GodSprings - May 27, 2016

Is God Good All The Time?

But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” Job 2:10

After coming back from Maramon this year we as a family were happy because we got a once in a lifetime opportunity to lead a VBS in St. John’s MTC, UK. When the convener called me I asked if my wife could also assist and they agreed to it without any hesitation. She didn’t have a passport. We applied for it. Got everything ready and applied for the VISA. It got rejected the first time. We were asked to reapply and this time we were sure we could get it. But God had some other plans. Last Tuesday we went to Delhi to collect the VISA and we were once again refused an entry to UK.

We were dismayed and dejected at the way things turned out in the end. We were in search of an answer. Even when we opened the envelope we never had a slight thought that it would be a refusal that is there in store for us. We were shocked seeing it. We both drove back to Eapen Achen’s parsonage in Delhi. We both didn’t know what to say to each other. I somehow consoled myself that it is God’s plan. Saumya was completely broken. Not because we were not able to go to UK but because even after running about with the visa formalities and the preparation for the VBS for more than three months, in the end we were not able to make it.

The ‘why’ question lingered in both our minds though I tried very hard to comfort my mind saying its God’s will and plan. After having lunch, as we went down to rest, Saumya told me that she had opened the Bible coming to Eapen Achen’s parsonage and the verse she got was Job 2:10 - But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” We sat together and prayed.

The next day when we were returning back to Ludhiana before leaving, Eapen Achen prayed. And as we were about to say good bye he said one thing which made us look at things in a better way. Dear Achen, he said, “till now you had things to say about how God fulfilled your dreams and how he helped you in all your walks. Sometimes God teaches us through failures also.”

Job 2:10 what a powerful statement made by Job and in a situation where none of us even come near or close to what he has endured. It made us think who are we like? Like Job’s foolish wife or like Job?

Do you still hold fast to your integrity? This was a question which Job’s wife asked and unknowingly we also asked. She has lived with Job and she knows his life-style, and if this is the way that this God treats him (a “good” man), then CURSE HIM AND DIE! In her mind: God is like a DIVINE SLOT MACHINE. You put in your money (or in this case you serving your god), and puff out comes blessings.

Most people hold to a view similar to this. “I will serve God as long as it’s a good deal for me (in the worldly sense).” She’s basically saying, “Why be good if at the end of the day God is not going to bless you.” She’s not willing to serve God if there’s no personal gain.

Paul Brand, the missionary surgeon to India wrote in his book Pain: The Gift Nobody Wants: “I have come to see that pain and pleasure come to us not as opposites but as Siamese twins, strangely joined and intertwined. Nearly all my memories of acute happiness, in fact, involve some element of pain or struggle.”

I have never heard anyone say, “The deepest and rarest and most satisfying joys of my life have come in times of extended ease and earthly comfort.” Nobody says that.
It isn’t true. What’s true is what Charles Spurgeon said: “They who dive in the sea of affliction bring up rare pearls.” This is because it is in pain and suffering where we see God more clearly. That is when everything that isn’t that important just moves away and that which is of most importance is clearly seen.

We are so grateful to have a wonderful family who stood by us, for the VBS convenors and Achen of St. John’s MTC, London, for Eapen Achen and family who have been with us in some of the most critical moments in our life and not to forget the wonderful parishioners of the Ludhiana and Jalandhar parish who were ready to do anything so that we may get the VISA and the wonderful student group (MSF) of the Christian Medical College, Ludhiana, who through their calls and Wats App message made us to accept the reality.

The pain of not being able to go is certainly there for we too are humans. We don’t know why this happened but we are sure of one thing – God has a much greater plan in our life. God’s medicines are always difficult to digest. But both of us feel that all throughout till this point of life he has been good to us and so we shout out and say one more time – GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME and ALL THE TIME GOD IS GOOD.