Watching news coverage of what’s going on in Ukraine – homes, schools and buildings being destroyed by the Russian assault – our minds are challenged to comprehend what’s happening. Most of us have no frame of reference for even beginning to grasp what that experience must be like for the Ukrainians, many of whom are now refugees from their homeland.
My friend Albert was just a boy growing up in the Netherlands when the Nazis were bombing his city during World War II. Unlike me, he understands how terrifying – and life-changing – it is to go through something like that. Now, decades later, the memories remain vivid. He has endured a number of other calamities and challenges over the course of his life, but like many other people, has learned the secret of finding calm in the midst of whatever the surrounding chaos might be.
The trials many of us are currently facing might pale in comparison to living in a country under siege of war, but for us they are trials – even tribulations – just the same. At times it might feel as if we’re aboard a ship at sea, in the midst of a raging storm. Everything seems to be moving up and down, side to side, with nothing stable for us to grab ahold of. What do we do? Where do we turn?
At such times, as a good friend would sometimes remind me, “You’re in a great position!” What? Are you crazy? How can you think that? Because when times are uncertain, the most unstable, we have no choice but to look to the one true source of hope, stability and security.
Recently, I was reading a familiar passage from the Bible that describes well what many of us might be feeling in our tumultuous times. Psalm 46:1-10 gives us this assurance:
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging…. Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress…. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire. He says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
When times are at their worst, when our hardships and adversities seem beyond hope, that’s when our Lord does His best work. We might say He’s the God of making the impossible possible.
When Jerusalem was under siege by the Babylonian army, the prophet Jeremiah made this declaration: "Oh, Lord God! You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for You!” (Jeremiah 32:17).
Many centuries later, Jesus Christ was speaking of a very different challenge, that of being brought into a life-transforming, eternal relationship with God. A wealthy young man had asked Jesus how he could get eternal life. When the Lord answered by instructing him to sell all his possessions and give them to the poor, the rich man had gone away in despair, unwilling to part with all he had.
Turning to His disciples, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven…it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Upon hearing this, the disciples responded incredulously, “Who then can be saved?” Then Jesus made the key statement: “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:16-26).
This incident is recounted in detail in three of the four gospels, also in Mark 10 and Luke 18, so we know it was significant. The underlying message of each of the passages cited above is that whether it’s to create and control an entire universe, put an end to wars, calm raging seas, heal diseases, deliver us from many other kinds of crises, and even bring a reluctant, prideful person to saving faith, nothing is too difficult for our God.
With this confident assurance, and only because of that, we can comply with what the Lord tells us to do: “Be still, and know that I am God.”
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