Lessons Learned During a Crisis

As someone who loves history and making connections between humanity and history, I find myself reflecting upon those commonalities that we as humans experience and why we do what we do. History shows us that crises have come and gone and that regardless of their origin (European nations wanting to flex their newly found military might and establish new territorial borders in WWI, or a sociopath wanting to reestablish his country’s standing in the world and eradicate all others in the process in WWII), crises throw us into chaos but eventually find their own homeostasis.

Individual crises are similar as they challenge us to find a new normal. Losses such as the death of loved ones or the loss of a job challenge us to understand a new way of living without that part of our lives or person who was important to us. Losing my eighty-year-old father at the age of twenty-eight was both expected and yet unexpected as I learned from an early age that it was not a matter of if but when my father would pass away. His debilitating stroke when I was fourteen exposed me to the idea that death was an inevitable part of life even before my young brain could process what that meant.
The lessons I learned during that time of loss, grief, and faith crisis have stayed with me into our current world crisis as learning moments often do. Unfortunately, we as humans do not always learn the needed lessons the first time around and usually have to learn and relearn lessons through future crises.

Lesson 1: We are learning about our own self-importance and how unimportant and important we are at the same time.

• While every life is important and part of an interconnected web of relationships, our self-absorption and individual demands for sympathy are tempered at a time of global crisis. We are all struggling in various ways, and many are suffering during this time. None of us has the “market cornered” on suffering at this time, though some of us are legitimately hurting and struggling more than others.
• While we are not as important as we tend to think we are, we are still learning how much we need human contact to survive.

Lesson 2: We are learning that can find new ways of having and being church.

• While the gathering of fellow believers is important on some level, we are learning that gatherings do not have to constitute a mass of people in order to fulfill that need.
• While help from a variety of places is needed, whether the government or our employers, we are learning that the church can and should return to its biblical roots of caring for each other.

Lesson 3: We are learning about priorities and learning to differentiate between desires and needs.

• While we enjoy watching sports, going to movies, going to Disneyland, going to concerts, going to the beaches, and going out to shop or dine, we need human contact, a sense of purpose, and continued growth.

Lesson 4: We are learning that the desire for individual homeostasis and self-preservation can overtake the need to care for our fellow humans.

• While we are learning how to manage during this crisis, we are learning that it is not just important to survive; how we survive and whom we hurt or help is actually most important.

Lesson 5: We are learning that our interconnectedness as humans goes beyond technological advances in history, and the web of human relationships has always existed.

• While our needs matter, the needs of others matter just as much. (What happens “over there” (wherever “there” is), will eventually affect us “over here.” Remember that it wasn’t until America was forced into WWII through Pearl Harbor, until we actually had “skin in the game,” that we entered into a World War that had already decimated Europe and was seeing millions of Jews slaughtered.)

Lesson 6: I am learning, and continuously re-learning, that God is more concerned about what is happening in me than He is what is happening to me. And that He is using what is happening to me to help shape what is inside me.

“So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matt. 6:31-33, NIV).

May we re-learn quickly these important lessons and love abundantly in the process.

https://www.sum.edu/lessons-learned-during-a-crisis/

Life Lessons from the Book of Job

The Law of Cause and Effect, which says that for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction, is a reality that is illustrated throughout life. 

We operate our lives around this way of thinking, attributing causes to actions ourselves or others took, always trying to answer the fundamental question of why various things happen, especially when a cause is not readily apparent.

Pacifying the “gods”

Throughout religious history, people attributed the root cause of all events to pagan gods. In ancient times there was a belief that sacrifices to pagan gods would appease them if things were not going well in life. One would offer a sacrifice to a particular god who controlled a certain area of life, hoping to pacify the god for whatever one had done to cause their disapproval.

In Eastern religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism, rather than believing that life’s experiences were at the hands of a God or gods, they believe that things that happen to people are the result of karma. We are familiar with this term “karma,” and use it often as a substitute for the law of cause and effect. The twist, however, with karma is that the karmic belief says that everything that happens in life can be attributed to the actions of people, the consequences of what we have done in this life or in previous lives (reincarnation).

The theology reflected in the Old Testament goes one step further and ascribes blessings and suffering as a punishment or reward from God rather than the whim of various gods. Success in whatever way it is measured, was a sign of God’s approval or reward; ill health, poverty, and loss of life, were a punishment from God.

Within this belief that says when things are going well, we are having success, or we are experiencing good health, there is a basic assumption that somehow, we are in right standing with God or that God is blessing us. Material blessings became a sign of God’s blessing, and difficult times reflect the opposite, a sign of God’s punishment.

Job’s Counter-Narrative

Yet, the book of Job in the Bible tells another story, the purpose of which is to address this theology. The story of Job seems to be making this statement: “When things are going well, it is not necessarily a sign of God’s approval, and when things are going poorly, it does not necessarily indicate God’s punishment or disapproval.”

