Chapter 7

Reason for Joy: And Yet...

I have to admit it. As I get older, I get more and more distressed at the decay of society. I see so many things in the world that I just shake my head and think, “How stupid!” or “How crass!”

Here on the Gold Coast, where I live, it is one of the most beautiful places on earth. We have wonderful beaches, a delightful climate, all that any person could desire in the physical world; and yet we are troubled by violence and crime at extremely high levels.

In this morning’s newspaper, I read about a tourist who got into an argument with two men at Surfers Paradise, our city centre. One man held him down and the other stomped on his head, leaving him with severe brain damage.

Much of this violence and crime is driven or fuelled by alcohol and illegal drugs. In the midst of such natural blessings, why would people want to spend so much time drunk or under the influence of drugs? In a country where there is so much promise for people who want to work and find purpose in their lives, why would anyone want to muddle up their minds with drugs? I just don’t understand it.

Other people seem to want to spend their time watching television shows that are the adult equivalent of Play School. Watching grown-up children living, eating and talking together in a house full of cameras is just like big people Teletubbies or one of those mid-morning shows that shows children playing together but not actually doing much.

Some of you will think I am just a crabby old sod here, and perhaps I am. But here is my point: this world is a fallen world, and it is full of things that are wrong, ugly, immoral, hurtful or just plain stupid. Think of all of these as examples on a bigger scale:

Industrialisation: As our world has become more and more industrialised, we have allowed some people to become incredibly wealthy, while millions are in poverty. Some nations have more wealth than can possibly be good for them, while others struggle with burdens of debt that they can never recover from. Even within the wealthy nations we have classes of urban poor, workers who are exploited for their labour or who are poisoned with asbestos or chemicals for the sake of company profits.

Medical research: In a world which has gained huge benefits from lifesaving pharmaceuticals, there are companies which make obscene profits from people’s health tragedies. There are people in third world countries who are dying, or going blind, or suffering painful conditions every day for want of a $10.00 medicine or treatment. Again in yesterday’s newspaper, I read that local pharmacies are no longer going to stock Cold and Flu tablets which are very effective treatments for most people, because some people are buying them to extract pseudoephedrine from them to make Ecstasy pills for the night club drug trade.

Parliament and Government: We know that some countries suffer from terrible abuse of power under dictatorships. But here, in our enlightened democracies, we still suffer from levels of corruption, greed, power games and unfair treatment of minorities or unlucky electorates that are totally unnecessary.

Information Technology: The Internet is a wonderful tool for research. Barely a day goes by, but I use it for some search or another. It is such a fast and reliable tool for quick access to knowledge when you understand how to avoid the lunatic fringe and quackery that is so abundant on the web. But anyone who has used the Internet for any time at all, will know that an inevitable result of being exposed to the Web is that some opportunist somewhere will send you unwanted spam mail offering you cheap drugs for all sorts of things that you have absolutely no interest in. Or worse.

Often when I make something new, build a new facility, or develop a new program in my school, I finish it with a certain sadness, which seems to run in my mind along with the sense of pleasure and satisfaction at having created something good.

This sadness derives from the knowledge in the back of my mind, that some person will try to ruin this thing. Somebody will want to put graffiti on it, or break it, or steal the plants from the new landscaping.

Teachers understand that for every exciting new teaching unit that they develop, piece of lab equipment that they purchase, some student will turn up his nose and say, “This is boring”. I've sometimes lashed out at students at such times with a too-quick comment, along the lines of, “There is no such thing as a boring activity: only boring people. If you can’t find interest in this, it’s because you’re too boring to think.” It has sometimes been unkind, as I’m sure I have taught a few boring lessons in my time, but still the sentiment is largely true.

Primo Levi, a survivor of Nazi concentration camps in World War II, said, “It is not given to man to enjoy uncontaminated happiness”. This is one of those simple truisms that when you hear it you just think, “Well, yes, that’s it. That explains why I feel like I do, so often”.

But over against all of that lies another way of thinking. Philip Yancey in one of his books, quotes Elie Wiesel, another Nazi camp survivor, as saying that in the whole of life, two words constantly stand out and need to be added to the particular present that we find ourselves in. Those two words are “And yet…”

In everything, says Wiesel, there may be found a saving grace, a moment of goodness or opportunity, a particular shaft of light, no matter how grim or dismal the present seems to be. The trick in knowing peace and joy, as a deep and abiding sense inside us is to be able to find the “And yet…” factor in our present.

Let’s go back to the big picture items we mentioned above:

Industrialisation: There are so many negative elements that I mentioned above, and yet... The world as a whole enjoys the benefits of machinery, medical advances, transport and food technology, just to name a few. Also, for every greedy Scrooge McDuck industrialist, there are many generous and humanitarian businesses and business people who use their wealth and influence for good.

Medical Research: There are many unethical pharmaceutical practices, and yet... life expectancy has risen by more than 100 percent in the last century, for many people, cancers and heart conditions are now often treatable, surgery saves millions of lives each year, and some terrible scourges such as smallpox and polio have been all but wiped out.

Parliament and Government: We often despair at our self-centred politicians, and yet our western democracies have produced a free world that is wealthy, healthy and free from civil strife and the unfair rules of monarchies that acted despotically for thousands of years. We have justice systems that may not be perfect, but still are far preferable to those in place in many nations around the world.

