Two very rich business partners decide to have a $1 bet over whether someone is successful by nature or only circumstance. To see who is right they strip the guy who will inherit the empire of everything and cast him on the street. At the same time, they pick a random bum off the street and elevate him as the new inheritor of the empire.  From this point on, the wager is all about which of the two men will succeed. Will the rightful heir rise to the top because of his ‘nature’ OR will the bum prove to be equally successful given all the opportunities of the rightful heir?’ The story or movie rather, if you don’t recognise it already is ‘Trading Places’

So what’s this movie got to do with disappointment? Well, consider the book of Job…and it’s hard not to recoil when you read the first chapter or so. It’s one of the few places we are given a view into heaven and see how the world is run from God’s vantage point. What do we see? A wager, a bet between God and Satan over an upright man called Job. Satan taunts God that Job’s righteousness is only a product of circumstance…in other words, Job doesn’t love God for nothing.  God rejects Satan’s accusation, betting that Job will still love God regardless of how good his life is. Game on...

To prove the point, Satan is given access to strip Job of his wealth, comforts, friends and family.

This is the fourth post in a series where we’ve been looking at the subject of disappointment with Godand how to be real with our kids when we are feeling it. If you’ve just tuned in make sure you go back and read the earlier ones in the series as there are also some suggestions for how to help your kids if they are feeling God isn’t answering prayers. Btw, ‘Trading Places’ isn’t a movie for kids as far as I remember!

I’ve found a really helpful book lately, that I’ve mentioned earlier, on this subject called ‘Disappointment with God’ by Philip Yancey. Yancey devotes quite a few pages to Job and provides some really good insights into why Job is such a great book for helping us in times of discouragement or disappointment.
You see, often when we are disappointed with God we put Him in the dock and question His behaviour or lack of intervention. Job did just that, demanding a day in court with God where he could clear his name and force God to correct the wonky direction his life had taken. What the opening chapters show however, is that God is not on trial. Instead it is Job’s faith. Job is being allowed to be tested to prove his faith in God is not just a product of circumstance. God shakes hands with the devil and bets his man Job will love Him and continue to trust Him, regardless.

Far from a distant, disinterested or nonexistent God, which is how we often feel in times of hardship, what we see is a God involved in our lives and prizing one thing above all…our trust in Him. But this begs the question…why should we trust Him? You might well think… ‘Is the concrete ceiling I’m experiencing with my prayers all to do with another of God’s wagers? How can he play with our lives like this, making bets with the devil? Trust him! You’ve got to be kidding!’
Why should we encourage our kids to not ‘dis’ God when there seems to be little sign of his presence as we struggle on?

Thankfully God’s silence, distance and hiddenness from our troubles have been radically cancelled out in the gospel of the New Testament. God became man. When Jesus suffered and died, he united himself with all our grief, loss and abandonment. But as if that wasn’t enough, Jesus left promising ‘not to leave us alone, like orphans’.  His Holy Spirit, given to every believer as a ‘deposit’ to guarantee the eternal future, dwells in us. That’s right…not just head knowledge ‘oh yes, God is with me, somehow’ but actual presence. Just as God’s Son fully ‘tented’ amongst us as a human being, so His Spirit fully ‘tents’ among each one of us. It’s kind of like the incarnation happening all over again, only God is present in not just one man, Jesus, but in each one of us. As God indwells us he also submits himself to the ongoing troubles of each believer. He shares in our ups and downs. He may be betting your faithfulness against the devil’s accusations, but at the same time He’s no longer ringside, but in the ring.

It’s OK to just hang on by a thread like Job did. It’s OK if all you can do is cry ‘help Lord’ or ‘LOVE rescue me!’ And it’s good to be able to ‘let go of it’ like Paul learnt to, knowing that God is not miles away, but most at work when we are ‘shot’.

How do we make sense of this for our kids?

‘Our time’ is not nearly as dim as Job’s. Job didn’t know of Jesus. We can show our kids God is not just up there looking down remotely at our trials. Instead we can show them Jesus who knows how hard it is to feel the full weight of God’s silence in times of desperate need. We can show them that God makes all our hard times purposeful. We can encourage them that God’s Spirit is in them, not judging them or looking down on them for being disappointed, but walking in their shows, arm around them, carrying them forward even.  We can encourage our kids that God’s presence, though not visible (and that can be the hardest thing for a child to accept) is real; He does feel our pain and loss. It’s amazing really…as if suffering on the cross wasn’t enough; God comes back and does it all over again, suffering with us, encouraging us, strengthening us until we get home. I think it’s also safe to say that we can ask God that our kids would be reassured of his real presence somehow. Doesn’t Paul after all, pray that his readers might know the ‘fellowship of the Holy Spirit’?

For now this is the final episode on ‘disappointment with God’ series. I promise to try and lighten up in the coming weeks!
Also, please pray for me as I get ready to perform a new show again from Ecclesiastes 3 ‘If God’s in control, why doesn’t he stop the bad times?’

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