When Will I Feel Better?

All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. (John 17:10-13 ESV).

This week I as sick as I have been in a long time. While the doctor has assured me it is not the flu, it might as well have been! One of those sleepless fever-riddled nights I began to think about the time when I will be free from this world’s inadequacies and my poor health. Sunday morning I felt well enough to preach. My text was James 5:7-12. Kyle told me after that it definitely was “a keeper.” I was very warmed by his encouragement. He went on to say that he was impressed that it took me nearly fifteen minutes before I got to Romans 8:28. I laughed, but saw the point quickly. There are many sermons that I preach that won’t eventually land on that verse. It is the foundation of our comfort and hope. We need that; I need that! Many times we hear various words of comfort in our struggles and grief. One older man told me at the end of the service as we watched the casket lowered into the grave of his wife of nearly fifty years, “She was just too good for this world.” Others have said things like: “Death was the only way they could finally find any peace.” Or, “I guess God just needed him more there than we do here.” And, of course we often hear, “He’s in a better place.” When we’re reeling from the loss of someone we love, we look for something solid to grab hold of to find stability in a storm of sadness and clarity in a sea of confusion. Some of the things we grab hold of are profoundly true and therefore prove to steady us in the storm. But some of the things we grab hold of emanate from the world’s lies and deception. They might sound nice, but they simply aren’t true. C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity, “Comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it. If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end. If you look for comfort, you will not get either comfort or truth — only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair.” So, let me give you the truth; something to grab hold of in the midst of challenge that will bring comfort. They are the words of our reading today. Jesus is saying the His Father can be trusted even with our lives. When Jesus says no one has been lost, he means not one! Here’s the Reader’s Digest version: “I Can Trust God with This.”