Loss

What is the greatest loss you can think of? Can you imagine losing your job? a spouse? a child? your home?

I once spoke to a wonderful Christian man who'd lost a daughter. She was grown, married, living outside his home, but he stood before me and grieved as though she was his little girl --even more than a year later, the loss was painfully raw. Despite his belief that nothing would ever shake his faith in his Savior, this loss threatened to destroy him. I won't speak for him and say his faith in Jesus was shaken, but his faith in anything else he thought was good or permanent or would have been, was absolutely rocked beyond his wildest visions. He confessed that, at one point, he no longer wanted to live. This was a man of faith, a man I admired, a man who served his church. And the loss I had experienced only months prior caused me to understand completely what he was saying. 

Loss is something, I don't think, for which we are ever truly prepared. Even when we know our child is moving across the world in five short months, even when we know the balloon will eventually deflate, even when we know our bones wear out, even when we know our children will not be little forever, even when we know there's an empty plate under that last bite of tiramisu. No matter how intentionally we savor the moments, time marches on. And loss comes with life in this broken and cursed world. So, what do we do about it? How do we survive in a place where the pain and pilferage do not cease? How do we move forward, worship, finish the race, allow God to turn our loss into gain?

I was praying for someone this morning, someone who has gone far too long in separation from the body of Christ after a terrible loss. As I prayed, I was reminded of the love Jesus had for His friends, particularly Judas. Jesus loved him, you know. He wasn't an outlier; he was one of The Twelve, Jesus' closest friends. He wasn't an outcast; Jesus' relationship with Judas was so close, the others didn't know Judas would betray their Teacher and Friend. But Jesus did. Do you think Jesus didn't grieve? Do you think Jesus was thrilled over the plot twist? Do you think Jesus wasn't broken over the outcome for Judas and the other Disciples? Jesus knew what Judas was up to. Jesus knew the eternal impact on Judas' soul. But Jesus did not shy away. Jesus didn't refuse to attend the meal with His Disciples in that upper room. I just can't; it will be too painful. Father, You know how much I love him! And he's going to look Me in the eye, eat with Me, and later sell Me to liars and thugs for thirty pieces of silver! Jesus didn't refuse to appear to His Disciples after His resurrection, despite their forsaking Him, despite their disbelief. I can't. They abandoned Me when I needed them most, and now they're hiding out in fear for their own lives. They are not looking for Me. What sort of plan is this?! 

Jesus obeyed. He didn't wait for any other sign but God's command to Love God and love your neighbor. And the Father didn't tell His Son, Hey, You've had a rough go of it. Take some time off from My directives. Focus on Yourself for a bit. I'll let you know when to get back in the game. No, God had given Him work to do, and it was (and is) His food, His very life-sustaining consummation to do and to finish that work, to not stop doing it until it is complete. 

There is no other sign coming. God does not contradict Himself. What Scripture says, God means; and it is meant to challenge us, correct us, refine us, and teach us. Nowhere in Scripture does it say the things we go through must all make sense or be comfortable; but we are encouraged, however, to press on, to obey, to draw close to Him, and to live with eternity in mind. We are promised the Lord will be with us as we step out after loss or in the midst of it. And we are assured it will be for our good. So, lean in to the Lord, step out in faith, and know that loss --no matter how great --in the hands of the Redeemer, can be the means to His plan eternally fulfilled.