Loss Syndrome
Luke 17:32-33 NIV
Remember Lot's wife! Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it,
and whoever loses his life will preserve it.
What Have You Lost?
Loss, or the threat of loss, is one of the greatest
enemies of our peace of mind. When I was
in graduate school, I was fired from a part time job as an attendant at the
campus gym. After being told I was
“relieved of my duties”, I went back to my dorm room and I wept. This was a terrific blow leveled against
me. I felt humiliated. I wondered what my worth was as it was just a
goofy little job that anyone could do…but clearly not me. I was afraid to walk down the streets of the
campus knowing students would be looking at me in a new way; I was the one
fired from the gym job. I was afraid of what others now thought of me. I was
afraid of how I would pay my school fees without the job. How could I find another job as good as that
one? It felt like my world had fallen
apart and I was afraid that it could not be put back together. All I could think about in my little room
while I sat on my bed was all the losses I would face now. I had lost a great job and I had lost my
sense of worth with it and possibly my ability to stay in school. The losses were too great for me to bear!
Losses come upon us often without warning and in
dreadful ways. A good friend suddenly
cuts off all communication with you. You
get sick and the days you lose can never be regained. A ministry ends that you loved and believed
would have a tremendous impact. The
career you once believed would be so great is now a dead end. Your degree has become worthless and now you
have to somehow pay off the debt you owe for your college degree. A love you cherished fades and someone you
respected so much before has let you down.
Some losses are barely noticeable and others take your breath away. Losses seem so unfair, so cruel at
times. You had hoped for so much more
but losses made you cynical and moody.
What are we to do about the losses we face? How are we to respond to loss?
If the ancient book of Job tells us anything, it is
that Satan can hurl great big boulders at us, terrifying boulders. Some of us have felt like Job because there
are boulders that have hit us squarely too.
A friend wants to talk with us and it turns out he is deeply insulted by
something we have said or done. The
owner of the company tells us layoffs are starting. The doctor calls us into the office to
discuss our test results. We make an
investment and it wrecks us. A child of
ours renounces Christianity. The boulders
slam us and we have a terrible time knowing what to do with Satan’s attacks
upon us. When Satan went after Job, the
patriarch did not think a bit about Satan…all he could see was the loss he
encountered and how unfair it all seemed.
It was unfair and Job was right about that.
Satan is a master at bringing us loss. Satan disrupts our plans. For we wanted to come to you — certainly
I, Paul, did, again and again — but Satan stopped us. (1 Thessalonians 2:18
NIV) How many of us have looked forward
to a holiday that when it came, fell apart!
Satan has wrecked many long anticipated events. Satan also torments us with worries and
dissatisfaction and injuries and hardships.
To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly
great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of
Satan, to torment me. (2 Corinthians 12:7 NIV) Satan can make our friends a stumbling block
for us. Jesus turned and said to
Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not
have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." (Matthew 16:23
NIV) Who hasn’t at some time or another
felt betrayed by a friend who we trusted!
That is a terrible loss and Satan is the master at taking apart
friendships. We also know that Satan
turns authorities against us so that those in positions of power can be used by
Satan to multiply our losses. Do not
be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some
of you in prison to test you… (Revelation 2:10 NIV) There are some losses
we face that are due to our bad decisions and poor planning. Satan even disrupts our thinking so that we
go up against God to our loss. Then
Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that
you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money
you received for the land? (Acts 5:3-4 NIV)
It is impossible to calculate how many bad decisions we have made
because we have let Satan have sway over our thinking!
When Elijah the prophet fled the evil Queen Jezebel
who threatened to kill him, he wound up in a cave and something that is
enlightening for us occurred there. As
Elijah recuperated from his terrifying and exhausting flight, he was greeted in
that cave by a series of horrifying calamities.
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered
the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind
there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the
Lord was not in the fire. (1 Kings 19:11-12 NIV) Famously, after the fire was a whispering
voice that Elijah heard which was either external to him or placed by God
straight into his mind and that whisper was God. Each of these terrifying events…the great
wind, the earthquake and the fire were clearly not from God or at least God was
not “in them”. So who was in them? Would we be off-base if we said “Satan”? They seem to have been supernaturally
caused. It’s not like rock shattering
winds, earthquakes and fires pile up together in the normal, natural
realm. Regardless of their point of
origin, we do know that if we were there, we would have been frightened by it
all.
