RSS“Judge” is not a word we warm to, particularly those of us who have grown up with distorted notions of God as a wrathful, judgmental Being frowning down upon us. But perhaps it’s time to break free of such notions by imagining for a moment that you have been the victim of a terrible crime with little recourse to justice. Imagine, for instance that you are a girl in Pakistan named Mukhtar Mai. The village council has just sentenced you to be gang-raped, and four men are dragging you screaming into an empty barn where they will rape you repeatedly.
Her story takes place in the village of Meerwala in Pakistan. In July of 2002 Mukhtar’s younger brother was kidnapped and gang-raped by members of another tribe who unjustly accused him of having had sex with a woman from their tribe. When the village council met to discuss the case, Mukhtar attended in order to try to soothe tensions. But instead of responding to her overtures for peace, the assembly sentenced her to be gang-raped.
When a woman is raped like that in Pakistan, she is considered the guilty party. Her only recourse is suicide so that her family can be cleared of shame. Despising herself, Mukhtar intended to follow suit, but her shame turned to rage at what had happened, and she decided on an unthinkable course. She would go to the police, report the crime, and demand that the rapists be prosecuted.
Eventually the court awarded her $8,300 in compensation. Instead of spending the money on herself, she opened a school for girls, a school for boys, and a center for battered women. Then she opened another school in a gang-infested area. Instead of robbing the school, as everyone feared, the gangsters soon began enrolling their own children in her school.
When women come to her, their faces mutilated by acid attacks or their noses chopped off because they are “bad” women, Mukhtar arranges for plastic surgery. But justice has not come cheaply. Her life has been repeatedly threatened by tribal elements and by the Pakistani government, angry because this unschooled peasant woman has embarrassed them by focusing international attention on barbaric practices still occurring in their nation. [1]
Now think for a minute about how a woman like Mukhtar Mai might respond to this cry from the psalmist:
Arise, O Judge of the earth.
Give arrogant people what they deserve,
How long, O Lord, will wicked people triumph?...
They crush your people, O Lord….
The Lord has become my stronghold.
My God has become my rock of refuge.
He has turned their own wickedness against them.
He will destroy them because of their sins. (Psalm 94: 2-3, 5, 22-23)
It is not wrong to pray for the destruction of the wicked, allowing for the fact that God in his mercy can destroy the wicked by converting them. So let us pray.
[1] The inspiring story of this courageous young woman is related in her memoir In the Name of Honor(New York: Atria, 2006) and in Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Half the Sky(New York: Knopf, 2009.
Here’s a question you may never have asked yourself: “Why Don’t Zebras Ever Get Ulcers?” This is the title of Robert Spolsky’s book about stress and stress-related diseases. A professor of biology and neurology at Stanford, Spolskly invites his readers to think about how stress usually operates in the animal kingdom:
This is the critical point of this book: if you are that zebra running for your life, or that lion sprinting for your meal, your body’s physiological response mechanisms are superbly adapted for dealing with such short-term physical emergencies. For the vast majority of beasts on this planet, stress is about a short-term crisis, after which it’s either over with or you’re over with. When we sit around and worry about stressful things, we turn on the same physiological responses—but they are potentially a disaster when provoked chronically.[1]
“How many hippos,” he goes on to say, “worry about whether Social Security is going to last as long as they will, or what they are going to say on a first date?” [2]
We humans have the unique ability to stress ourselves out over an infinite variety of things. Just getting out from under this kind of chronic stress would seem like all the peace we need. But God says there’s more, much more.
Let’s put the English word “peace” next to the Hebrew word shalom and compare the two. That’s a little like asking a ninety-pound weakling to stand next to the Incredible Hulk. Our idea of peace is so much thinner than the full-bodied meaning of shalom. When we talk about peace, we often mean a state of calm or an absence of conflict. But the biblical idea of peace is much richer. In fact it bears a striking similarity to the biblical idea of paradise—a place where we are completely at peace with God, ourselves, and others. Instead of sickness, healing. Instead of brokenness, wholeness. Instead of poverty, prosperity. Instead of danger, safety. Instead of death, life. That’s what true shalom is.
No wonder we long for peace and pray for peace. We are wired for it, and our lack of it is galling.
The story of Gideon in the book of Judges is instructive. Gideon faces more challenges than many of us can imagine in a life time. He’s hiding out, terrified of the marauding Midianites, when he hears God’s call. “Mighty warrior,” the angel of the Lord calls to him.
“Who, me? You must be joking,” Gideon replies. Clearly, we are not dealing with a person possessed with high self esteem. “I’m the lowest of the low, the weakest guy on the planet. You can’t possibly be talking to me!”
