Before I discuss the down and dirty, I would like to present the good news first. I had the privelege in the last week of being a nurse to two seminary wives (one labor, one post-partum) and both were good experiences. Last night was the first night in weeks that we had a "tame" night in terms of patient census on the floor. It was nice for a change not to get slammed.
As for the next topic, well, grin and bear with me. Recently, we Southern Californians have encountered at least one person we know (in my case at work, three) who have completely lost their homes in the fires. There was a subsequent e-mail put out by the area Reformed churches for folks that wanted to volunteer or help out people whose homes were destroyed. Basically what happened is a small group of people went out and tried to find work to do to help those in need. The upside is that so much had already been done and/or donated that they couldn't find much to do in the way of helping out.
I believe (and I might be wrong) that there was only one couple from one of the local reformed churches who lost their home in the fire.
This generated a conversation between Mike and I about the concept of Two Kingdoms between believers and unbelievers. Is it better to assist those unbelievers we DO know who have lost their homes as an attempt to present the gospe of hope, or is it better to donate funds and assistance to believers that we don't know? What do we do to assist the non-believers in our community that we don't know? I'm not really sure that there's a good answer to that, but it's a thought.
Last night, our overall enjoyment of the evening was somewhat dimmed by an accident that happened yesterday. We have a nurse in the birth center whose name is Kerryn. She is well-liked and very respected by both the day and night shifts. (She worked two years of nights and two years of days.) She and her husband are from South Africa. They met here in San Diego, married last spring, and have baby girl 6 months in age. Kerryn is an incredibly gifted nurse. (When most of our seminary wives have prayed for good nurses, Kerryn has been their day shift nurse.)
Her husband Nolan (31) died yesterday while on vacation in Hawaii. He has surfed all over the world. Yesterday while surfing, he signalled the life guard that he was in distress, and was unconscious by the time they got him out of the water. Kerryn and her baby were there watching the whole time. He died before arriving at the hospital; the paramedics were unable to resuscitate him. The autopsy reports are not in yet.
Please pray for Kerryn. Both of their families are in South Africa; his mom as of yet has said that she won't be coming to the funeral. Kerryn has no family here in the States, and it looks like she might have to wait until Tuesday to be able to fly back to California with her daughter. She's alone in a foreign place with the baby in the meantime.
Needless to say, there was hardly a dry eye on the unit last night when Kerryn called us. I think in some ways it's harder to know what to say to a group of unbelievers than a group of believers. At least as believers, we can look at the situation, thank God that the person in question and/or their family will be reunited with us in the Eternal Resurrection, and we can offer hope that there is more to this life than the grave.
With working situations involving a large group of unbelievers, it's challenging because we can't take a lot of time to present the gospel due to patients coming in and needing care. So many of our nurses last night kept stating that they couldn't believe all the tragedy that has struck people that we know in the last few weeks. I heard a number of times that people were wondering the age-old question: "why do bad things happen to good people?" I feel completely inadequate to deal with that question in a situation where I don't have time to sit and talk about it. These people don't know Christ and to them, there is no hope. There's death and that's it. As Mike says, "The problem is sin; the cure is the gospel." How do people like me go about that?
Anyway, please pray for those of us at my job that we will have the wisdom to know how to deal with the questions that are arising as of late.
2 comments:
What a week. Since you have well trained folks around you all the time to help you configure the right words, whatever I could offer would be of limited use. Nonetheless I can tell you what I've said to others around me here in the face of sorrow. You're right in that you have just a minute or two while on the job - not enough time to explain very much adequately. But you can offer a heartfelt "I'm so sorry!" with the gut-felt understanding that YOU as a believer do not deserve to be saved and that you are utterly dependent on God's mercy. So we should truly identify with them in their sorrow. You can also answer the question about why do good things happen with an honest "I don't know". Because you don't. We are not privy to the secret counsel of God and we should say so with the utmost reverence when asked about these things. We can say that while we don't know the answers, we DO know to Whom we can go with our tears and we DO know that there is faith and real hope because the Lord has promised victory to us in the end. We can rest in the sovereignty of God, even when it is hard. No apologies attempted, but with tears of sympathy and offers of fervent prayer for those around us who are suffering. As to how do we respond with diaster-relief... let me know the answers you come up with!