We suffer many losses in our lifetimes and most we
barely notice. They may be irritating or
even a bit maddening but never really frightening. Every once in a while though, like Elijah’s
wind and earthquake and fire, they are stunning and mind-numbing and we care
very much about them. And the Lord is
not in those losses. Satan is behind
them and we must remember who the taker is, who the thief that robs us is…who is
behind the storm we fear.
With Jesus resting peacefully at the back of their
boat, the disciples encountered a great storm.
Now this storm must have been bigger than usual because although several
of the disciples were seasoned fisherman, they all were panicked by the
storm. Without warning, a furious
storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was
sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We're
going to drown!" (Matthew 8:24-25 NIV)
Let us now make a point that perhaps is unnecessary but pertinent to our
discussion. First, Jesus was not going
against the Father in calming the storm.
The Son never opposed the Father in anything. His work as Savior was to
put an end to the wreckage brought on by Satan and sin and in that deliverance
came the calming of the storm. Second,
the storm did not frighten the disciples.
It may have been wild and potentially deadly but it was not what
terrified the disciples. What brought on
their panic was the possible loss of life they faced because of the storm. The storm itself was exciting, maybe even
thrilling with the giant waves, the billowing, boiling clouds, the claps of
thunder and bolts of lightning. The thought of terrific loss though made them
scared out of their skulls and they could not take it. Loss is not our problem; it is the fear of
loss that we must battle. Now how did
the disciples cope with their fear of loss?
They went straight to Jesus Christ.
They did not paddle harder or duck behind the walls of the boat, they
went directly to Christ.
There are two key considerations when it comes to
losses. The first is that if God is not
in the losses, then the probability is that Satan is involved. Therefore, it is not God who we blame and
avoid when the storm comes that threatens to take away from us what we
love. It is Satan. Second, the loss is rarely as grave and
horrifying as the fear of the loss. Many
have suffered terrible losses in their lives and been just as peaceful and calm
as Jesus sleeping in the back of the boat.
They may have been completely overwhelmed emotionally by the coming
losses but afterward, they found comfort.
King David comes to mind. He
wept and fasted and begged God to intervene while his son was deathly ill but
once the child died, he became calm and unperturbed. Now this may sound cold and inhumane on
David’s part but perhaps we have left out the supernatural component to
loss. Maybe David was helped by God when
the loss came to pass. Perhaps in his
begging for God to not take his baby away, it brought into the event the
supernatural kindness of God to comfort the inconsolable soul when the loss did
come to pass. Like the disciples who
turned to Jesus when the storm raged, David went to the Lord when the storm he
faced raged.
Because this world is wrecked by sin, dying is all
around us and it hits us directly.
Dreams of careers die. Marriages
die. Plans we have for our children
die. Vacations fall apart and
investments collapse. This happens and
Satan is directly involved in many of these “deaths”. We must face squarely this matter of death
and dying in every realm we travel.
Friendships die and dinner arrangements die and much of what we hope to
have goes up in smoke. But there is one
matter we must put into our equation of loss.
Jesus Christ is “in the boat”.
Satan may take our lunch but Jesus Christ is in the boat and when the
disciples went to Him, they gained peace...a supernatural peace. It is hard when the storm strikes to go to
Jesus Christ then and there. We are
captivated by the storm and all we can think about are the losses we are going
to face and perhaps we are angry with God for the storm. We are in a way mesmerized by our fear and
frustration and even anger over what is happening but Christ is in the
boat. The storm that rocks us rocks Him
too. When we turn to Him, we may not
lose what we thought was lost. He may
completely take the storm away. He can
do that and He may do that. We must have
a little bit of faith but if we do, He might take our storm from us. But if He doesn’t and He lets Satan steal
something from us, He will give us peace…a supernatural peace. Anyone can have peace when it is smooth sailing;
but Christ gives us peace when the storm comes headlong into us. You may not think you need the peace of
Christ now…everything is nice and easy for you.
But the time will come when Satan will throw a great storm at you, a
storm too big for your peace to handle and when He does, remember that Christ
is in the boat and if you turn to Him, He will give you His peace…and you will
have peace that is supernatural and big enough to carry you through whatever
loss you face.
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