Surgery

So it’s no new news that 2020 was a really difficult and confusing year. I probably won’t be the first person to tell you about how horrible the previous set of 365 days were (If you’re on Tik Tok, ye’ probably know lol). It sucked for a lot of us, didn’t it? I know people who lost close family members, some friends whose parents lost jobs, some acquaintances who went through extreme anxiety and panic, some peers who endured heavy disappointment and some family who just felt like giving up. Last year put loads and dump trucks of emotional and mental tax on us, and we found out that we weren’t as resilient as we thought we’d be.

If you’re anything like me, you were probably left asking yourself as well as others (and maybe even God) a few questions. I personally wondered what the point of last year was. It honestly didn’t make any sense. Why would a year whose digits paired perfectly be so full of chaos and disorder? Who’s going to be the next Black Panther? Why are so many people more cautious about the vaccine than they are about the virus itself? 2020 felt like a paradox. At one stage, I thought it to be entirely possible that heaven’s management team might have been servicing a black whole somewhere two galaxies away, left it open without finishing the job, and 2020 was the result of their work not being done properly. I know that sounds a bit on the far end, but last year was on the far end as well. It seemed perfectly sensible to me that last year’s chaos required a chaotic explanation. To be honest, the question that still bothers my mind is this: How do I reconcile the absolute reality that God is good with the uncomfortable fact that 2020 sucked?

Here’s my shot at it.

Think about this for a second; a serial killer and a surgeon might both regularly gut people’s stomachs open. When the murderer does it, it’s a bad thing. However, when the surgeon does so, the action is good. Why is it that a surgeon cutting someone’s abdomen open is good, but a horror movie type homicidal maniac doing it is wrong? At least one reason stands out to me: the serial killer does it for the purpose of causing harm; the surgeon does it for the purpose of good. It’s entirely possible that one action in a specific context can be bad, but that same action in another context can be beneficial. Here’s a sobering thought. Could it be possible that what unstable and malevolent human beings (and the devil too) intend for harm, God would intend for good? What if the disorder created by human beings in 2020, for the purpose of doing bad, God had allowed for the purpose of causing good?

I’m aware that might not answer some of your questions about personal experiences that occurred last year, but let’s try and play out a scenario quickly. Imagine that you were a four year old playing around in the hospital waiting area, and your curiosity led you to exploring the ER room. As you entered, you saw a team of adults with surgical masks cutting open someone’s body and causing blood to leak everywhere. As a toddler, that would probably be a confusing and scary experience for you, right?  Why would grown-ups be gutting open another human being and causing him to bleed? The mind of a four year old, not yet having the experience to understand what was going on, would probably ask why these adults were causing harm and pain to another person. In REALITY, the team of surgeons would actually be doing a good thing. Your young mind would need another adult to explain to you what surgery was, and why they had to operate on that poor man’s body.  I think that our perspectives on life, as compared to God’s infinite wisdom, are like that of four year olds. What seems to us like mayhem, bloodshed and suffering in the world, is to God surgery on a broken and needy earth. 2020 was like an operating or emergency room in a hospital, and we walked right into the heat of it.

There’s scriptural support for this too. When Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers and put into prison for doing the right thing, he probably also felt like his world was ending. However, when his brothers came to ask him (Joseph now being prince of Egypt) for food, and they realised that it was their baby brother whom they had bullied and humiliated, Joseph said these words to them – “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Genesis 50:20).

The cross could be explained like that too. What seems to us like a violent and gory death (crucifixion) is in reality the vehicle that God used to save the world from its sin. When Jesus’ world was ending, he was really saving our world from ending.

Keep that in mind as you step in 2021. As painful as it was, it was just surgery. Heck, it might still be. However, God’s still in control. His thoughts are much more calculative and complex than ours. We see our immediate circumstances; God sees the good that our present situations will lead to in the future and long run.

So as we learn to walk by faith and not our sight, as we embark on viewing things from an eternal perspective, try and remember Romans 8: 28 - “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them” (NLT).

Trust the surgeon. J