Wednesday, July 30, 2025

“We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.” (2 Corinthians 4:8, New Living Translation)

            It is a catastrophe! Or should I say, a batastrophe?

            After, ever so carefully, transporting my Lego Batman cityscape to Whitby – the one I had meticulously and laboriously spent days and days, weeks and weeks, in putting it all together – I was attempting to move it from one room to the spot where it was to be displayed. I picked it up thinking it was more solidly put together than it really was. It buckled in the middle, slipped from my hands, and most of it hit the floor, exploding into hundreds of pieces. It was devastating. I couldn’t believe that it had happened.  Just my clumsy luck! There was nothing to do but sweep up the pieces and put them in a bag.  I tried to console myself that the joy of the project was in the making of it. Nobody died!  The world didn’t end. The Blue Jays are in first place. And I have a nine-year-old grandson who has been dying to get his hands on this project since the get-go. He is a Lego savant. If anybody can put it back together, he can. Thankfully, I still have the two manuals of instructions. But still…

            We have all experienced life-shattering events in our lives, far more serious and perhaps life-changing than a shattered Lego set. A Lego set can, indeed, be put back together but sometimes it can be very difficult to put one’s life back together after a shattering event when everything seems to fall to pieces. A marriage breaks up. A job is lost. A loved one gets cancer or we ourselves face serious health issues.  A son or daughter has addiction issues. There are a stack of unpaid bills and the creditors are at the door. Maybe, there are mental health issues which weigh us down or knock us out of the joys of living.

“As I sink in despair, my spirit ebbing away,
    you know how I’m feeling,
Know the danger I’m in,
the traps hidden in my path.
    Look right, look left—
there’s not a soul who cares what happens!
I’m up against the wall, with no exit—
    it’s just me, all alone.
I cry out, God, call out:
‘You’re my last chance, my only hope for life!’
Oh listen, please listen;
    I’ve never been this low.” (Psalm 142: 3 -6, The Message Bible)

            The apostle Paul had suffered much in his defence of the Gospel. At one point, he admitted that he was at the point of despair. We would probably diagnose him today as being in a deep depression. “We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it.” (2 Corinthians 1:8) We consider Paul to be a spiritual and faithful giant of Christianity, heroic, fearless and courageous as he spread the Gospel. But he is very honest about his own humanity, his vulnerability, his struggles with his health, the suffering he endured. It was never easy. “Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies.” (2 Corinthians 4:11)

             I don’t see Paul as being a martyr, per se. He suffered for Jesus Christ, yes; but he also, at times, struggled with an enormous cost of doing what he did for a living – preaching the Gospel. When he was reflecting on his “thorn in the flesh,” some chromic physical impediment he wished would go away, he found strength in Jesus’ words, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”  (2 Corinthians 12:9) Perhaps, that seems too simplistic for us when our lives are facing hardships. But it is an important step, even remedy, which helps us get through the tough and broken times.  It creates a bedrock from which we face the storms which rail against us.  In faith and trust we sweep up the pieces and take one step at a time into healing, restoration, redemption and reconciliation. We are never alone, never abandoned, never forsaken.

            “And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8: 38 - 39)

 Dale