CS Lewis writes:

“If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.”

Convicting sentiment. Could it be that the church today is so ineffective in our world today precisely because she’s so concerned with getting things right in our world?

Concerned so much with the form and function here that she never stops to think about there? There’s a reason the book of Revelation was given. Interesting how little it’s regarded.

A good friend went to the hospital this afternoon with appendicitis. After about 13 hours in the emergency room, they finally carted him into surgery to remove his appendix. Another friend, who’d been with him since he’d shown was feeing anxious. So, we went for a stroll through the hospital. Before long, we found ourselves in the “healing garden”. Basically, just a well groomed area just outside the hospital which was lined with benches.

It seems to me that if they have a healing garden, they ought to be taking patients out there. Then again, maybe that’s why I’m not a doctor.

In any case, we sat down on a bench, on the the back of which was an all weather notebook attached with a steel cable. It’s a notebook intended for patients and loved ones to open and write thoughts and feelings in. A little sticker on the front also let us know that it was also a publishing resource for the KGS corporation. On the last filled out page of the notebook an anonymous writer named Tom shared these thoughts:

“The will God will never take you where the grace of God will not protect you.”

There’s almost no doubt in my mind that Tom got that advice from some author. But, regardless of where he found it or if he thought it up himself—for believers—the sentiment is true. In fact, it’s that very sentiment, rooted in the finished work of Christ, that allows the believer to keep moving foreword. To seek harder obedience. To love God more completely.

Because of Christ we can know without a doubt that what God requires of us will not destroy us. That is excellent news. Thank you Tom for the reminder. But back to the story of my friend in the hospital. He was slated to leave for a mission trip to India in just six days. That’s not going to happen now. I see this saying as speaking to this situation in two ways.

1.It is clear from this ailment that God has other plans.
2.God’s other plans are here.

God would not allow him to go and do something both honorable and something he desired to do, and yet perhaps that was his grace that he will not. We cannot know what might have happened if he went, but we can be sure that it is better that he doesn’t.

Isn’t the will of a sovereign, yet loving, God comforting? I think so.