The Love of God.

Blog #16

“ Does anyone know where the love of God goes, When the waves turn the minutes to hours?” – The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Gordon Lightfoot.

Gordon Lightfoot was a masterful songwriter and captivating performer. The wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald is one of my all time favorites. We’ve been to the Great Lakes Shipwreck museum in Whitefish Point, Paradise, Michigan a couple times. We’ve sat through the video about the Edmond Fitzgerald and listened to Lightfoot’s song in the background as they showed real pics of the crew and boat. I don’t think I ever fully get the song out if my head.

Every time I hear of a horrible tragedy befalling a family, especially a Godly family, I hear Gordon singing that lyric, “Does anyone know where the love of God goes. . . “ How many families have asked that question of God, when the family has prayed for the protection or healing of their closest loved ones for years only to have tragedy strike?

Recently, at our church denomination’s general assembly, I noticed one of our “Legend” Biker Pastors standing off to the side, with what looked like a scowl on his face. I stepped over to him only to find him quietly weeping. He told me he had just seen a husband and wife walking through the exhibitor area that he had not seen since their daughter’s funeral. . . 15 years ago. His tears were of great sadness for the loss of their daughter in a horrible car crash. His tears were also of great joy that the parents’ marriage had survived the tragedy all these years later. My first thought was, “Does anyone know where the love of God goes. . .” In other words, where was Gods love for this family when their daughter died. How could he let this happen.

I define “Legend Biker Preacher” as a pastor who answers the calling to step away from the main stream pastor career path in order to reach those in prison, the homeless and/or bikers. That switch requires sacrifice and probably more than a little scrutiny from some traditionalists.

One very hard thing about trusting and depending upon God is that we all know Godly people who have befallen horrible tragedy, even losing a child, certainly the most heartbreaking loss for a parent IMHO. Trusting and depending upon God does not guarantee a life free of horrible tragedy.

God does not promise us freedom from pain, suffering and horrible loss just because we love him, worship, trust and depend upon him. But we like to think that our pursuit of relationship with God gives us some special coverage. God never promises that. Sometimes he does give us special coverage via his good, saving grace. But he doesn’t promise it in every crisis.

We’re thankful when we walk away from the near misses or when healing prayer is answered. But what do we think when healing prayer is not answered or we unexpectedly lose a close loved one? Does anyone know where the love of God goes?

God does promise to be by our side through our toughest trials and hardship, but what does that really mean? I think it means if we ask for strength and help in our most painful hour, he will sustain us. He will answer that prayer. He will not always make the trial disappear, but he will give us the strength to get through it. Though, I can’t imagine how hard it is to fall on your knees in a prayer for strength when you’ve just lost a child. I pray I never experience that degree of suffering, but without Gods help, I doubt many could survive it. Marriages often don’t survive it.

Our Bible tells us this has been a fallen world since Adam and Eve were tempted in the garden. That means a world of pain and suffering until Christ comes back. To get through it, God gives us the Holy Spirit and His good grace. He says He hears our prayers and will not abandon us. Through it all, he is by our side. But, I’ve never lost a child. I know some who have. I have not suffered loss at that level.

I pray for the strength, perseverance and survival of those who have suffered that degree of loss. I pray they come to the Lord to carry them through. To answer Gordon’s lyrical question, our Bible tells us Gods love is always with us, even through the worst of times. I don’t think parents ever “get over” the loss of a child. They just live with the loss and wait on the Lord, and He sustains them.

Back to that Legend biker Preacher that got me to thinking about the love of God. I was taken back by the compassion and caring demonstrated by his memory of those parents suffering and loss so many years ago. He was moved to weeping. That’s true compassion for the flock. David Middendorf, another Legend biker Preacher said, “That’s why it’s a calling.” I know he’s right. I think the best song writers and preachers have this in common; they are very much in touch with their emotional side.

I thought this blog was finished until our Sunday morning drive home from the conference. We decided to listen to the worship service online since we couldn’t stay and attend. It’s really an epic church service with over 10,000 attending in person and many more than that listening and watching around the world. The Nazarene church is truly a global church. If you don’t believe that, attend a general assembly some time.

The worship music was incredible with what sounded like a full orchestra in the line up, but what caught my attention was when the speaker, David W. Graves, General Superintendent of the Church of the Nazarene, started preaching on the love of God. That was no coincidence for me having just written this blog on the subject.

Dr. Graves is as dynamic and gifted a preacher as you would expect. He used an analogy about giant dump trucks loading up on Gods love and then showering us with that love. We only heard his message through his second point before we lost connectivity. I hope his third point touched upon what Gods love does for us even when it didn’t save us from great loss, pain and suffering. Certainly there were many of those sufferers with heavy hearts in his audience.

Dr. Graves mid analogy.

I expect that for my remaining days, whenever I hear a preacher preach on the love of God I’ll think he or she fell short if they don’t also talk about where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes into hours. We desperately need to be reminded that God is right there with us even in our darkest hour. Thanks.

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