One of the things they never teach you in seminary is how to deal with situations for which your faith has no answers. I know. I went to find answers in seminary … answers that I later discovered could only be found by walking through the confusion, living by faith, wrestling with God and His ways, and submitting to answerless acknowledgement that somehow God is still good even when my circumstances didn’t seem like it.
Somehow God’s greater glory can be found even when my circumstances don’t seem to resemble what I know of His character on this side of heaven. He is good because the Bible tells me it is true, not because I see it or I feel it–the essence of faith and persevering hope for what we do not see.
When children die ahead of their parents…that is one of those situations.
Theologically it makes no sense.
Well-meaning pastors, never having wrestled with God, end up saying stupid stuff like “God wanted another little flower for His garden.” “Don’t worry, you can always have more kids.” “God took your child to prevent something worse happening later in life.” Or worse, “the devil took your child.” (Yikes, how is THAT comforting???)
My heart resonates more than I can say with today’s excerpt from John Kass’ “O Holy Night” column that we’re using for prayerful introspection.
For all the clergy who’ve struggled with their faith, yet who find it again and who are renewed.”
From my experience of a stillborn daughter, I can honestly say that the deepest faith I’ve ever had or known was not a function of seminary or doing God’s work as best as I know how day by day. No, it was forged in the tears and sorrow of confronting death that Adam inaugurated but God never designed. How amazingly beautiful and painful it is to see that for God to deal in mercy with the sin of Adam, God sent Jesus to conquer death as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The disciples during Holy Week learned the hard way, too. You’ll see.
Prayer Focus: Thank You, Father that because of what Jesus has done, it is possible to come home again or simply find rest in Your goodness. In Your Word, You remind us of your heart. Luke 15: “For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.”
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You can find these “Κύριε, ἐλέησον, ‘Lord, have mercy” devotionals here or you can “Like” Seminary Gal on Facebook and they’ll be delivered to your Facebook news feed. Advent and Lenten devotionals remain among my most popular offerings. You don’t want to miss this encounter with God to prepare your heart for Easter!
Understanding that prior years’ devotionals continue to minister, you may want to have access to a full series ahead of time:
Lent 2013 looked at The Letter to the Romans: Paul’s Masterpiece to reclaim foundations of our Christian heritage and began February 13, 2013.
A very special and ever popular offering was Lent 2014’s Be Still and Know that I AM God which can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014.
Lent 2015 began on February 18, 2015 with a series entitled With Christ in the Upper Room: Final Preparations. We explored what is often called “The Upper Room Discourse” found in John chapters 13-17.
ReKindle, the Lent 2016 series, began on February 10, 2016 and encouraged us to rekindle our spiritual lives.
Light: There’s Nothing Like It was the 2017 Lent series and explored this metaphor often used to portray Christ. It is archived beginning March 1, 2017.
Lent 2018, we explored the questions of Pi and Chi (the Greek letter beginning the word Christos, which means Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One). We asked and answered the questions “Why?” from the movie Life of Pi as we discovered the uniqueness of Jesus Christ in a world of many faiths.
Lent 2019 gave us a deeper window into Easter “More to the Easter Story” since we miss so much when we rely only on a superficial understanding of the work of Christ. These devotionals are archived beginning March 6, 2019.
Our Lent 2020 devotional series offered prayer points surrounding “Be Thou My Vision” and were aimed at helping us to see God for who He is. The full set of devotionals are archived beginning February 26, 2020.
The theme for 2021 Lent Devotionals was how to live between two worlds while waiting for Christ’s return. Into the gap between the City of Man and its fixation upon sin and the City of God with its demand for holiness, two words minister peace: But God. Praise God for His intervention! They are archived beginning February 17, 2021.
Revelation in 40 devotionals for 2022 offered 40 vignettes, scenes, concepts, and thoughts to inspire us to read the Book of Revelation as it is written and to go deeper. They are archived beginning March 2, 2022.
“Created to Display His Image” explored what it truly means to be made in God’s Image and the profound significance of that fact. They are archived beginning February 22, 2023.
“Seeing His Love with New Eyes” was the topic for 2024 and it explored looking at God’s love beyond the superficial and trite notions of love. They are archived beginning February 14, 2024.
“The Way it Had to Be” explored the conversation in Luke 24 by the men on the Road to Emmaus as they walked with Jesus. They discovered their assumption “This is not how it was supposed to be” was precisely what had to happen and had been predicted throughout the Old Testament and fulfilled in Jesus’ ministry. These devotionals are archived beginning March 5, 2025.