An Uncertain Journey?

Let me start by wishing you a Happy New Year.  Happiness is an interesting word as it contains “hap” which has its root in the context of chance rather than certainty.  We find it in perhaps.  In some parts of the UK people use the word happen to mean maybe.  Of course, words mean what we want them to mean, according to Humpty Dumpty, and when we wish someone a Happy New Year, we probably mean something like may your year be blessed or pleasant.

The fact is that life is unpredictable.  Good and bad experiences come to us all at different times, and often undeserved.  As the Bible puts it,

“I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant, or favour to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.” (Ecclesiastes 9:11)

You have probably heard it said that we can make our own luck.  Of course, that can only be partly true, but it does have something to say to those who go through life hoping that they will get lucky.  Or as Mr Micawber puts it in Charles Dickins book David Copperfield “Something will turn up”. Each week millions of pounds are spent on the lottery.  Some follow strange rituals in order to seek good luck. Or put their trust in four leaf clovers and rabbits foot.  Then, when good or bad things happen, people restart to saying things such as “It was meant to be”, or,” wasn’t meant to be”.

As Christians, we are encouraged to place our trust in God and offer our lives to his service.  But there is no promise of an easy ride.  The time and chance factor will affect us much the same.  In addition, God’s plan for our lives sometimes includes disappointment or suffering.  When the apostle Peter was re-commissioned (see John 21), Jesus warned him of difficult times ahead.  A similar thing happened to the apostle Pau who was warned by God that he would have to suffer (See Acts 9:15,16).

So, how should we face this new year of 2017?  The best that I could hope for would be that you might seek God’s will in your life and gladly actively surrender to it.  There will be no guarantee that bad things will not happen.  If they do, hold onto the Lord, knowing that he will never loosen his grip on you.  You may need to trust God when you cannot trace him.  On the other hand, 2017 might be filled with joy and peace.

When I started to write, it was my intention to reflect on the incident in Philip’s life as recorded in Acts 8:26-40.  When Philip went to Samaria it was apparently to escape persecution in Jerusalem.  Making Samaria his destination appears to be a random decision.  But here is a man who has yielded his life to the Lord, and who is ready to grasp the opportunities that came his way.  So, he uses this new situation to proclaim the gospel to any who would hear him.  God blesses his ministry and grants signs and wonders.  Luke, the author of Acts, tells us that many believed and that there was great joy in the city.  It sounds like revival. 

Then in the midst of all that is happening, God calls him away from the revival to go back to Jerusalem and wait on the road that went to Gaza. It appears illogical.  There were still Christians and Christian leaders living in Jerusalem.  Why not use them?  We are not told the reason.  It might be that Philip had some experience of cross-cultural evangelism. Perhaps it was his notable readiness to share the story of Jesus with others.  Whatever the reason, God uses him to bring an Ethiopian civic official to faith in Jesus.   In God’s economy, reaching this one man was more important than the crowd in Samaria at that time.

But the extraordinary experiences in Philip’s life do not end with the Ethiopian being baptised.  God takes him off to yet another place where he once more engages in sharing the good news about Jesus.  Philip’s life seems, on one hand, to be a series of random happenings.  It is his response to these situations that turn chance into blessing, and through which God works out his purposes.  Similarly, the missionary activities of Paul and his team are not always clearly directed by God, yet he uses each situation to share the good news and discover what God wants to do wherever he is.  Even in prison, Paul sees this as an opportunity gained to lead his captors to the Lord (See Philippian 1: 12-14).

My prayer for you, as a tick of a clock moves us from one year to another, is that you will start this year by offering this time to God.  You will start it with who you are and where you are.  Seek to find God’s purposes at this moment.  Use the opportunities it brings to share the good news and do good works. In the process, you will be changed.   Then be ready for whatever comes your way.  May you find peace from God, whatever the circumstances, and prosper in his service.  Now that’s a happy new year.

“Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, just as you are progressing spiritually. It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it.” (3John 2-3)

Barry

21 December 2016