The Greener Grasses of Catastrophe

Trouble surrounds me, chaos abounding my soul will rest in You. I will not fear the war, I will not fear the storm, my help is on the way, my help is on the way.

O my God, He will not delay

My refuge and strength always. I will not fear, His promise is true, my God will come through always, always.

I lift my eyes up, my help comes from the Lord”

-Kristian Stanfill

I went to church this morning with a heavy heart over several different situations. In the midst of singing the above song, I remembered something I read a while back. In the book ‘Captivating’, John and Stasi Eldredge wrote about how God is our Ezer, or Helper. This attribute is used to describe God in instances of battle or other emergencies where all will be lost unless help comes. At the last moment when it appears we are on the brink of being defeated, our Ezer comes blazing in like a divine hero on a white horse.  

This image fits with another term I came across in my readings earlier this week:

“J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings, often employed a storytelling device he called eucatastrophe. A catastrophe is an unexpected evil, but Tolkien added the Greek prefix eu- meaning ‘good’ to express the unexpected appearing of goodness. He defined it as ‘the sudden happy turn in a story which pierces you with a joy that brings you to tears.’ It has this effect on us ‘because it is a sudden glimpse of Truth’ in which we ‘feel a sudden relief as if a major limb out of joint had suddenly snapped back.’ Repeatedly in his stories the eucatastrophe occurs just as all hope appears to be lost.”  -Skye Jethani, ‘With’ 

All this knowledge was a breath of fresh air to me. Maybe, just maybe the seeming catastrophes around me will get to just that point where all seems to be lost, when God will come blazing into the picture as my great Ezer.  

Even as I write this, I have to confess that at times it does not feel as if He shows up ALWAYS but rather often I feel as if all is lost in certain situations. Why did the pastor not get released from prison, why did the mentally ill person not get healed, why did he allow the marriage to happen and then allow it to end in divorce, why did this person not recover, why did this person die lost, why did he not spare that precious baby?

In my musings I was also reminded of a very memorable sermon found HERE for those who are interested. At the end, the pastor discussed the hardest season he ever endured. One of his friends asked him during this time how he was managing to stay in tact. He said he would always look ahead to eternity to the throne of God and know that when he gets there he will be able to look back and know that all of this hardness has eventually yielded much good and much glory and that knowledge sustains him.  

The picture at the top right corner of this post has been zoomed in on a painting I just finished. It’s hard to tell anything about the overall image. Mostly visible is a lot of blurry darkness with bits of green. Below you can see a sequence of pictures panning outwardly until the final overall painting is visible. This is how life with God is at times. He does not cease being our Ezer. Being a helper is an essence of His nature. Sometimes He chooses to hold back, to delay His coming, to allow death, suffering and pain because He sees the greater picture and knows how those deathly dark strokes will fit perfectly in the overall picture. Only at the end of all things will we see things clearly. For now, we must worship and trust that in the midst of our catastrophe, God turned it into a eucatastrophe by sending us Jesus and if He did not spare His own Son, will He withhold ANYTHING that we desperately need?