The Inconvenient FaithIn This Corner -- by Brian Knowles
My wife, Lorraine, has been subject to migraine headaches for some seven years. We never know when one is going to hit. Lately, they've been striking about once a week -- but never on a predictable schedule. Typically, they arrive at a time that is convenient for neither of us, like in the middle of the night.
As a "migraine co-dependent," the first thing I do is break out my anointing oil and pray for my wife. Problem is, I'm not always prepared to pray when I need to pray. I may be half-asleep, sick, busy with some important project, or just not in the mood. Still, I must pray.
Sometimes it takes a few minutes to get my attitude straightened out. I may have to spend some time in repentance before I commit to the prayer for healing. I have to get right with God before I can approach Him with my petition.
Have you ever noticed that much of being a Christian is like that -- inconvenient? When I was in the full-time ministry, nothing ever happened at a convenient time. People got sick when it was inconvenient. They had marital problems when it was inconvenient. The died at inconvenient times. And the people who needed ministering to never lived in convenient locales. They were out in the country, in bad neighborhoods, or up a zillion flights of stairs with no elevator.
Just when we ministers were beginning to relax out in the field - just when we thought we had our local congregations under control - Headquarters would have another one of its periodic spasms. A real, or fake, financial crisis would suddenly appear. An emergency fast would be commanded. A leadership crisis would occur. Church personnel would be laid off. Ministers would be uprooted and transferred to other locations, usually without explanation, or their own input. It was chaotic. We lived in a constant state of tension.
When we moved to Headquarters (Pasadena, CA), it only got worse. We plunged from crisis to crisis -- most of them generated by the leadership itself. There were doctrinal crises, leadership crises, financial crises, moral/ethical crises, and real or imagined persecutions. "Top" people were constantly being shifted around on a whim. Everyone was suspect. Everyone was supposedly involved in a plot or a conspiracy of some sort. Paranoia was the dominant psychosis.
When we became independent, generic, Christians, the crises didn't stop. We still had financial crises, but they were personal. We still had to deal with sicknesses and the need for prayer at inconvenient times. When our neighbor's 5-year old son set the house on fire, it was anything but convenient. When the outgo exceeded the income, it was never convenient. When I lost a job, it didn't happen at a favorable time.
Nothing happens in a convenient way, or at a convenient time. Life's like that, and so is the Christian way.
Life is a constantly flowing, dynamic, unpredictable, series of often random events. As Scripture says, "Time and chance happen to all…" We may be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Earthquakes come, buildings and bridges fall, people die. Others are wiped out by tornadoes or hurricanes. Hundreds of God-fearing Christians have been flooded out of their homes. Tens of thousands of Christians have been slaughtered or enslaved by Moslems, pagans, and communists -- even in our own lifetimes. It has been anything but convenient.
The fact of the matter is, we don't get to live life on our own terms. We make plans, but they go awry. As Dr. James Dobson says, "If you live long enough, life will trash your trophies."
Earlier this evening, I was studying the Bible, prior to praying for my wife's latest migraine. I ran across Romans 12:12:
"…rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer."
Those words were almost prophetic! We live in the hope of her permanent healing. We have prayed hundreds of times for release from the bondage of chronic migraines. Sometimes the headache has left before we were finished praying. On other occasions, it has merely abated some. All too often, it runs its course. No matter what, we try to be patient through the tribulation, and we do continue steadfastly in prayer.
As I studied earlier tonight, I looked a little more deeply than usual into Paul's instructions to the young evangelist, Timothy. He wrote him,
"Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables" (II Timothy 4:2-4).
In some respects, the translation "in season and out of season" is not the best. This phrase would be better rendered, "when it is convenient and when it is inconvenient." Paul was saying to Timothy that there well be times when it is inconvenient to defend the faith, to teach or to minister. But convenient or not, those of us who are called to the ministry must do our duty. As Christians, we must rise to every occasion.
Of course it's often more comfortable to sink to the occasion. It's easier to settle deep down in an overstuffed chair and enjoy a mind-numbing sit-com. It's more pleasant to break open a Coors and let the world fade out of mind. Who needs the hassle? But when your neighbor's house is burning down, and her five-year old son is pounding on your door asking for a fire extinguisher, it's pretty hard to concentrate on a sit-com. When your husband or wife is crying out in pain, it's impossible to ignore it. When your children are in trouble, you can't turn away. We haven't been called to be passive believers. We have been called to a life of inconvenience.
We never know, from moment to moment, when we're going to have to do battle, solve a problem, pray for someone or about something, comfort a brother or sister, are adjust to a terrible loss. Nothing in this life is certain. Jobs come. Jobs go. Careers can be scuttled with the flick of a managerial wrist. Bodies don't work perfectly forever. Money runs out. People aren't always nice to us. It's bloody inconvenient.
But then, the people upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell were inconvenienced to the point of death. Today, Christians all over the world are dying for their faith. Some are being unjustly imprisoned. Others are even being tortured. It's anything but convenient, and almost nobody is doing anything about it. So much seems to depend upon those relatively few Christians who are praying and interceding for their brethren who are in trouble around the world. They are the prayer warriors -- they are the ones to whom the saints will owe a great debt in the world to come. They pray when its convenient and when it's inconvenient. They rise to every occasion. They adapt to whatever comes down the pike. They preach the Gospel every chance they get. They live it daily. They are the children of God, and they care not whit about convenience because they are bought with a price. They live to serve, "in season, and out of season." Thank God for such Christians!