But God is talking to him. “I will be with you,” God assures him. And lo and behold, Gideon, the unlikeliest of heroes, ends up driving out the Midianites in a series of clever maneuvers, making him a mighty warrior indeed. What enabled this little man to become a big man? God’s presence, his guidance, his faithfulness. And Gideon names this God as Yahweh Shalom, the Lord is Peace.
What a wonderful title. Notice that Gideon doesn’t say “God of Peace” or God Gives Peace.” No, he says that God himself is peace. Believing in God’s faithfulness, living in his presence, is what brings us peace regardless of circumstances. Let us pray that God will alert us to his presence and infuse us with his peace.
[1] Robert M. Sapolsky, Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers (New York: Holt, 2004), 6.
[2] Ibid, 5.
The most startling answer to prayer I ever received happened less than two years ago. I heard the tragic news from a friend. A young man she knew had just committed suicide from carbon monoxide poisoning. She heard the news from his mother, shortly after he’d been pronounced brain dead at the hospital. He was being kept alive on machines. Now my friend was emailing me and a few others to ask for prayers for his family.
I had an unaccountable urge to pray—not just for the family, but for the young man. I asked God to raise him from the dead. The prayer startled me since I often apply Jesus’ rebuke to his disciples, “Oh ye of little faith,” to myself, paraphrasing it as “Oh me of little faith.” I don’t know how I mustered the faith to pray for a resurrection, but I did. And I wasn’t the only one. My friend and a few other friends began praying in earnest.
Then the news….He was alive! Unaccountably. But the news was grim. There would be major brain damage.
We kept praying. More news came trickling in. He was conscious, still in his hospital bed but conscious. Finally, we heard that he was talking. And then more news—he could walk!
I had prayed for a resurrection, but when I heard the news that God had answered our prayers, I could barely believe it. I had to ask my friend to repeat it before it could really sink in.
Now, nearly two years later, you would never know that anything had ever happened to him aside for some short term memory issues that still seem to be improving. When he and his mother went back to visit the intensive care staff after his recovery, the staff was overwhelmed with emotion. They could hardly believe that someone in his condition would ever recover.
When God answered our audacious prayer, I was as surprised as anyone. Why he answered it, when so many other prayers for healing go unanswered, I cannot say. Perhaps he has something special in mind for this young man and his family. I can only attest to the fact that it is always a mistake to underestimate God, who continues to surprise and delight, not only with his power but also with his love.
I couldn’t sleep. The lighted numbers on my alarm clock glared at me from across the room. Anxious thoughts kept racing through my brain. My eleven-year-old was attending an educational program in another city, staying four nights in the home of friends and three nights at home. I was anxious to raise the money to bring the Arrowsmith Program (www.arrowsmithschool.org) for learning disabled children to my city so my daughter could move home again. But I felt alone and confused about how to proceed
By 5 am, I gave up and tumbled out of bed. After the requisite cup of coffee, I began praying, asking God to help me figure out what to do about my daughter’s situation. Instead of giving me ideas, I had the subtle impression he was saying something--I am going to fight for you. I hoped it was God’s voice and not wishful thinking.
Later that day, another mother called. I had invited her and a few others parents to a meeting in Toronto to learn more about the educational program I hoped to establish in Grand Rapids. Until then, no one had replied. Guess what! An influential administrator in her school system wanted to make the trip to Toronto. This was the breakthrough I had prayed for--only a first step, but at least a door was opening.
After I hung up, the words I had heard that morning came back to me—I will fight for you. Alone in my office, I gave a little victory shout.
Then I turned back to my writing. Before the phone call, I had been editing a piece I had written a few weeks earlier, and my own words bounced back to me:
Though we are weak and limited, we are not defenseless because we belong to a God of unimaginable power. And though it may seem that he is sleeping through our time of need, he is still Yahweh Tsebaoth, the Lord of Armies, able to do far more than we think or imagine.
and then came the prayer I had written:
Yahweh Tsebaoth, Lord of Armies, please calm my fear and anxiety. You know everything that is going on in my life right now….Help me to rest in the knowledge that you are with me.
I tell the story, not because it is finished and certainly not because it is extraordinary, but because it illustrates one way the Holy Spirit commonly works in our lives—speaking a word to guide and encourage.
Like me, you may be anxious about some perplexing problem. Ask God to open your heart to his Spirit, to fill you with his gifts and direct you with his wisdom.
It was a sunny day. No snow, no ice, no rain. My daughter, a toddler at the time, was walking ahead of me when, for no apparent reason, she tripped and fell. Before I had a chance to pick her up and kiss the hurt away, she was up on her feet.Though tears threatened, she willed them away, subduing them with her own righteous anger.
"Mom!" she yelled, holding the word long enough to bend it into a complaint. Though I had been walking a full three feet behind her, it was clear that she was accusing me of engineering her fall, as though I had run ahead, stuck out my foot, and deliberately tripped her up.