In this narrative, Job was deemed a righteous man (Job 1:1) yet still suffered one tragedy after another. His story seemed to defy the prevalent theological expectation of God at that time, challenging this basic assumption: if Job was so righteous, why was he suffering? The answer from his friends was that Job must have sinned, and God must be punishing him.

Moreover, such a theology of God sees material blessings through the lens of karma and places a high premium on what we currently have or are experiencing; my current blessed state in life is a result of God’s favor upon me, or, my current difficult state in life is because God is displeased with me. Our current state of affairs is the measure of God’s blessing, all the while ignoring the potential of what our current condition may be preparing us for in the future, or how our past choices or the actions of others may be affecting us.

Success, then, is equated to God’s approval of our lifestyle and actions; struggle, poverty, ill health, or challenging circumstances signal that once again, we have displeased God and He is punishing us.

We make similar assumptions about the prosperity and suffering of others: when someone is doing well, when churches are thriving, or when countries seem to be prosperous, their actions and the actions of their leaders have met with God’s approval. As a sign of this approval, God is blessing them or allowing their success, wealth, and growth.

This type of theology does not merely reside in the Old Testament; it can be seen in John chapter 9 and the story of the blind man who was healed by Jesus. Jesus’s disciples famously ask, “who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind” (Jn. 9:2, NIV). Jesus wastes no time in correcting this view (which can also be seen in his sermon the mount and the sermon on the plain in Matthew 5-7 and Luke 7) by asserting, “neither this man nor his parents sinned,” “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him” (9:3, NIV).

Our Reality

And so, like the disciples, we still struggle to see beyond the material to the spiritual, beyond outward fame and success to the deeper issues. Our struggle is always with the present challenge, and the present blessing or success. We think the good times can’t possibly end, and we fear the bad times never will. We also think the times of both good and bad reflect God’s attitude and actions toward us.

Can wealth and prosperity bring glory to God? Absolutely. Does it always? No.

Can suffering, tragedy, loss, and poverty bring glory to God? Yes. Does it always? Definitely not.

While there is a law of cause and effect, not everything can be simplified so easily. And not all events in life have the stamp of approval or disapproval by God.

This much we can say for certain: beyond the outward struggle or outward rewards, God is attempting to do something inwardly, something that will bring glory to Him and reveal His Kingdom, His goodness, and His love. Through the good and the bad, God wants us to reveal His works, using all things for good, as the apostle Paul tells us in Romans 8:28.

Wrestling

None of us like pain. The old adage that once you put your hand on a hot stove, you learn not to put your hand there again is true. Unfortunately, our body's natural reaction to pain is also what hinders us from growth; as another old adage says, "No pain, no gain."

Jacob’s Wrestling

In Genesis 32 Jacob experienced this concept of no gain without pain firsthand. Jacob is worriedly awaiting his brother Esau's impending arrival and having sent his family and possessions ahead of him, he stops for the night by the river Jabbok and prays; it is here that he experiences pain with incredible gain.

There by the river Jacob encounters a mysterious person with no introduction, no name, yet somehow Jacob knows that this person is important. We find out later in the story and in Hosea 12 that this person was God. In a curious manner, Jacob wrestles with this "man" all night. As a way to free himself, the man wrenches Jacob's hip from its socket, an incredibly painful thing for anyone who has experienced a joint out of socket. Yet Jacob still refuses to let the man go until he receives a blessing from him.

Jacob’s Transformation

Finally, the man asks for Jacob's name. Names were attached to a person’s identity in that time in history, and they declared a person’s character. Your name defined you as a person and had significance. Yet what was Jacob's name? It meant "deceiver," or literally, "he grasps the heel." Jacob, with one utterance of his name, defined himself as a deceiver, which is what he had been all his life. He exposed his character to this "man," yet in so doing receives more than he could have imagined. He receives not just a blessing, but also a transformation; his name is changed to Israel, which means "he struggles with God." His name and therefore his character is changed in that instant.

Jacob wrestled because he was in desperate need. His brother was heading towards him, and Jacob had no way of knowing how everything would turn out. Jacob was in need of a blessing, and in turn, he receives a transformation. His wrestling with God changed his life forever. (Notice though, that he is forever reminded of the event with a limp.)

Our Transformation

Too often, we are guilty of not "wrestling" with God to a place of transformation. We give up, we avoid the pain, or we simply lose hope. Yet our understanding of God cannot grow and our relationship with Him cannot mature unless we wrestle. Our theology is shallow until it becomes deeply rooted in the process of wrestling with God. Our character is not fully developed until we have learned to wrestle and struggle with God. Otherwise, our theology or our understanding and study of God, if not rooted deeply, will in times of crisis become uprooted quickly.

No pain, no gain.