it to be harvested with shouts of joy. Thank you for all the ways and times you have done this in my life.
I pray today for those who are in the planting with tears season of life. Give them hope. Give them the reassurance of your presence. Give them confidence that you will work all things together for good. O Lord, may their season of sad planting end. May their time of joyful harvesting come soon. Amen.
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Whom Will You Serve?
01 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Holy Land Moments Tags: Amorite, Euphrates, God, Israel, Jew, Joshua, Masada, World War II
“Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” —Joshua 24:14–15
Next to Jerusalem, the ruins of Masada are one of the most popular destinations of Jewish tourists visiting Israel. Why? Because the events that took place atop this high rocky mountain have become a modern-day symbol of Jewish resistance and faith, and their desire to serve the one true God.
The courageous and tragic story of the 960 Jews who killed themselves rather than submit to Roman capture and enslavement in the first century has inspired Jews for hundreds of years. Historians have credited this story as retold in a poem by Isaac Lamdan in the 1920s with inspiring the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II. Masada is also where Israeli soldiers even today pledge their loyalty to the defense of Israel, reciting this oath: “Masada shall not fall again.”
They are the final words of the Masada leader, Elazar ben Yair, that resonates the most with people of faith: “Since we long ago resolved never to be servants to the Romans, nor to any other than to God Himself, Who alone is the true and just Lord of mankind, the time is now come that obliges us to make that resolution true in practice.”
Throughout the Bible, men and women of faith have given voice to their determination to choose God over idols, over foreign rule, over the culture. We hear it echoed in the words of Joshua: “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve . . . But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:14–15).
We hear it in Ruth’s beautiful declaration of loyalty, “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16). Having met the God of Israel through her mother-in-law, Naomi, Ruth chose to leave her homeland, Moab, and her family to go where she could worship the Lord.
We hear it in Elijah’s challenge to the people of Israel on Mount Carmel as he prepared to battle the prophets of Baal: “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him” (1 Kings 18:21).
We may never face the same circumstances as the Jews living atop Masada, or as Joshua, Ruth or Elijah, but we each must make a choice daily who we will serve. And that choice will become evident in so many ways in our lives — how we manage our money, how we handle the pressures of our culture, whom we choose to marry, what we do with our free time, whom we spend time with, and so much more.
http://www.holylandmoments.org/devotionals/whom-will-you-serve-3
Help Needed
23 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
in This N That Tags: Britain, British Isles, God, Nazi, Nazism, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Winston Churchill, World War II
During World War II, the British Isles represented the last line of resistance against the sweep of Nazi oppression in Europe. Under relentless attack and in danger of collapse, however, Britain lacked the resources to see the conflict through to victory. For that reason, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill went on BBC radio and appealed to the world: “Give us the tools, and we will finish the job.” He knew that without help from the outside, they could not endure the assault they were facing.
Life is like that. Often, we are inadequate for the troubles life throws at us, and we need help from outside of ourselves. As members of the body of Christ, that help can come at times from our Christian brothers and sisters (Rom. 12:10-13)—and that is a wonderful thing. Ultimately, however, we seek help from our heavenly Father. The good and great news is that our God has invited us to come confidently before Him: “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16).
At such times, our greatest resource is prayer—for it brings us into the very presence of God. There we find, in His mercy and grace, the help we need.
