Creation groans

When a man I respect cries or yells out with urgent, righteous indignation I am stilled and awed and moved.

My pastor, Mark Driscoll, is fairly well known for his occasional loud, convicting calls for the church to wake up or come to repentance, but not nearly as well known, though he should be, for his deeply compassionate and broken side which brings him to tears. But I think they both rise up from the same well in his spirit. And both came over him this past Sunday.

Our church took a break from Luke to show clips of videos and photography and short stories from our pastor who just got back from a very short, and very spontaneous trip to Haiti to evaluate the state of the churches and their recovery needs. I don’t think I can even begin to sum up all his pictures and stories between getting into his caravan from the Haiti airport with the UN informing them that they would not be allowed back in for safety, to the man shot within feet of him who laid on the street for hours because no help was planning on coming. It’s something you must see.

It really is difficult to live in this world, if you are awake to it. Creation groans in every direction and earthquakes like this one have happened and will happen all the time. Since the shock of Haiti I have gone on to sleep and eat plenty and think of it again and then laugh and watch my favorite shows and write and cook blue berry muffins and change diapers and think of it again. I have to live the life in front of me but I also have to stay burdened and it’s such an interesting and confusing way to live life sometimes.

And thank the Lord for prayer.

Because some people are “light” about the world’s tragedies because they’re oblivious. And some are light about them because they know but they push them out of their minds with a shake of their heads. And then some are heavy because every piece of bad news in their lives and in the world is one more real heart break that they don’t know what to do with besides medicate in various forms or throw money at it. Which has to be just about everybody without Jesus, unless they fell into that obliviously light category earlier. And some are heavy because it’s devastatingly difficult for them to swallow and they mourn and break inside, but they also pray. And Jesus has a promise for them, that their yoke will be easy and their burden will be light. So they are light, though their hearts may stay burdened. It’s a spiritual mystery to me.

There is an amazing verse that I will never forget about this very thing and it is actually the same passage that Jesus himself read as he stood up in the temple, which was a declaration that he was the fulfillment of this prophesy:

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion – to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.” Isaiah 61:1-4

Look who he comes to, praise God. The poor, the brokenhearted, the captives, those who are bound, all who mourn, those in ashes, those with a faint spirit. And look at all he came to give to them. Amen to that. Just reading and writing that out once lightens my spirit.

If you read my blog, you already saw that I posted John Piper’s sermon on suffering and if you haven’t listened to it, I am now actually begging you. (Picture me on my face here please). Reading a sweet friend’s blog, I was reminded that our worship pastor talked about something similar to Piper’s sermon prior to Mark’s sermon. The devastation, the torn down buildings, the utter despair, the mourning, the desolation in the streets, the smoke in the air, and the hopeless spirit lingering in every stinch of death in the air is a reminder of who we are and where we were before Christ came to redeem us.

Piper hits heavy on this too as he runs through Romans 8, explaining what it means that all creation groans for redemption. He stated that our sin is the corporate reality that is being documented as horrific by all disease and tragedy. Read that again, because it has taken me ten years to understand that very truth. When sin entered the world, we were subjected to futility/frustration but so was creation. And creation’s groanings and imperfections and tragedies and diseases are supposed to mirror our hearts corporately. Piper says, “The ultimate meaning of suffering is that sin is ghastly. It shows how serious sin is.” He is careful to point out that the truth of Romans 8 is not about your sin = a zap from God. Putting it into a close encounter, he is not saying that God was specifically judging the sins of those who died in 9-11 or those who are suffering or have died in Haiti. It is supposed to reflect our corporate sin as a human race for all of time. This is a clear distinction from those who might say that God blesses the righteous with good things in this life and withholds good things from the unrighteous in this life and on this earth. In fact, Scripture says that it rains and shines on the righteous and unrighteous alike. But suffering does make a statement about our hearts. All of our hearts. It is a shocking, grand depiction of our tragic inner reality, without the redemption of Christ. It’s as if, like Pastor Mark, God is outwardly grieving and yelling out to us all at once.

The most lovely words in that text to me are this: IN HOPE. “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from it’s bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”

As Piper encourages, be broken by all suffering. If you do not know Christ, (if you will allow me to so encourage you), humble yourself with brokenness to see your need for God in your state of hopelessness. If you do know Christ, stay humble that you continue to need him and let this remind you of the rampant need for Jesus and his redemption in hearts all around you so that this world may have H O P E.


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