Leaky Faith: God’s Work through Uncertainty
“An old Chinese farmer saved up small amounts of money over a year to buy a new horse. Just a day after the farmer bought the horse, it ran away. His neighbour expressed grief, but the farmer himself was calm. “I hope you can get over this bad news” said the neighbor. “Good news or bad news, can’t say” replied the farmer.
The next day, the horse returned to the farmer’s house by itself, and brought another stray horse with it. “Cheer up, we’re going to multiply our farm income. That’s great news” said the farmer’s son. “Good news or bad news, can’t say” replied the farmer and carried on with his work.
A week later, the farmer took the first horse to his farm and his son took the second horse to follow his father to work. On the way, the second horse pushed the boy down and ran away. The boy’s leg was fractured badly. That evening back home, the farmer’s wife groaned “We will have to spend all our extra savings on our son’s broken leg. What terrible news”. Once again, the farmer replied: “Good news or bad news, can’t say.”
A month later, the farmer’s King announced a war on the neighboring nation. Citing a lack of foot soldiers, the King ordered all able-bodied men in the nation to get drafted into the military without excuses. The farmer’s son was spared because of his broken leg. Later, the inexperienced soldiers got slaughtered in the war. “You are lucky that your son did not get drafted. Mine returned with severe injuries. Many have been handicapped or killed” complained the farmer’s best friend. Unabashed, the farmer responded: “Good news or bad news, can’t say”. (1)
I’m sure that many of us have heard this fable about the wise farmer. This story illustrates a truth common to human experience which is that we know very little about how circumstances affect our lives. So often we think of circumstances as either being “good” or “bad,” but this is over-simplistic thinking. What we think of as being “bad” may in the end really be good. And sometimes what we think of as “good,” can hold dangers which may cause us to fall.
But underlying every situation, the Christian can be confident that God is sovereignly working through everything to accomplish His plan and His good purposes. Even through we often sin, fail and make poor decisions, His wisdom supersedes our feeble understanding of the world which He created.
Recently we ran into a plumbing problem at our house. The toilet shut-off valve started leaking and would not stop even after being turned to the “shut” position. I crawled under the house following the rusty pipes looking for another valve to stop the leak to the bathroom, but there was nothing to do besides turning the water off to the entire house. Under the dripping toilet valve was a crumbling metal pipe that probably should have been replaced years ago but somehow was still intact. I knew that this simple leak would probably turn into a huge headache and since I know very little about plumbing repair a professional needed to be called.
Because we rent the home we are in, we were not responsible for the financial cost of this repair, however, it was an inconvenience to be without water for a day or two. Also I felt bad for my dad who, being the landlord, had to add this problem onto his already large slate of difficulties he deals with every day. Kristin and I were feeling the pressure and stress of the situation and were struggling to see anything “good” in what God was doing in this situation, even though it was only a small inconvenience.
A couple of days later when the workers arrived, they did an excellent job and worked tirelessly to get the job done. The crawlspace under our house is very narrow which requires anyone trying to access the bathroom to slide on their belly for at least 15-20 feet in some places, pressing themselves into the ground and hoping that they clear the floor joists.
When the workers finished, they told us that something felt off about the whole thing. The pressure in the house still wasn’t what it should be with the replaced line. So they went and checked the wellhouse. There they found that the main pipe coming out of the well was broken, resulting in a contained flood which kept the pump running 24/7 with the switch melted into the “on” position.
Since the well pump is submerged and quiet we had no idea this was happening. Every day for an unknown amount of time the pump had been running constantly which would have resulted in an eventual overheating and “burn up”. If it wasn’t for the leaky bathroom valve, within a short period of time this unknown problem at the well-house would have turned into a much more expensive repair.
Now looking back at this situation it was clear that God was working even through this minor inconvenience. Often it may be years before we see what God is working to accomplish but in this case it was only a matter of a little more than 24 hours. I am ashamed of my lack of faith in what God was doing, allowing myself to become stressed and anxious so quickly.
As we recognize how little we really understand about the circumstances of our lives our response can go one of two ways (or be a mixture of both). First, we can be fearful and afraid of everything that happens to us, because each change may represent a threat that is unseen. Or instead we can trust, being confident that the Maker of the universe can absolutely produce good from our knee injury or car accident. The sovereign Lord who has found a way to save fallen mankind can absolutely take a plumbing problem and turn it into a cause for rejoicing.
Scripture reminds us of this truth of God’s ability to turn each situation into good. Romans 8:28 states that “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
Because of our naturally unbelieving hearts this truth can not be simply absorbed when we read it for the first time. Instead it is learned from our day to day challenges as we practice our faith by responding to each situation God sovereignly places in our lives. Over time, our faith grows as we are challenged over and over again to trust God in every circumstance.
This growth is illustrated in Scripture as Abraham demonstrates his lack of faith time and time again early in the account of his life. He claims that his wife is his sister to avoid being killed and also doubts Sarah’s ability to have a child by impregnating Hagar. But as he sees God’s sovereign intervention over and over he grows in his faith, even to the point of being willing to sacrifice his only son to be obedient to God’s will. Later in Abraham’s life he blindly sends his servant to a faraway land to find Isaac a wife, trusting that God would provide yet again. Through all of this growth God shows incredible patience to Abraham as He does to us who are in Christ as we feebly seek to trust Him.
The Christian can take comfort in knowing that the darkest situation anyone has ever been in has already happened on the cross. If God can take Christ’s death and produce glory, He can take our comparably small inconveniences of life and produce greater faith, patience and further reasons to worship Him. His hidden hand works in the dark while we cry out because of our pain and weakness. We live in hope for the day these things will be revealed and we can worship Him to an even fuller extent.
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