Beauty in Adversity—Part Two

I hadn’t planned on revisiting this topic, but I had another idea on the way home from work today. When I left the workplace this afternoon, looking forward to another drive home past the trees in their fall glory, the first thing I noticed was there wasn’t as much color as there had been 24 hours earlier. Then I noticed how hard the wind was blowing. Also, we had rain last night. Many leaves, which were at their peak yesterday, are lying on the ground today.

My previous article on “Beauty in Adversity” mentioned the fact that patient, submissive suffering displays God’s glory to others. This especially seems to be the case when a faithful believer discovers that he or she has a terminal disease and accepts the Lord’s will with grace and joy. But what about when a vibrant Christian’s testimony is suddenly cut short through death or through circumstances that diminish his public usefulness? What if you don’t get your chance to “shine”? Or, you were shining and your avenues of service disappeared? Is there glory when no one can see Christ through you because they can’t see you? And that’s because something beyond your control happened. The leaf in full color is lying on the ground.

I’ve struggled with this when experiencing “setbacks” I didn’t understand. “Where’s the glory in this?!! It doesn’t make sense!” I couldn’t see how God was getting any glory out of my circumstances.

Though we know from Scripture that we shouldn’t seek to be “seen of men,” we still tend to think that if they don’t see us, God gets no glory. When we think this way, we are short-sighted. We can have our spiritual myopia treated by pulling back the curtain of space and time and gazing into the heavenlies. In Ephesians 3 the Apostle Paul reveals why God’s grace was given to him:

to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places (Eph. 3:8-10 NASB).

There are other spectators to the outworking of our faith than just the earth-bound. When serving God in the dark, when suffering for His sake in a barren land with no human in sight to appreciate it, have we ever considered the scriptural truth that others are watching? And that God is being glorified in the heavenlies because of our faith? It is “through the church” that God’s manifold wisdom is now being made known to the angels.

The church is the mirror, that reflects the whole effulgence of the Divine character. It is the grand scene, in which the perfections of Jehovah are displayed to the universe. The revelations made to the Church—the successive grand events in her history—and, above all—the manifestation of “the glory of God in the Person of Jesus Christ”—furnish even to the heavenly intelligences fresh subjects of adoring contemplation. (Charles Bridges, The Christian Ministry, p. 1)

If our desire is to obey and glorify God, does it matter whether we are in a prominent place or a desolate place? If we are yielded to our loving heavenly Father, does it matter to us if our testimony is unexpectedly stifled through perplexing circumstances? What do we do when we want to serve in a particular way, but we feel like a bird with its wings clipped? Perhaps we look at the colorful leaf on the ground and think, "What a waste!" But that leaf is exactly where God put it. And that’s when the quality of our submission is really revealed. It’s easy to submit when we agree with the conditions. But when God crosses our purposes, are we willing to remain under what He has ordained for us?

The servant is not above his Lord. He does not “talk back” to his Lord. He has no will of his own; he is fully absorbed with his Lord’s will. If his Lord says to stand in a room all by himself, the servant obeys. He loves his master and will not depart from Him. The servant learns to lean not on his own understanding, trusts that his Lord is good and wise, and cares more for his Lord’s honor than for his own desire for “fulfillment.” God’s perfections are displayed and He is glorified in the heavenlies when His people gladly follow His orders, whether waving brilliantly in the trees or lying silently on the ground.

Beauty in Adversity—Part Two