Some days, strange things happen. One day last week I found myself listening to an interview with Miley Cyrus on FM radio. The kids had the radio on in the car as I drove them to the station and I didn’t turn it off as I drove on to work. Apart from the way her soft Hannah Montana voice has transformed into a gravelly mess (indicative of harsher times), she seemed to have lost a little of that bratty-ness that has become so characteristic of her life.
What struck me though, was her assertion in response to questions about her marijuana addiction. When asked if it was hard to give up, she said: “No, I can do anything I can put my mind to. Nothing is difficult for me. If I decide to do something, it’ll happen.”
Really?
Frankly, most people find overcoming difficulties in life difficult! Nothing is easy and when it comes to addiction and struggles, there is no silver bullet. When you see someone easily overcome a problem or burden it can be demoralising and for some it even derails their belief in a God who delights to care for his people.
The problem here is not that God cares for some and not others; the problem is that we have excessively high expectations of what might be accomplished in the world and what God might do for us here. There is a brochure arriving in letterboxes this week promising much of special events and special anointing oils. It has me really worried.
I have been working on Revelation 18 this week and had the chance to share some reflections with our Wednesday congregation. Overwhelming the message of the chapter is that everything you can see and touch and smell and taste and hear on earth is going to be destroyed. Nothing will be left at the last judgement – “it’s all gotta go”, as the city spruikers yell from outside jewellery and perfume shops!
God’s great concern for us is not that we are comfortable in life now, but that we are assured of eternal life with him. That he cares for us is in no doubt. That he can heal us is in no doubt. That he will heal every illness and remove every trouble is unlikely. Sometimes those things are sent to teach us or help us – see Paul’s journey with the “thorn” in his side in 2 Corinthians 12:1-10. Moreover, I have never met anyone but for Jesus who has defeated death. This is the trajectory we are all on, the decay of our bodies and receipt of a new eternal body that does not pass away.
The Scriptures urge us to put our hope in the Lord and wait. He will ultimately heal each one of us with the fruit of the trees of healing in eternal life. Between now and then, we will struggle but be assured of God’s love and care for you every day, the evidence of which is seen most clearly at the cross.
In Christ
Nigel