That's what hurt can do to a person. We look for someone to blame in the midst of our pain. And right now there's plenty of pain to go around. People are losing their jobs, their homes, and even their life savings, all of which means, of course, that they are also losing their dreams. Who is to blame? Everyone, it seems, and no one.
I'm not suggesting there aren't plenty of worthy targets for our anger. There are. Neither am I suggesting that anger is an inappropriate response to the situation many of us find ourselves in. It's ok to place the blame squarely where belongs. We can get angry. We can be honest about the fact that life isn't turning out as we had hoped. But once we've done that, let's move on.
Blaming others for our troubles is not going to help us dig out of them. Blame can turn toxic when it acts as a smokescreen, hiding our part in whatever mess we are facing. However much the ground may have shifted beneath us because of the present economic turmoil, some things have not changed, and that is the good news behind all the bad news we are hearing these days. Here are just a few things to remember and to be thankful about today:
1. God still loves you.
2. He's not surprised by anything you are facing.
3. He still has a good plan for your life.
4. He won't let what you are suffering go to waste and will certainly bring something good out of it if you trust him.
When we suffer, our temptation is to lose sight of the way others are hurting around us. But think of how many people in your own circle of friends and acquaintances must be hurting right now. Though they may not come right out and say it, they are as frightened and upset as you are about what's happening.
In times like these, we hear people mouthing the old truism that "cash is king." In a down economy there are so many bargains to be had for those with money in the bank. Though our own bank accounts may be depleted, we still have treasure to spend that can yield an enormous return. I call it the cash of the gospel, and there is no better time to invest it than right now when people are more open than ever to seeing their need for God.
As Christ followers, we are to remember that our primary purpose in life is to glorify the Lord whom we serve. That means putting his interests first. We are called in good times and bad to love God by fearlessly and generously sharing the good news with others. To do that, we need to remind ourselves of the truth we believe in: that God is faithful, that he will never fail or forsake us; that he has cast our sins away, as far as east is from the west; and that our future is secure in him.
To help yourself remember the treasure entrusted to you, keep this passage from Galatians in mind:
Let us not become weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap a harvest if we faint not (6:9).
Let us not be among those who faint, but among those who are filled with faith in him, who as Paul assures us, "is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine" (Ephesians 3:20). To him be the glory now and forever, Amen!
A friend of mine recently pointed me toward an article by Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann. Written 10 years ago, it seems prescient in light of the times we are living through. Here’s the link:
http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=533
If it seems to you as it does to me that the economy is looking more and more like a slow motion train wreck, join me in combating the onslaught of anxiety by reading this article and rereading it at regular intervals throughout the coming year. Why? Because when the things we have counted on start falling apart, only one thing will keep us from falling apart right along with them. What is that one thing? It’s our core belief about who God really is. Is he someone we can lean on, rely on, and imitate—a generous and loving God? Or is he a fickle, close-fisted Grinch of a God whose example convinces us that we’d better look out for number one because nobody else is going to look out for us? Ultimately, our beliefs about God and our deep connection with him is what will determine how well we weather the current difficulties.
Brueggeman begins by commenting on Genesis 1, which he characterizes as a song of praise for God’s generosity. The first chapter of the Bible, the one that sets the stage for all that is to come, starts out, he says, “with a liturgy of abundance….It tells how well the world is ordered. It keeps saying, ‘It is good, it is good, it is good, it is very good.’ It declares that God blesses – that is, endows with vitality—the plants and the animals and the fish and the birds and humankind. And it pictures the creator as saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply.’ In an orgy of fruitfulness, everything in its kind is to multiply the overflowing goodness that pours from God’s creator spirit.” He goes on to say that “Genesis 1 affirms generosity and denies scarcity. Psalm 104 [a commentary on Genesis 1] celebrates the buoyancy of creation and rejects anxiety. Psalm 150 enacts abandoning oneself to God and letting go of the need to have anything under control.”
Just how does God go about affirming this abundance in the lives of his people? For one thing, even when they are in captivity in Egypt, they multiply beyond Pharaoh’s capacity to tolerate them. For another, for years on end, they are fed with manna in the desert. How is it that this raggedy band of slaves keeps going, that they eventually arrive at their destination, growing fierce and strong in the process? It is, as Brueggemann says, “a wonder, it’s a miracle, it’s an embarrassment, it’s irrational, but God’s abundance,” he confirms, “transcends the market economy.”
If you are tempted to feel anxious—and who these days is not—I suggest you try reading and rereading this article by Brueggemann followed by Psalms 104 and 150. And as you soak up the words, ask God to help you live not out of a narrative of scarcity but out of a narrative of abundance, helping you to multiply his overflowing goodness to those around you in whatever circumstances you may find yourself.
