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World Cup is finally over. The championship match was just a week ago. Some people watched it at church.
What a slow but intense game it was! Spain didn’t give Argentina an inch. Their win was well-deserved.
While the champions were celebrating their victory, the world also saw Lionel Messi standing alone, lost in thought. He was processing Argentina’s loss. He even shed some tears.
People said this might be his last World Cup. If it is, then I’m sure he wanted his last one to end with a win. No loss is easy to accept.
Later, I read an interview he did with Novak Djokovic. When he was asked how he learned to deal with pressure in his career, he answered:
From a young age, I understood that you lose more than you win. I believe that realization helped me mature, both as a person and as a player.
You lose more than you win. That is true. The same can be said about our life.
We experience more setbacks than successes. The highs are far and few.
We go through more dark and difficult days than bright and exciting days. Life is not always good to us. That is the reality.
We face all kinds of setbacks. We don’t get into the school we want. We have a difficult time at work. Our relationships break down. We are hit with an unexpected illness.
These things don’t always come one at a time. Sometimes, they come all at once.
These setbacks sting us with disappointment. They make us feel powerless and lost. They take away any hope we may have had about our future. They can even destroy us.
So how does knowing this help us? Does it really make us more mature? Just accepting whatever comes doesn’t really do much good. Some people never fully recover from the setbacks that they face.
Yet, St. Paul tells us something important today.
It comes from the passage we read:
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
The entire passage is Paul’s beautiful meditation on God’s unchanging love. It speaks of how nothing can separate us from God’s love in Jesus Christ, and how the Spirit helps us in our weakness.
This particular verse falls at the centre of the passage. So, I see this verse as the anchor of today’s scripture reading.
God is working for you. That is basically Paul’s message.
Not just in some things – like only when we have good days. But in all things – including the challenges we face along the way.
People often misunderstand this verse. Some think it means doing good things will always bring good results. Others think that it means those who believe in God will always experience good things in life.
But we know that neither of those are true. The rain falls on the just and the unjust.
What Paul telling us here is that nothing can stop or hinder God’s good intentions for us. That even in our darkest times, God is working hard behind the scenes to fulfill his good purpose in our lives.
In that sense, God’s love overrides anything that this world may bring us. God’s love is God’s power. It is God who brings light out of darkness.
We see that most clearly in Job.
Job suffered immensely. His life was one of intense and relentless suffering. Not only physically, but emotionally and spiritually as well.
No one could explain why a good man like him had to go through the tragedy and the pain he experienced. The problem of suffering remained.
Then God appeared to Job. What did he do?
He did not explain away or rationalize Job’s suffering. Instead, he pointed to creation. The site of order emerging out of chaos.
In the mystery of creation, God revealed the transformative power that is hidden in our suffering. Power that does not destroy and bring death, but power that builds up and brings life.
Then, this confession came out of Job’s mouth:
“I know that you can do all things
and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me that I did not know. (Job 42:2, 3)
Paul also experienced this mystery of God’s wonderful work in his life.
To me, what Job spoke of is also at the heart of Paul’s confession in today’s passage. He even said: “If God is for us, then who can be against us?”
We may not be able to always fathom God’s ways, but it does not change the fact that he is always working for us.
When we know this truth, we will be able to face our setbacks gracefully.
By knowing, I don’t mean knowing it intellectually. That does nothing to us. By knowing, I mean believing it.
Listen again to what Paul said:
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
God works all things together for good for who? For those who love God.
In other words – those who believe and trust that God will take care of them, no matter what.
This is not a talk about God blessing certain people and not others. God does not show favouritism.
God shows his grace to all people. Jews and Gentiles are God’s chosen people.
But not everyone recognizes what God does. Only who trust in him are able to see how God works all things together for good. Faith opens our eyes to the reality of God’s grace, especially in difficult and challenging circumstances.
That was the message I shared at TKPC last Sunday. I attended their English ministry service. I reflected on Paul’s words from Philippians to rejoice always.
The congregation went through a difficult time in recent years. Following the human sexuality debate in our denomination, more than half the members left – including the minister. Only a handful of people remained.
They were a vibrant congregation at one time. Even more so in the past. Rev. Kim’s ministry was the first EM ministry in North America.
Following the split, they had to start again from scratch. But around three years ago, they were able to call a new minister and also ordain a new elder. Their numbers aren’t what it once was – but now they have a praise team, a youth pastor, and a seminary student.
Many challenges still lie ahead. But from my visit, I saw visible traces of God’s work in their midst.
I said our rejoicing comes from our awareness of God’s grace. I reminded them that God who began a good work in them will bring it to completion.
Do you believe that God is working for you? If you do, then do not worry or be afraid. Trust that you are in his good hands.
God is greater than our thoughts. God is greater than our mistakes and failures. God’s love surrounds us every moment.
No setback we face will destroy us. God will make us stronger through it. God will make us whole.
Paul ends his confession in this way:
No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37-39)
We are more than victorious. I like that.
We may lose more than we win in life. But in Christ, we have already overcome the world. We are winners.
In that sense, we don’t just accept whatever comes passively. We face it courageously. We continually take our journey with faith.
So in all circumstances, especially in difficult ones, trust God. Rest in his love. Pray in the Spirit. Wait and see how God fulfills his good purpose in your life.
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