The Time Has Come for True Comfort
Eight days ago, my sister-in-law's house was hit by lightning. A fire started in the attic and threatened to burn the entire house down.
The week before that, a friend died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 61. As we prepared to attend her funeral last Saturday, we got word that another friend had just died of cancer. There was no hint of any sickness when we visited her last summer.
These, my friends, are days that we need comfort only God can provide.
Thin Soup
Visiting bookstores sometimes makes me feel depressed. The stacks are full of self-help books. Some of them are good. Many of them are trite. Recently, it seems that publishers are working inventively to include as many swear words in the title as a sales tactic. If you can’t educate, at least you can try to shock.
The message of many of these books is simple: unleash yourself. Be true to yourself. The message offers little comfort to the descendants of Adam and Eve, who acted freely in the Garden so long ago. It’s what started the mess we’re in.
The church isn't always a better place. We are advised to wash our faces. We go looking for great worship experiences, compelling speakers, and churches that meet our needs. At funerals, I often hear more about the deceased's goodness than about God's grace and the hope of resurrection and eternal life.
We've been blessed with incredible resources, but we've hidden them away and cling to old, unhelpful truths when we need comfort the most.
What We Need
We anticipate a fulfilling life. We think that we deserve to live until we’re 80 or 90 if we’re lucky. We need to be reminded: life is short and hard. “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever” (1 Peter 1:24-25).
We think we need to look within and find and then express ourselves. We need to be reminded: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25).
We want good worship and a church that pleases us. We should focus less on ourselves and allow the mind of Christ to guide us toward radical service and humility (Philippians 2:1-11).
We go looking for comfort in half-truths served up like food that’s been sitting four hours on the buffet. We need timeless truths that remain relevant over centuries. “What is your only comfort in life and death? That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ.”
We need less of the trite and more substance. We need truth that can handle fires, heart attacks, cancer, and more. We have it. Why would we settle for anything less?
