Renewed Day by Day

The Blessing No One Wants

This is one of the strangest statements in the Bible.   It is a paradox and a mystery.

"Blessed are those who mourn," said Jesus.  

 Happy are the sad!   What do these strange words mean?   Who are the mourners, why are they sad, and how are they comforted?

The Mystery of Human Suffering

Most of us know about Jim Elliot, the missionary martyr who died in Ecuador in January 1956 when he and four other missionaries were killed by the Auca Indians (now called the Waoranis).   The story made headlines around the world and inspired books, films, and generations of Christian missionaries.   His wife, Elizabeth, told the story in several books, including the best seller Through Gates of Splendor.   More than a half-century later, we still repeat Jim Elliot's famous words, 

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."

Jim Elliot's story gripped the evangelical world, making him arguably the most famous missionary of the 20th century.  What most people don't know is that he had an older brother who went to Peru as a missionary in 1949.    During his 62 years on the field, Bert Elliot established 150 churches.   He died in Trujillo, Peru on February 17, 2012 at the age of 87.  When Randy Alcorn interviewed him in 2006, Bert described his younger brother this way:

Jim and I both served Christ, but differently.   He was a great meteor, streaking through the sky.

Bert Elliot was home on furlough when Jim and the other missionaries were killed.   He and his wife wrestled with whether or not they should return to the field:

"Why doesn't God take care of us?"  he remembered asking.   "If we give our lives to serve Him, how come there's not the protection?"  The answer that came to him them became the hallmark of his own life.   "It's in dying that we're born to eternal life," he said.  "It's not maintaining our lives, but it's giving our lives."  So a few months later, Bert Elliot and his wife, Colleen returned to the jungles of Peru. 

Randy Alcorn described Bert Elliot as a "faint star that rose night after night, faithfully crossing the same path in the sky, to God's glory."

Jim Elliot was a great meteor, streaking through the sky.
Bert Elliot was a faint star, crossing the same path night after night.

Which one did the greater work?
Why did one die young and the other live 87 years?

No matter how long we ponder the matter, these questions cannot easily be answered because

"the secret things belong to the Lord our God." Deuteronomy 29:29

God has His reasons but He's not obligated to explain them to us.  The "secret things" describe the deep purposes of God that we simply are not capable of understanding.   What sort of explanation would suffice to explain to us why one man lives while another man dies?

God has His reasons but He doesn't explain them to us.

Strange Pain

I still remember the last time I saw Peter Blakemore.  It happened at a pastor's prayer meeting in connection with the National Day of Prayer.  I came a few minutes late and found the men gathered in a a circle ready to pray.   As I walked in, I recognized most of the pastors immediately, except for one man in a wheelchair who was facing away from me.  He had two teenage boys by his side.

When I sat down, I realized the man in the wheelchair was Peter Blakemore, pastor of Harrison Street Bible Church in Oak Park, Illinois.   Peter was 42 years old, married, with seven children.  He had lived in Oak Park all his life, the only exception being the years he spent in college and graduate school.   His father pastored Harrison Street Bible Church for over thirty years, and then Peter took up the ministry in his father's stead.

It all started when Peter noticed a strange pain that wouldn't go away.  He sought medical help, but the doctors couldn't pinpoint the source of trouble.   Eventually they found a tumor, performed a biopsy, and sent it off for analysis.  It took a long time to get a correct answer, but in due course, a lab on the West Coast reported that Peter had contracted a rare form of cancer.  He began chemo therapy in a desperate attempt to eradicate it.

When I saw Peter at the prayer meeting, he was bent over a bit, but smiling as he sat in the wheelchair.   As we prayed, I heard a strange noise coming from my left.  It was Peter's eldest son, rubbing his Dad's back because the pain was so intense.

A Face Radiant with God's Glory

I think Peter was the last one to pray.   He said something like this:  "Lord, when I discovered I had cancer, the only thing I asked was that You might use this to honor and glorify Your name.  I thank You, Lord, that You have abundantly answered my prayer.   If I make it, I will stand up and give You praise.   But if I don't, I'll give You honor and glory till the very end."

As soon as the prayer meeting broke up, I sat down beside Peter and asked him how he was doing.  The news was not good.  A tumor had developed in his right lung, growing to the point that it had shattered several of his ribs.   That is why he was doubled over in pain.

Peter told me that the doctors did not know for sure what kind of cancer this new tumor was.   They told him that it could be one of two kinds.   "If it is one kind," he said, "I have two or three weeks to live.  If it's the other kind, then I have one or two months."

He said it calmly, without fear or panic.  In fact, he was smiling as he said it.  As I looked at him, his face was radiant with the glory of God.   Like Moses of old, my friend Peter had seen the Lord, and now nothing else mattered.

You Can't Trace God's Footsteps

He told me that he preached the previous Sunday for the first time in seven weeks.   They had to prop him up in his wheelchair, but he somehow found the strength to preach for an hour from Romans 11:33, 

"His paths are beyond tracing out."

That text means that you can't trace God's footsteps.   You don't know where He's come from, and you can't tell where He is going.  All you know is that He is with you in the midst of your suffering.

The room was empty.  All the other pastors were gone.  Peter's last words to  me were these:

"All my life I've been speaking about God's grace and trying to get people to listen.   Now they listen when I speak, because I've discovered that through it all, God's grace is sufficient."  With that, his sons began to wheel him from the room.  Though bent over with pain, he smiled and waved at me as he left.

The words of Paul came to my mind, 

"Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day."  2 Corinthians 4:16

And still the questions remains.  Why did my friend Peter die so young when he had so much to offer the world?

It is a mystery hidden in the mind and heart of God.  All human explanations must ultimately fail.   Is there an answer to the question, WHY?  Yes, there is, but the answer is hidden from our view.

To all our questions, God replies,

"I AM WHO I AM"  Exodus 3:14.

The answer is a Person, not an explanation.  Someone may reply, "But that's not enough.   I want a real answer." 

To which I reply, "If God Himself is not enough, then no answer would ever satisfy you.

The Ministry of Divine Comfort

But to leave the matter there would not be fair, for the Bible has a great deal to say about the ministry of divine comfort.   It tells us a number of important truths we need to remember.

                                                         *

This is where we will pause with this post.  I will continue with:

God Himself draws near to those who hurt.
God uses suffering to draw us to Himself.
Our sufferings qualify us to minister to others.
And many more gems ---

Meanwhile look for Part Two of The Blesssing No One Wants coming soon.


HT Rightly Concerned, Dr. Ray Pritchard