In his book Brain Rules, John Medina tells
the intriguing story of Dr. Oliver Sacks, a British neurologist, and one of his
patients, an elderly woman who “suffered a massive stroke in the back region of
her brain that left her with a most unusual deficit: She lost her ability to
pay attention to anything that was to her left.” Medina explains the effect
this had on her perceptive abilities:
She could
put lipstick only on the right half of her face. She ate only from the right
half of her plate. This caused her to complain to the hospital nursing staff
that her portions were too small! Only when the plate was turned and the food
entered her right visual field could she pay any attention to it and have her
fill.[1]
Sometimes I think we’re like this in our
spiritual perception. While it’s easy for us to recognize the hand of God on
the right, we fail to see him working on the left. We’re grateful for the
clarity of his guidance and the comfort of his blessings, but find it difficult
to discern his hidden hand during times of discouragement, disappointment,
suffering, and trial.
The Scriptures abound with examples of saints
who had the same problem. Think of Naomi, bereft of her sons and her husband,
now back in Bethlehem after a decade in Moab during a time of famine. She is
soon the talk of the town, and the women of Bethlehem ask, “Is this Naomi?” But
Naomi, whose name meant “pleasant,” retorts,
“Don’t call
me Naomi…Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I
went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why
call me Naomi? The LORD has afflicted me; the Almighty
has brought misfortune upon me.” (Ruth 1:20-21)
Once she enjoyed fullness, now she is empty.
Once she was happy, not she is bitter. Naomi is convinced that God’s hand is
against her. But she doesn’t yet realize that Ruth, the young woman at her
side, will be the Lord’s means of bringing an heir to her household, redemption
to her estate, and ultimately redemption to the world. (Ruth was the
great-grandmother of King David and one of only four women named in the
genealogy of Jesus in Matthew
1).
Or take the old patriarch Jacob. With his family
facing famine, his sons had ventured to Egypt to find food. Now they have
returned, leaving Simeon behind, and with the mandate from the prime minister
to bring their younger brother Benjamin back with them. To make matters worse,
the money they had paid for provisions in Egypt is now back in their bags! This
isn’t good. Are they being framed as
thieves? In near despair, Jacob cries out, “Everything is against me!” (Genesis 42:36). What
Jacob doesn’t know is that God is working behind the scenes through his
long-lost son Joseph, to provide for the whole clan of Israel. As Joseph will
later say to his brothers (who had sold him into slavery, thus landing him in
Egypt in the first place), “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for
good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50:20).
We’re just like Jacob and Naomi. We
misinterpret our circumstances. We feel hopeless, though hope stands right at
our side. We feel like everything is working against us, not realizing that God
is actually working everything together for our good (Romans
8:28). As poet and hymn-writer William Cowper
said,
Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan His works in vain
God is His own interpreter
And He will make it plain.[2]
The problem is our limited perspective on the
providence of God. The doctrine of God’s providence teaches that God governs
over all things in creation. He’s not an indifferent watchmaker who made the
world and then left it to tick away on its own. He is rather a good and wise king,
who governs human affairs. “The LORD has
established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all,” declared the
psalmist (Psalm 103:19). But not
only is he our king, he is also our Father, intimately concerned with the
smallest details of our lives. For Jesus said,
Are not two
sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside
your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So
don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. (Matthew 10:29-31)
My favorite definition of God’s providence
comes from a 16th century catechism that asks, “What dost thou mean
by the providence of God?” Answer:
The almighty
and everywhere present power of God; whereby, as it were by his hand, he
upholds and governs heaven, earth, and all creatures; so that herbs and grass,
rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and
sickness, riches and poverty, yea, and all things come, not by chance, but be
his fatherly hand.[3]
This is good news, but we must have faith to
embrace it. Neither our circumstances, nor our feelings, are reliable
indicators of what God is up to in our lives. Sometimes everything will seem to
be against us. Sometimes we will feel empty and bitter. But when we do, we
should remember how limited our perception really is. Like Oliver Sacks’
patient who couldn’t see anything to her left, sometimes we can’t perceive the
presence of God’s goodness or the wisdom of his plan.
Let’s remember, then, this wise exhortation
from Cowper’s hymn:
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust him for his grace
Behind a frowning providence,
he hides a smiling face.[4]
End Notes
[1]
John Medina, Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at
Home, Work, and School (Pear Press, Kindle edition. Loc. 1106-1116).
[2]
William Cowper, from his hymn, “Light Shining in Darkness,” better known as
“God Moves in a Mysterious Way,” 1774.
[3]
The Heidelberg Catechism, Question 27.
[4]
Ibid.
