As has become a pattern in my life, I am surrounded by people in various stages of crisis. Maybe my own years of crisis were meant to equip me, but that might imply that God imposed crisis on me. Sadly, I have to say that I was the common denominator in every crisis. It was me that had to change and keep changing until my heart knit with His and my mind transformed. Rick Warren, a most respected teacher, stated yesterday that in all crisis we must choose whether to groan or praise. I have to say that there is a third way. Praise can be denialist and Elizabeth Kubler Ross cautioned that crisis does indeed provoke denial. Of course I advocate praise, I must do, but the bible emphasizes a walk of faith, which is far more reflective of the tearful petitions of the great psalmists.
A walk of faith does not preclude us from pain or crisis, it takes us through it. Faith is all, I say again all that God needs from us as He outworks His purposes in our lives. The weaknesses of our flesh excluded ua from direct participation in the covenant making process, but faith is our way of being an active cosignatory to that covenant.
Last December I got lost near our regular annual holiday destination. I was out walking at night, which I love to do. Unfortunately the streets were all cresent shaped, so once I took a wrong turn I moved further and further from home until I was completely lost, in a darkened, upmarket suburb, with not a soul on the streets. I had set off without my cellphone, believing it was a routine journey (we have similar misconceptions about our faith), so once I was lost I could not eliminate any wrong answers, ask the audience or call a friend - but I did pray.
When I looked up I saw the nameplate of the nearest house. It said, "Small beginnings". As I was in the middle of a significant life crisis, I related well to what God was miraculously showing me. Just then, a security guard came by and pointed me to the nearest traffic lights, which gave me the bearings I needed for my own small beginning. I then followed the thread I had, though everything seemed so unfamiliar in the dark - and so I made my way home.
I had been lost within a mile of home, a great metaphor for the lostness we all feel, whilst being so near to familiar reference points, friends, cultural anchors, our church community, and so on.
The reality of crisis is that it is so personal. No matter how well meaning my many counsellors were, and I love them for all their support, no one could understand the journey I had to face alone. Only God could make sense of it all - and with time He did. But all He required of me en route to my own breakthrough, was the faith to hold on to the end.
You can go to bible school, get a degree, study to show yourself approved, move in the right circles, walk on water - or whatever else it is we like to do, but nothing makes more compelling sense or brings deeper learnings, than to walk with God through crisis - that is where we truly find Him and that is where our ideals are transformed into realities.
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