When God's Love For Us Becomes Desperate

 


 In the last few months, I have written about the lengths that God has gone to in His pursuit of us, and more recently I wrote about the suffering that we go through on earth and why God may allow that to happen to us. These two articles are weighing on me as we ourselves are struggling with news that my family has recently received regarding a friend of the family, in particular a friend of my wife's. I don't want to write this, especially as this is a very recent event and I don't want it to seem unsympathetic, that I am saying that this young lady has brought her circumstances on herself, but God is compelling me to write this anyway and I hope that I don't screw it up.

This friend, we'll call her Pamela, has been connected to us for more than two decades. We got to know Pamela in a church that we used to attend. Pamela has always been vibrant and energetic, always volunteering for her favourite local sports team and if there was a Christian music concert anywhere near the area, she would find a way to get involved behind the scenes. As long as I have known Pamela, she has been very active and seemingly always on the move. Pamela is a fair bit younger than my wife and I, but older than our kids. She got married a few years ago and my family was invited to her wedding.

My wife has been a counsellor of sorts for Pamela, acting as a sounding board and advising Pamela when she had a decision to make and encouraging her as she has had some ups and downs in her work life. Pamela and her husband have also been working through the difficulties of his work taking him away from home for weeks at a time while she has been left at home by herself. I think when she got married she didn't sign up for being alone as much as she has been.

Pamela has been sick as of late. It might be a few weeks ago that she was complaining of a cold that was being stubborn and wouldn't go away. Well, things have progressed and she has been in the hospital for a while now under intensive care. We have received few updates on her until recently. Pamela has had to have several severe medical interventions in order to try to save her life, the most recent ones are life-changing. The result of these interventions are that she has lost her independence. The road to recovery, which will never result in a complete recovery, is going to be very long; years at least, and unless she finds an inner strength and ferocity, she will be dependent on others for her care for the rest of her life. There are paths that can lead to future independence, but it will take time and dedication to achieve that independence again; in the meantime, for the next several months, Pamela will have a lot of time to think while she heals, and she will be dependent on the help of others for every aspect of her life - that is unavoidable.

This is hard for us to wrap our heads around. How a young vibrant life can be changed so aggressively and suddenly is hard for us to accept. We have been through hard times, but this makes what we have gone through seem very minor in comparison.

Pamela is a Christian. Maybe I should rewrite that; Pamela is a christian. She acknowledges God and Jesus, she has accepted Jesus' gift of salvation, but she has not made time for God in her life. She has barely gone to church for many months because she claims that she doesn't like to go when her husband isn't home to go with her. I think he is often gone on Sundays, travelling for his work to be done that week. When he is home on Saturdays, they prioritize time with friends over their church family. Her sports volunteering has also drawn her away from Sunday morning services many times. My wife has warned Pamela, seemingly presciently, that God may one day do something to grab Pamela's attention in a way that she can't ignore. Pamela's response has been along the lines of what too many pastors are preaching now; "God will meet me where I am."

The problem is that if God is truly the God of the universe, which He is, He does not need to come to us where we are, and we should not compel Him to have to come to us where we are. That is like the pot telling the potter that it doesn't have time for Him; that what He has to offer is of little value to it. God doesn't have to meet us where we are, He can snatch us from where we are and bring us face-to-face with Him in a heartbeat. I can't claim to know why God will let some people have their way and He will let them wander away from Him, while with other people He will reach into their life, grab it, twist it, and tear it apart in order to get their attention. My wife believes that is what is happening now in Pamela's life. God must have a plan for her which she has not been fulfilling, so he examined her true loves and He has ripped them from her in a spectacular way in order to get her attention.

I will also posit that maybe God is going to use Pamela to reach into the lives of other people. Through Pamela's volunteering, she has a huge circle of influence. There are people from all walks of life that know of her if they do not actually know her personally. Maybe God will use Pamela's tragedy as a way to grab the hearts and attentions of people around her, to get them to finally pay attention to Him the way He wants them to. But, in order for that to be successful, Pamela will have to first hold onto God and not reject Him. Besides concern for her very survival at this time, the possibility that she will reject God is currently the biggest fear that my wife and I have for her; that she will become angry with God instead of seeking Him in her trials. This is a knife's edge situation right now, and she could fall to either side of that blade. We are praying that she will push into God and not reject Him. God knows what will happen even though we don't. We see this as God gambling with her soul, and we have trouble understanding that, but we also know that God uses heartache and tragedy to reach us when we are stubborn.

I wish that I could say with confidence that her walk with God will remain and will, in fact, grow stronger through this. Unfortunately, we recognize that the need for that strengthening is so severe in Pamela's case, that she could just as easily reject God in the midst of mourning all that has been taken away from her; I won't sugar coat it, she has lost a lot.

It is hard to imagine that God may become desperate about anything, but because He has given us free will to choose or reject Him, the circumstances exist that can cause Him to act in what we may view as a desperate attempt to grab our heart to turn it to Him. I just want to encourage anyone who is reading this to take your commitment to God seriously, or if you have not yet committed to Him, you need to consider doing so of your own will, before God becomes desperate to save you and turns your life upside down in order to reach you.

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