Information Technology: The Internet does attract paedophiles, scammers and tricksters, and yet... the world of communications is exciting and has enormous untapped potential. The days of waiting three months for a letter from England to arrive by sailing ship in Australia, have gone for ever. We now feel annoyed if we can’t speak by phone or internet to a person anywhere in the world at any time, for moderately small cost. We can speak to astronauts hundreds of thousands of miles away in outer space. We can see bacteria growing inside our bodies via electron microscopes, receive significant surgery by laser, and drive our cars home an hour later.

This “And yet…” philosophy is one which can save us from cynicism and depression. We can always find the positive in anything – yes, anything – if we really look for it, through a thoughtful application of the “And yet…” approach.

The Christian gospel which is characterised by the events of that first Easter, has something to say to us here. In the Christian worldview, everything is marked for redemption.

This is the whole point of Easter. The whole world may be ruined, but it is targeted for renewal. Every person may be flawed in some way (and some perhaps more than others) but we are all open to the possibility of re-creation.

In the letter written to a young man, just starting out in his life and his Christian ministry, an older, experienced man wrote this as an encouragement to the young mane who would no doubt face lots of trials and problems: I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.

For “that day”? The day he is referring to is the day of final accounting, the day when all the secrets of men and women will be revealed, the day when justice will finally come for the widow, the beaten down, the poor, the deserted wife or husband, the abandoned child, the pillaged nation, the victim of religious bigotry.

On that day, he says, he is totally confident that Jesus will be there to defend him, and to return to home what is his right and due reward. This is the great “And yet…” of the Christian life.

We say, “Lighten up”, when we think someone is getting too dour and miserable. Lighten up, with balloons, with streamers and with a party face. Sometimes, that can be just too difficult. Ask the exhausted housewife or mother at the end of the day with a house in a mess, the kids cranky and fighting, her husband still on the golf course, or at work to put on a party face and she will probably throw something at you. And so she should.

But even in that moment, there can still be the deeper sense of joy underneath that it will be OK, in the end. “All will be well, and all will be well, all manner of things shall be well”, wrote Lady Julian of Norwich. Because at the end of it all, Jesus has been resurrected, the world is waiting for its redemption day, and there will be an ending where joy and peace as a result of making friends with God again. Despite all of today’s problems, peace and harmony are still possibilities and eventual realities if we put our trust in God.

What if all of us took on this “And yet…” philosophy?

“I've got to do bus duty, and it’s raining; “And yet…” there are kids there who will appreciate me.”

“Young George in my class is a real nuisance, and never behaves himself, “And yet…” he’s got a really nice nature, or a quick sense of humour, or is a really good artist, ...”

“My work colleague didn’t do the right thing by me last week, “And yet...” I can overlook it because I know he often struggles to get to work being happy because of his home life, and mine isn’t all that bad.”

I once had a friend who had been a missionary in China for thirty years. After the Cultural Revolution in China, when all foreigners were expelled or shot, he moved to Japan, learnt another new language over again, at the age of fifty, and stayed there aw missionary for another twenty years. When he finally retired to Australia, he was an old man in his late 70’s. But he had a wonderful sense of humour, loads of grace and humility and a fund of great stories. He had buried two children in China, and his first wife in Japan.

No matter what the situation was, Arthur could find a positive spin to put on it. He was a delightful character, and I spent a lot of time talking to him. One of the stories he told that I remember well concerned a minister who was an absolutely terrible preacher. He would bore his congregation to sleep every Sunday, with the most awful sermons. This minister would choose a text – a verse or two from the Bible and preach about it for a long time and say nothing of any value.

In his congregation was one old man who had the capacity to always be positive. He never had a bad word to say about anyone. Each week, he would find something positive to say about the preacher and his sermon, to everyone else’s frustration. After one particularly awful sermon, a member of the congregation came up to the old man and said, “Well, you can’t possibly find anything good to say about that! Admit it, it was a terrible sermon.” The old man paused for a moment, then with his eyes full of gentleness, he said, “It was a wonderful text”.

Here is the principle, in practice, of finding the “And yet…” How much gossip, how much criticism, how much hurtful talk would be prevented if we could all choose to search for the “And yet…” in our conversations about others.

Read one of the great passages of the Bible, as it talks about how Jesus suffered terribly for our sin, but as one who knew the possibility of “And yet…”

He was despised and rejected--a man of sorrows, acquainted with bitterest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way when he went by. He was despised, and we did not care.

Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God for his own sins! But he was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace. He was whipped, and we were healed! All of us have strayed away like sheep. We have left God's paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the guilt and sins of us all.

He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. From prison and trial they led him away to his death. But who among the people realized that he was dying for their sins--that he was suffering their punishment? He had done no wrong, and he never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man's grave.

But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and fill him with grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have a multitude of children, many heirs. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s plan will prosper in his hands. When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of what he has experienced, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins. I will give him the honors of one who is mighty and great, because he exposed himself to death. He was counted among those who were sinners. He bore the sins of many and interceded for sinners.

Isaiah 53: 3 – 12

The “And yet…” is the antidote to the Fall of mankind. It is the cure to all of our sadnesses. Our task is to apply the “And yet...” to all of life’s situations, and to see the potential for redemption in the most terrible of circumstances, or the most degraded of human beings.

God calls us to this constant redemptive work. It is our daily task, and as we practise it, it will lighten up our workplace, our lives, our homes, more than a billion balloons ever could.

Family JoyFinder

Read aloud this passage from Isaiah 53 with your family. Talk about what you think it means to you.

Are there things in your family that are causing you grief or annoyance?
Try applying the “And yet…” philosophy to those situations. What are the “And yets…” that can make a difference to how you are feeling.

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