C-19 Reflection #6: Working With What You’ve Got - No Easy Wisdom, No Easy Healing

C19 Reflection #6

Theme: “Working With What You’ve Got”

Today’s Topic: No Easy Wisdom, No Easy Healing

Scripture: I Chronicles 7:11-16

11 When Solomon had finished the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the Lord and in his own palace, 12 the Lord appeared to him at night and said:

“I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices.

13 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. 16 I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

Reflection:

Sharing a thought or writing a reflection on the fly daily, especially during unprecedented times, doesn’t necessarily get easier the more you do it. In fact, some days it seems like the reflections are becoming more difficult like the pandemic itself. Sitting here, I wish I had the wisdom of Solomon.

In today’s case, it is the scripture that seems to make things challenging, even as it offers so much good direction.  

One thing to notice is that relying on v.14 isolated and out of context, which is what we often do with this verse, doesn’t necessarily help us to achieve the soft landing we are often looking for from the Bible. Call - Humble – Pray - Seek – Turn  – Hear -Forgive - Heal. Note that this sequence is both prophetic call and promising comfort.

There are a few things I would like point out about this text as you read it, reflect on it and ultimately seek to respond to it from where you find yourself today with God and in the world.

 First, try not to let the content of v.13 with respect to today’s present crisis distract you from the overall messaging of the passage. Try to resist  under applying the verse, as if God was nowhere to be found in the world’s situation, and try to resist overreaching, as if this verse was somehow the perfect passage for explaining this perfect storm that we are enduring.

If you find this passage really problematic and need a place to focus your meditating, remember that the Christian calling is more about seeking God and his kingdom first, than it is about understanding and narrating the world (*or at least it is about narrating the world by knowing the story of the kingdom better). So let me encourage you to put your reflective and personal emphasis on seeking God’s face, even as you watch the news and feel the need to contemplate the world in crisis.

Second, let’s receive and respond to the many layered invitation of v.14, which seems to suggest that concern for healing broken people and healing the land/world are connected in God’s purposes. Let’s respond to the fullest promise of  healing at every level that God encourages us to imagine and long for.

Third, as we contemplate the details of these verses rooted in God’s self description, surely we can be encouraged that we are presented with a God who we can approach with our questions, concerns, complexities and disasters; a God who calls, hears, forgives, heals. As we go to God with these things, let’s remember that the path to healing doesn’t usually come easily. 

Solomon certainly knew that gaining and applying wisdom and understanding from on high for real life situations didn’t come easily either.

So as we pray during these crazy days, let’s stick to our calling as God’s people and keep on seeking God’s face for both the wisdom and the healing we require.