Rejoicing in the Hope of the Glory of God (by Josh)

This most recent week has been full with feelings of sadness, pain, and wonder as well as knowledge of the faithfulness, glory, and love of God. Truths from Romans 5, 8, and the entire biblical promise of hope of renewal for all things have been place weightily on my heart and those of our whole house.

If you have been following updates on Facebook or the blog, you know of six year old Sok and may even feel like you know the little boy. He’s really great! He’s warm, funny, and steals your heart in an instant. Without evening knowing you, he will ask you to come with him to his room to play with cars. He’ll ask you to sit down with him in our big chairs to play with a staff member’s iPhone. He even asked me to accompany him to the bathroom this morning… ha.

Sok’s story is one of great sadness and difficulty, but also of God’s nearness and love. I want to write, to highlight and glorify God’s goodness in the midst of difficulty. Difficulty that is not only occasional, but difficulty, pain, and suffering that can and often does characterize all of our life. I’ll rewind to a few separate instances this past week to show you what God has been teaching me about hungering for, hoping in, and finding comfort in God’s revealed and promised glory.

Last weekend I was sick. It was not fun at all – fever, achy stomach, and diarrhea. I’ll spare you any more details. Curled up on the bed though, seeking a position that might ease the stomach pain, God comforted me. Laying on my side, curled up, God prompted me to flip over so my stomach and face faced the bed, still curled up. Once here in this posture, which resembled one you may get into while praying – on your knees, face down – God reminded me that it is ultimately in Him that we are to seek comfort in life. I was seeking comfort in my sickness, but intended to remind me and teach me that in the pains of this life it is in our good, present, and sovereign God that we are to seek our rest and comfort. God reminded me that he is making all things new in that moment of sickness and pain.

A few days after recovering, a good friend and HPC staff member was getting a tattoo. His tattoo reads, “ZION” and it is written on his chest near his heart. He decided to get this tattoo after reading through the prophets and seeing how close Zion – the biblical image of God’s dwelling, his heavenly city of renewal – was to the heart and message of God in the Old Testament. I was there when he laid down to get his tattoo. Nervous and anticipating the pain as he lay there, I told my friend jokingly, but in truth, that this tattooing experience is analogous to the meaning of the actual tattoo. The pain of the experience would only last so long, but would come to an end of joy that the tattoo was completed and the city of God near his heart.

Later that night, we found out that Sok – the little, sweet boy who steals your heart when he mimics the English phrases he hears – would be staying with us at our house in a hospice care function as the hospitals could do no more for his heart and we could at least provide for him a home of comfort and enjoyment in his last days. His father too would stay with us to care for him and receive some counseling as he lost his son. This task of housing Sok was a difficult one for me to swallow initially. I have never been so close to death in my late teen and adult years. Never so close to a father’s loss of a son. Never so close to having to actually lean on my theology of death and passing on from this life. After a meeting at our director’s home to prep for this responsibility and sacrifice, us four interns (now five) and an HPC staff had a very somber tuk tuk ride back to the house to ready the room for Sok’s stay. I was struggling during that tuk tuk ride, sitting there quite, staring off into the night sky with my eyes watering. The interns were having a conversation, but I was not there mentally. I was in my heart and in my head reconciling emotions and thoughts and biblical truths about the experience to come. Tears were hard to hold back. My HPC staff friend  who had gotten the tattoo saw my feelings from the other side of the tuk tuk and, without saying anything, just pealed back his shirt collar a bit to reveal to me, “ZION.” He was reminding me of the words we had spoken to one another earlier in the day of God’s faithfulness to end the sufferings and pain of this world to bring about his full and manifest glory. A strong reminder of this truth was what I needed in that moment and God was faithful to speak it to me through a friend in a silent, but powerful way.

God wants these truths to sink firmly into my heart: this world is suffering and groaning for His salvation; He is sovereign to accomplish all He purposes; He is bringing new life and certain hope to this world now; He will bring His full and manifest glory at the completion of this age, silencing all injustice, making right all wrongs, and healing all pains for the glory of His holy, just, good, and loving name.

Paul writes expressing these truths, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:18-21).

Not all of God’s creation knows it, but there is a deep longing inside of us all and in everything of this world which screams out for God’s holiness and for the accompanying renewal of God’s presence. In Christ, we know this truth and are conscious of the groanings for renewal inside of ourselves and in all the creation around us. We see the results of the fallen nature of man and of the world. We see the product of finding our deepest satisfactions in things other than the one, true God. It is heart breaking – the sufferings of the world. Paul writes earlier however, in chapter five of Romans, that “we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:2) – a hope not yet realized, but certain and promised from a good, loving God who is sovereign and effective to carry out his purposes. From God, we can count on promises as sure and reliable; so sure and reliable that we live by them in God-given faith as truth and reality that they are. God counsels us, “I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it” (Isaiah 46:11b).

God’s revelation of himself to us is precious. It is precious like water to our souls in a dry, dry desert. His sovereignty and His goodness as revealed to us in scripture, history, and experience are of irreplaceable importance to our existence as His children. He has faithfully provided Himself as the portion we long for in the difficulty of this life, and has promised himself to be the greatest source of joy and satisfaction in this life and the next as we bring great glory to his name.

Sok has been in good spirits all week. He, his father, and some HPC staff will be leaving our house Monday for Vietnam to begin receiving medical attention that may extend his life into his teenage years. A specialized team in Vietnam has made what we thought impossible, a possibility. Pray for Sok’s travel, as it could be stressful on his health, and for the entire opportunity before him. Pray for his father, as these past few months have already been life changing for him. Pray for the truths and promises of God to rest heavily on the hearts and minds of our staff to motivate and comfort us. Pray for the coming glory of our God.

To Him be all praise and glory and honor forever in all places and from all peoples. Amen.

-Josh