Paying Attention to the Praise, Solace and Glory Moments (aPP 24)

We have spent a considerable time looking at Pain, Suffering and Grief and I have addressed many of the reader questions that have been sent to me. In the last couple of Nuggets I tried to cross the intersection / crossroads to look at Praise, Solace and Glory, but found that I was waylaid with more examples of blessings in the pain, suffering and grief to share. In this Nugget we will begin to look in more detail at the other side of the Paradox. The fact that although we maybe in Pain as an under-goer or recipient, there are always reasons for us to Praise God. While we may be Suffering, God always seems to bring us solace. Although we may experience grief, there are always glimpses of Glory. The reasons to Praise, the Solace and comfort that God gives to us and the glimpses of Glory are God’s way of reassuring us that He is right there with us.

Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the LORD! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!

Habakkuk 3:17-18

This quote from Habakkuk in the Old Testament is a reminder that we ought to praise God despite our circumstances. There is always something that we can praise Him for, despite how bad things might seem. All of the people I have told you about in this series of Nuggets have demonstrated the ability to praise Him no matter what may be happening to them that seems contrary to God’s purposes. The one thing that stands out in my mind after all the stories I heard and the books I have read, the turning point is when we can thank God in the circumstances rather than for the circumstances. It is true that we don’t always know the reason for our pain and suffering. But despite that we need to learn to thank God anyway because HIs love is unfailing and He will work in our circumstances to bring good. We can do that more easily when we have been able to recognise those God touches in our past experience. Those moments of reflecting on God’s past goodness to us or His blessings in the midst of struggle are prompts for us to hang on to Him in faith and praise Him anyway. I am making that comment on the basis of experience, not because I have heard someone else’s story or read about the principle in a book.

I have been lying on a hospital gurney twice now and contemplating the fact that I was likely to die after experiencing two heart attacks. I really thought each time was my moment to depart this life. Yet I could lie on the gurney and praise God for His goodness to me since I have been a follower of Christ. My mind went back each time to moments when He proved time and time again that He had this under control – whatever the “this” might have been. I have been lying in hospital beds undergoing intense pain on two occasions and when people came to see me have been able to see past the pain to the God who stands with me in my circumstances. I have seen that same courage and ability in each one whose story I have shared and many others. It is like God draws close in those moments and reassures us, “I am here. I am with you. You are not going through this alone. Have I not told you that I will never leave you or forsake you?” The same has been true for Tania too as she has gone through the pain and suffering with me and the extra difficulty that comes with being the carer at the time of pain and suffering of a loved one. Many times some of you, who read these Gems, have been the ones to bring God into our situation by your care or your extra help in our moment of pain, suffering or grief. I am not going to name names because there are too many of you and because I don’t want to leave out anyone. But that is exactly what God does. He provides the help in time of need through His people. The extra little touches and coincidences (serendipitous moments) which remind us “I AM here”.

As you already know, these last weeks have been series of weekly funerals, sometimes more frequently. I have found it interesting that has happened at the time I am writing these Nuggets on A Puzzling Paradox. Yesterday, Tania and I attended the unveiling of Jeremiah Glassie’s headstone at the cemetery. It was remarkable to see the healing and the comfort that has taken place for the family over the intervening time. Tangi and Lilly (Miah’s mum and dad) told how all the people there had played a part in their healing, their ability to cope with the weight of pain and suffering in the midst of life’s tragedies. The saddest funeral I ever officiated at was of a man who had died in the hospice in Matamata and I was asked to take his funeral. I contacted the funeral director and the hospice to find out all I could about the man. There were no family who had been to see him while he was in care. No one came to his funeral apart from me and the funeral director. At the end of his life there was no one there to farewell him or speak regarding the life he had lived. The memory of that funeral stayed with me for a long time and still surfaces at times like this. How tragic! That a person can spend their appointed time on earth and at the end there are only two strangers at their funeral who know nothing about the life the deceased had lived. I must admit the memory of that funeral has surfaced several times recently when I have heard of people known to me and unknown, who because of Covid have not been able to attend the funeral of their loved one.

. . . God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer. We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort God gives us.