Well, with regard to 2 Kingdoms, what we really mean by this is the separation of Church and State. This means that as the Church, we don't seek to do what should properly be the job of the State.
The Church's mission is not to eradicate poverty, for example, just as Jesus didn't come to kick the Romans out of Israel.
In fact, this would be selling the mission of the church short. We have something far better to offer than a bowl of soup or a loaf of bread: we have the crucified and risen Christ to offer, even eternal life.
This is our mission as the church. As the church is an important qualifier. Remember, we are citizens of BOTH kingdoms. As citizens of the church, we are separated from the world, pilgrims on a journey. We want to bring the light of the gospel to the world.
But as citizens of the State, we care about poverty and all kinds of suffering.
But we have to remember that God ordained these things. Do we mourn them? Yes, we do. Believe me, I've BEEN to Africa, and I'll never forget it, much as I would like to. Oh, the humanity! I could not bear to look upon such suffering!
But God has seen fit to bring that about. Consider the movie The Passion. What happened there? The sufferings of Christ were depicted in exceedingly graphic detail, and all the people who went mourned with great mourning, and weeped with great weeping, shedding many tears.
But what did that accomplish? Should we really be SAD that Jesus suffered? Should we feel sorry for Jesus? Is that even our PLACE???
Rather than weep for his suffering, we should be awestruck with his love for us, and weep because we are such wretched sinners, not because we feel sorry for ourselves, but because we have offended the God who SO loved us that he voluntarily became a man and underwent such tremendous suffering to get it through our thick skulls that he wants us for his own.
In some ways the suffering of Christ is regrettable, but in other ways, given that we ARE sinners, I'm GLAD he did it! I'm GLAD Jesus died for me, I'm GLAD he suffered! Thank GOD he DID, because that's my only hope!
Now how can we apply this to the suffering of the world? One of my erudite professors told us last year, "If there were no death, no one would ever repent."
All suffering is brought about by sin. All of it. Sin in the abstract. This nurse's husband who died, we shouldn't think that God is punishing some particular sin that he did or she did or whatever, but rather we should see it as part of the common curse on all mankind. We too suffer under this common curse. There is common grace, and there is common curse.
It's a real shame that this man died. I don't detract from that at all. It's a tremendous shame. And I would be happy to talk (far more gently than here) to this widow. Happy to!
But we shouldn't mourn the fact that sin has consequences. We should be GLAD that sin has consequences.
I remember when I broke my arm. It hurt. A lot. Should I have mourned the pain that told me something was wrong? What if we never felt pain? How would we know when to go to the doctor?
If there were no death, no one would ever repent.
Who is the one who ordained that the world should be cursed? God responded graciously to the whole human race by giving common grace, restraining depravity. In some ways, the common curse falls short of his perfect justice. It is a type and shadow of the judgment to come.
Our sin, as Christians, is justly paid for by Jesus Christ on the cross. We may give him glory for upholding his justice! We ought to praise him for being just!
But what about those whose sins are not atoned for by Jesus Christ, who never come to faith in him? Where is the justice?
There is justice, and it is coming. It is breaking into this world as the dawn cracks the night sky. We have just a glimpse of the sunrise, in which all of God's enemies will be destroyed by the breath of his mouth.
The common curse is actually a little foretaste of the age to come, even as is common grace.
When we ask, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" we show that we just don't understand the things of God. The answer is, "They don't."
There is only one exception, and he calls us to recognize it when he cried, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
This is the call to recognize what was taking place. Jesus Christ is the only one of whom it can be said that a bad thing happened to a good person.
That is the question. And of course, the answer is that he has taken OUR sins upon himself and paid for them, once and for all.
Indeed, as he said, "It is finished."
The perplexing thing is not why this world is characterized by suffering. The perplexing thing is, why isn't it destroyed yet? What is God waiting for?
I'm glad he waited for me.
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