Is Everything Sad Going to Come Untrue?
A tiny little virus has poured out so much unexpected sadness, disappointment, and confusion throughout the world over the last three months. Lives have been lost. Normal activities screeched to a halt. Loneliness, which was already a problem, increased due to isolation. Elderly relatives and friends have been especially isolated and lonely (including my own dad). High school and college graduates made the best of alternative celebrations. Most of us still cautiously and uncertainly consider if or how to meet with friends, loved ones, and our parish.
In addition to the problems brought on by the virus, we have the regular sorrows that seem to come with every year. Family and friends die (including my own mom). Militant Muslims continue to brutally slaughter Christians. The Chinese government continues to crack down on the Church in China. Parts of Africa have faced terrible swarms of locusts. Natural disasters continue not to give us a break. Refugees, orphans, trafficked persons, and vulnerable people throughout the world continue to suffer. The media continues to delight in creating concoctions of panic, anger, and confusion for our regular consumption.
Most recently, here in our country, we’re trying to make sense of the ongoing pain of racism, felt especially by black men and women, and how we can decrease the pain. Yet, the principalities and powers (Eph 6:12) seem to have used something almost all of us agree on to inflict more confusion, death, destruction, double-talk, and anarchy. The principalities and powers always desire for us to turn on each other, flesh and blood, men and women created in the image of God.
All these disheartening aspects of 2020 (and every other year for that matter) may lead us to cry out the refrain of Ecclesiastes, “Hevel! Hevel! Everything is utterly hevel [a wisp of vapor]!” Yet, even as we lament this calamitous time, the Holy Spirit reminds us of Jesus’ words to his disciples, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world (Jn 16:33b).” It might not feel like Christ has overcome the world at this moment, but he absolutely has. His faithfulness endures forever (Ps 100:5)! Soon we will all see an end to the troubles of this world. Our Lord will cast the principalities and powers into the lake of fire with death and Hades (Rev 20:14), and God will wipe away every tear from our eyes (Rev 21:14).
Samwise Gamgee recently reminded me of this joy that as Christians we keep down in our hearts even in the valley of the shadow of death. In Tolkien’s The Return of the King, Sam walked through the fires of hell and faced troubles far too great for him to understand or conquer. Death, at last, came to finish him, and in that moment, his body collapsed. Yet, just a little while later he awoke to find, to his amazement, that the enemy had been utterly defeated. Moreover, to his great joy, his loved ones and he himself lived. In his exhilaration, he exclaimed through tears of joy, “Is everything sad going to come untrue?”
I’m not sure if everything sad is ever going to come “untrue”, though our joy might make it feel that way. However, I am confident that my tears, and your tears, will be wiped away. The way our many griefs were woven into the big story of God’s redemptive plan will become clear. We will dwell in the house of the LORD, our Good shepherd, forever (Psalm 23). Sin and sorrow will be no more. At that time, we will shout and sing with more joy than we ever knew possible to our good God and Savior!
John Laffoon
Minister to Youth and Families