Who Gives LIfe to the Dead

As I’ve said before, death is ugly. If you don’t think death is ugly, either you don’t care much about the thing that is dying, or you have walled yourself off from feeling anything at all. Even if you’re really, truly walking in faith, I think you still find death ugly; you’re just able to see beyond that.

I had some promises. I was watching death come. I’m not saying that I saw little progress. I’m not saying I saw no progress. I’m saying that all reason for hoping was dying. It was ugly. I was discouraged and then some. In the middle of that discouragement, I made the decision to believe God. I’ve gotta just do it, I said. And a few days later, I had a lovely day of feeling confident. Then the next morning I suffered a severe disappointment, and, that quickly, I felt myself sinking, sinking, sinking.

Something was different that time, though, because I was determined I was not just going to cave in to this discouragement. I asked the Lord to help me, and began typing everything that I could think of in the way of promises the Lord had given to me, etc. In between blowing my nose and wiping my eyes, I typed as fast as I could all God’s promises and goodness that I could think of quickly. In the middle of my writing, which included stuff about resurrection, I understood something I’d never quite understood before.

Paul said that if our hope is in this life only, we are the most miserable of men. I’ve been that. Okay, so I was the most miserable of women. But why is that? Why would a “Christian,” whose hope is in this life only, be more miserable than any old person out there? I was miserable largely because I had these huge dreams, knew I couldn’t and wouldn’t bring them about by my own efforts, yet still had my hope in this life only. It is a sure-fire recipe for misery.

But surely God wants our lives to be better—in this life—than the lives of those who don’t love Him! Surely! Must all our hope be in heaven? Will God keep none of His promises here?

Ah. Maybe “this life” means more than it seems. Maybe “this life” is what Abraham and Sarah had when they were thirty and forty years old. Maybe “this life” was what Joseph had before he was sold into slavery, what Moses had when he lived in the house of Pharaoh’s daughter, or what David had when he was still Saul’s fair-haired boy. If our hope is in that, we are doubly miserable, because God’s way always involves bringing “this life” to an end, so that all natural advantages are eliminated, so that it’s all about God’s choice.

When we see death in our circumstances, we may grieve, but we won’t lose hope … if our hope is in God, who gives life to the dead.

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