The Greater Miracle

This post was written by Jeff Matas, Senior Associate Pastor of Madison Park Church of God

In the movie Shadowlands, C.S. Lewis is at the height of popularity in the lecture circuit. He was a brilliant scholar and unparalleled Christian apologist. As a writer, apologist, and speaker, Lewis combined his luminous intellect with his deep love of God... it was a powerful combination.

In the movie you see Lewis, a superstar in his day, lecturing to support his book, The Problem of Pain, where he attempts to reconcile human suffering with God being all knowing, loving, and all powerful. In his book and in his lectures, he has a logical answer to every objection, he can intellectually respond to any question.

Here’s the issue though... this Oxford educated follower of Christ has been lecturing on pain, but he really hasn’t experienced much of it. Then he meets Joy Gresham, falls in love and marries her. Not long after they married, his wife discovers she has bone cancer. Lewis soon learns it’s one thing to have all the answers on why we suffer pain, it’s quite another to experience it yourself.

For the remainder of the movie, you watch Lewis transform from a self-assured Christian with all the answers, to one who is on his knees with nothing to hold on to but his faith in God. He recorded his experience of pain and loss in a subsequent book entitled A Grief Observed.

A few Sundays ago, our church was blessed to hear the story of Heather Gemmen Wilson. She shared a story filled with pain and suffering. In her sermon, she referred to the classic biblical text on the subject, Paul’s thorn in the flesh passage found in 2 Corinthians 12. She focused on verse 10 and repeated it throughout her sermon, “For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Preach on deliverance and miracles, proclaim that God will heal all who believe, that He will make you rich, that God’s goal is to make us happy and you’ll fill a stadium. Yet Heather stood before two thousand people on a Sunday morning and shared a story of incredible pain and suffering and received a standing ovation. Hers was a story of a rape that resulted in pregnancy and of a beautiful marriage that withstood the horror of the rape only to unravel years later when her husband walked out. She shared how, as a child, an auto accident left her right hand disfigured. Her story struck a chord; it resonated with the hearts of those who heard it.

Heather’s portrayal of life resonates because her story reflects the world in which we live. Jesus was right when he said in John 16:33, “In this world you will have trouble.” But he didn’t leave it there, he adds: “But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Imagine if Heather’s story was only one of rescue... “A man broke in my home to rape me and, at the foot of my bed, God stopped his heart and he died... When I was young, I was in a horrific auto accident and miraculously I didn’t suffer a scratch... When my marriage was in trouble, I prayed and suddenly my husband changed and became this dedicated, romantic man of my dreams. Oh by the way, you can read all about it in my book.” That might sound great, but that doesn’t reflect the world in which I live.

God does perform miracles—no doubt about that. Read Hebrews 11 and you’ll find a list of astounding events. But keep reading and you’ll find that heroes of the faith also suffered immensely.

When I’m faced with a problem, God can do one of two things: He can either change my circumstances, or He can change me. God does miraculously heal and provide; but even when God miraculously changes my circumstances, he has a habit of waiting until the eleventh hour; and in waiting for the rescue, I’m changed.

I’m convinced that often God is more interested in changing me than my circumstances. That to me is the greater miracle... that God can take something painful—even evil—and turn it into something good.

He did it with Heather. A child conceived through a rape is embraced by her mother as a gift from God. “When I’m weak, then I’m strong.”

God did the same at Calvary. The evil of the cross and Christ’s suffering and death became my life and my salvation. God is more interested in redemption than rescue. Don’t get me wrong. I pray for rescue all the time. But when God changes me, and I have victory over my circumstances, I’m changed and become more like Christ... and that to me is the greater miracle.