2 Corinthians 1:3-7

God made us for community and set us in families for a reason. Paul describes it well in the quote above. That is exactly how it works. Everyone of those who have experienced intense pain, suffering and grief know the first-hand experience of going through the pain and grief, but know too that having been comforted we are in a far better position to “comfort others with the comfort we received”. It’s a God principle. It is in those times of extreme events that we hear the stories we would not otherwise have heard. That has happened for all those whom I have named initially in this series and those I haven’t highlighted. One such family are the Barrs. No, not the Carrs but the Barrs. Like the Carrs, Don and Shari Barr are translators with Wycliffe. The Barrs lost their son Jon to a freak accident in a boat on Lake Okontoe in Northern Minnesota when the mast clipped the high tension power lines over the lake and 14,000 volts went through Jon’s body. The accident happened on July 3rd 2004 and Jon eventually died on July 8th after having had his legs amputated in an attempt to save his life, despite many around the world praying. I will let Don Barr tell you in his words of the comfort that came to them afterwards.

“Just before and after Jon passed on, those gathered in Jon’s very full hospital room began singing hymns of praise, praying and thanking the Lord for Jon. Shari was right there by Jon and experienced this special time with these friends and family rejoicing when Jon passed into God’s presence. All through the day dozens of people came to the hospital from all over. Family, friends from Northwestern College where Jon graduated, friends from Cokato where Jon was on the State Championship wrestling team in 1997-98, even friends from Faith Academy Manila days. One couple flew from South Bend, Indiana to be there. Jon has amazing, loving, caring friends. It was overwhelming to us to see all these people from so many spheres of life whose lives Jon had touched. I’m sure we don’t yet know the half of it. We are comforted, knowing that Jon is WHOLE. As one man prayed, “It doesn’t take legs to run into the arms of Jesus.” We can picture him doing back flips across heaven, exploring the cosmos with his Grandpa Barr, whose spirit and passion for knowing God Jon shared so deeply. I know heaven will be impacted by this young man, even as this earth has in his short twenty-three years. I am looking forward to one day fully sharing in those eternal adventures with Jon, with my own body new and energised so I can keep up with this strong son.“

A family stopped by whom Jon had met through his ministry to high school students with Campus Crusade. They gave us a copy of a small booklet Jon had given them. It was called “From Pain to Peace By Way of Promises.” He had written this sharing how God comforted him in the death of Holly Miller by snakebite when Jon was on the EduVenture semester in Indonesia his sophomore year of college, 2001. We had never seen it before. Jon was not one to toot his own horn. But God brought it to us at just the right moment. Shari, Joy and I read it as we drove to Cokato. What an incredible experience being ministered to by our son’s words written as he wrestled through the pain and grief of losing a close friend. We wept and were comforted by Jon’s words in that booklet! He ended the booklet, “Holly’s in heaven, we’ll meet her again someday. As I look back on Holly’s step into greater life, I realise this: It was decidedly not a tragedy. God’s promises are enough to support everyone through all situations if they are trusted without reservation. This is no tragedy. How can Holly be in heaven, my heart be filled with peace and promise of a future hope, and so many lives pushed closer to the Kingdom of heaven, and this still be called a tragedy? No, ‘to live is Christ, but to die is gain!’” We now, like Jon at the death of Holly, find it very possible to trust that God’s plans are perfect. His purposes for Jon’s life were accomplished. This was decidedly NOT a tragedy in the eyes of our sovereign God. And we hold on to this thought: Jon now sees the face of God!“

It is like God Himself enters our pain and gives us poignant moments to reassure us that He sees all you are going through and provides little God moments in the story which indicate to us God knows and God responds with encouragement. We saw it in the previous Nugget when God sent the butterfly to Poia as an indication of His touch on Grace’s story. I have another astounding example of those kinds of God touches on a story coming in at the right time in a following Nugget. But for now let me share with you something that happened at the Unveiling of Jeremiah Glassie’s Headstone yesterday. The family released two doves, a blue and a pink one, followed by 21 white doves to mark his 21 years. These doves were released at 11.51 am on July 16th 2021. The family went back to the cemetery after the gathering at church at 4.45 pm. They saw the pink dove circling in the sky above the cemetery. Then it came down and landed on Miah’s car not far from his headstone. It stood on the roof of the vehicle looking at Tangi, Lilly, Papa, Teaea and Autym for a while and then flew off. They told the owner of the doves who said, “They never do that. They come straight back home and do fly back to where they have been taken. That is a sign for you.”

It sure was a sign. Jeremiah’s favourite colours are blue and pink. Jeremiah wanted them to wear pink shirts for the unveiling of their great aunt’s headstone and Tangi had said he didn’t want to wear a pink shirt, men don’t wear pink. To which Jeremiah replied, “Dad, real men can wear pink!” So they got pink shirts to wear for that unveiling. It was the pink dove which came back and visited Miah’s graveside once again. As the owner of the doves told them, “They never do that.” Yes it was a sign, a God touch to show His favour on the passing of their son, a man after God’s own heart.