Crisis is Opportunity!
“Last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me and said, 'Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.' So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me” (Acts 27:23-25).
How should we perceive crisis in our lives?
One of my cousins is going through most severe crisis in her life that she never have experienced in her forty years of her life in this earth. She was always happy person who was faithful to the Lord and her family. But now she is going through severe depression and phobia. As results, she is struggling physically, mentally and emotionally. But most of all, I think she is struggling spiritually. Now after several months of depression and phobia, it seems to me she doubts about God’s love. All our family members are praying for her and her family. How should we perceive her crisis? We may wonder why this happened to her. But we don’t know why. Also we don’t know exactly what caused her to go through severe depression and phobia. So we cannot even answer the question “How this happened to her. Then, we may ask the question “What is God’s will?” Maybe God wants our whole family members to repent our sins. But we are not sure what God’s will is. Now, what must we do? I think we must ask the question “Who is my God?” God is good. So “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Rom.8:28). Then, we may ask the question “How does God manifest His goodness through our crisis?” I believe based on today’s passage Acts 27:23-25, crisis is opportunity for us to experience God’s goodness.
First, crisis is opportunity for us to hear God’s voice.
When we look at the story behind today’s passage Acts 27:23-25, we see that Apostle Paul and other 275 people (v.37) who met crisis. They were in life-death situation in which the ship that they were in met a wind of hurricane force, called the “northeaster” (v.14), while they were heading toward Italy (v.1). When they met this crisis, they were fearful (v.1). And when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, they finally gave up all hope of being saved (v.20). In this hopeless life and death situation, Paul heard God’s voice from an angel of the Lord saying “'Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you” (v.24). And Paul had faith in God that it will happen just as He told him (v.25).
You see, crisis is very good opportunity to hear God’s voice. And in a sense, crisis is opportunity for us to examine our faith whether we really believe in God that He is able to do what He promised to do or not. But so many times, it seems that when we face crisis we tend to be like a centurion named Julius (v.1) who heard the advice of the pilot and of the owner of the ship (v.11) instead of Apostle Paul’s warning “Men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss to ship and cargo, and to our own lives also” (v.10). In other words, when we face crisis, we tend to hear other people’s voices more than God’s voice. As a result, we go into deeper trouble with fear and no hope of deliverance. We must stop listening to other people’s advices that are not from God. Rather, we must tune our ears to our God who speaks to our soul when we are going through crisis. In other words, we must hear God’s quite voice when we are in crisis so that we may not be afraid and have hope of God’s deliverance. I remembered God speaking to my wife Jane and I Psalms 63:3 “Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips will praise You” when our first child Charis was about to die. And the Spirit convicted us that God’s eternal love is much better than Charis’ 55 days of her life. So my parents, my old brother and his wife and my sister came together and we worshiped God before we let her go. We were able to do so because of His living and active Word Psalms 63:3 and the faith that God’s had given us in His Word. And after her death, we were able to sing “My Savior’s Love” to God (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkFOtaO8B9c). You see, crisis is opportunity for us to not only hear God’s voice but also for us to praise God for who He is and what He has done for us.
Second, crisis is opportunity for us to love our neighbors.
Usually, when we are in crisis, we become self-observed. I still remembered what Jane told me when we were going to our crisis with our first baby Charis. After we came back to our apartment after visiting Charis in Los Angeles Children Hospital, she told me that we were becoming self-absorbed. When I heard that from my wife, I couldn’t deny it. At that time, I remembered my two uncles were going through their own crisis with their business. But I didn’t even reach out to them because I was very self-absorbed with my own crisis. And my excuse of not doing so was Charis’ life is much more important than business. You see, it wasn’t just that I didn’t reach to my uncles but I couldn’t. I was so self-absorbed that I couldn’t see any others’ suffering and pain except my own. But when God gave us His Word Psalms 63:3 and after we let Charis go, the Spirit in me enabled me to reach out to others with my testimony of Chais. Because I experienced God’s eternal love through Charis, her short life and death, I was able to reach to others with His eternal love.
Having heard God’s voice, Apostle Paul was able to urge those 275 people who were with him to keep up their courage (vv. 22, 25). He also urged them all to eat because for the last fourteen days, they had been in constant suspense and had gone without food (v.33). So Paul urged them to take some food and told them that “Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head” (v.34). You see, Paul tried to help them to survive (v.34). And guess what he did? Paul took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat (v.35). How could Paul give thanks to God in the midst of life and death situation? Can you thank God for a crisis that you are going through? This is faith. I mean this is from living faith of Christians who have complete trust in God. You see, Paul had this faith in God that it will happen just as God told him (v.25). That’s why he was able to reach out to the rest of men in the ship and was able to urge them to keep up their courage, “because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed” (v.22). You see, Christians with living and mature faith are able to reach out to others even when they are going through their own crisis. It’s because the love of God compels them to reach out and love their neighbors as Jesus commands them to do. In a sense, we can say that they are wounded healers (Nouwen).
Lastly, crisis is opportunity for us to experience God’s glory and His deliverance.
When we go through our own crisis, we tend to be discouraged and depressed. And as our crisis prolongs along with our suffering and pain, we tend to doubt about God’s love toward us. Not only that, we tend to doubt about God’s deliverance from our crisis. Thus, we give up and fall away from our faith in God. Why? It’s because we lost our hope of deliverance. And this is deadly to our body and soul when we lose our hope in God. But like Abraham in Romans 4:18, those men and women of faith in hope believe in God even against all hope because they were being fully persuaded that God has power to do what He had promised (v.21). They do not waver through unbelief regarding the God’s promise of deliverance; rather, they are strengthened in their faith and give glory to God (v.20). And that’s what Paul did in today’s passage. He had faith in God that it will happen just as God told him. He firmly believed in God that He will make (or help) him to stand trial before Caesar (in Rome, Italy) (Acts 27:24). Thus, he was not afraid (v.24) of storm (v.20) because he knew that the storm would only destroy the ship (v.22) and not their lives. Rather, Paul believed that God will deliver them out of the storm. And we all know how the story ends. Paul and other 275 people were delivered and they reached land in safety (v.44).
Those who believe in God that it will happen just as He told them will not be discouraged. Nor they will be depressed. Rather, they will give thanks to God and they will always hope in God for their future deliverance and God’s manifestation of His glory. So they pray in faith, expect great things from God, endure their hardship and wait for God to reveal His glory by delivering them out of their crisis. Shouldn’t we expect to see God’s glory and His deliverance?
Trusting in God that it will happen just as He promised to me,
Rev. James Kim