Hope

Recycled Pain

In California, recycling is just part of our culture. We have separate trash cans that the sanitation department provides for us to divide our recyclables from our other refuse. Sometimes, even when we don’t have the separate bins, the trash department separates our garbage for us. In elementary school, children learn the importance of “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.” We are well educated about the importance of taking something that had one purpose, and using it again to accomplish something else.

Scripture, however, is filled with a different type of recycling. Throughout God’s Word we see how our Lord uses what was intended for evil, in order to bring about His good. Joseph’s brothers thought they were punishing him; God used it to save nations. Moses’ mother thought she was losing her son; God used him to lead His people out of slavery. Job had everything taken from him, only to be given more. God doesn’t just use pain to teach us things, He recycles it for a greater purpose.

This doesn’t mean that the pain doesn’t hurt, that the trials aren’t hard, or that the sadness isn’t real. It does mean that we can trust that in His time, God is using those things to bring us to the experience of His goodness. He doesn’t waste anything that happens to us. He’s transforming it in His time for His purpose. It’s the ultimate example of reduce, reuse, recycle – He’s reducing our pain by protecting us and comforting us, He’s reusing our pain to teach us something about Himself, and He’s recycling it to bring about something good.

Just like we aren’t the only ones who benefit when we recycle our waste, our recycled trials often have a multiplied effect – bringing good not only in our lives but also in the lives of others. And if we are willing to let God use our trials in this way, we can rest in the confidence that from His eternal perspective, whatever temporary loss we experience, is worth it so that our trials can be redeemed by His plan.

Share your story…how has God recycled pain in your life?

 

The title of this post was inspired by the beautiful song “He’s Always Been Faithful” by Sara Groves [affiliate link].

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Hope

Hidden

Growing up, a favorite game of our family was hide-and-seek. There’s a good chance that my dad actually liked the game better than any of the kids because he took great joy in finding new and innovative places to help the hide-ers evade capture. He would lift kids up on top of the refrigerator, and place the cookie jar into their hands, so that they would just seem like part of the decor. He would take off the top of the papasan chair, place a child into the solid base that was underneath, and then place the chair back on top (always making sure the young one could breathe.) I even think once or twice he put us inside the clothes dryer, although I’m sure many people may be aghast at that suggestion.  His creativity seemed to  know no bounds as he looked for places that we could hide.

As illustrated from the above examples, some of my dad’s most effective strategies for hiding us involved placing us into something else. In order to keep the seek-ers from finding the hide-ers, it was helpful if what they saw was the object rather than our faces. They would look right past us, because they presumed that we couldn’t be there. After all – that was a chair, or a dryer – it wasn’t a hiding kid.

This happens to also be a great illustration of what happens when we become believers. As my pastor often reminds us, the word for baptism, literally means “placed into.”  When we have been “baptized into Christ” – we were placed into Him.  He’s covering us; He’s hiding us. Therefore when people see us, they shouldn’t see the cowering child that’s afraid of the future, they should see Christ. They shouldn’t be looking at our insecurities, our fears, and our hang-ups, they should be seeing the beauty and the majesty of our risen Lord.  We are hidden in Him – so that people look right past “us” – because all they see is Christ. This of course isn’t to imply that we have to feign perfection. After all, that’s an act that we can only keep up for so long. Instead, we need to remember that because we are in Him, we have already been granted all we need to live a godly life (2 Peter 1:3), and we need to get busy letting Him use us to make Himself look good.

In the same vein, it’s important for us to remember that when we are hidden in Christ, we are protected. The old hymn, Rock of Ages starts with these seemingly strange words, “Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee.”  It’s a reminder that not only should other people see Christ when they look at us, but we can take confidence that when we are hidden in Him, we are protected. It is as if we are surrounded by the greatest and strongest mountain; no weapon can penetrate it, no foes can surmount it. Nothing can happen to us apart from His plan.

He protects us.

He cover us.

He is our shield.

And just as we want people to look at us and see Christ, we can have confidence in this – because we are hidden in Him, when God looks at us, all He sees is His Son as well.

 

 What do you think? How does being hidden in Christ change how you live?

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