Excerpt from Ron Dunn: His Life and Mission (pgs 89-90,91-93)
From Sermon entitled, "Surprise, it's God"
“Surprise 3: The biggest surprise of all is to discover that good and bad run on parallel tracks and they usually arrive about the same time.
Some of you are going to start trying to find that in our text. Well, it isn’t worded exactly like that, but the lesson that good and bad run on parallel tracks and usually arrive at the same time is here. You see, Jacob got what he wanted. He received the blessing he asked for, but he also got something he didn’t want. He got a limp. He hasn’t bargained for that. He hasn’t asked for that.
The Bible says that the angel blessed him. This is the only place in Scripture that a blessing is ever attained through a struggle. Normally blessings are conferred. You don’t get them because you’ve been in a fight. Jacob had never had to struggle with anything in his life. He had always depended on his wits and conniving to get ahead, but this time he had to fight for what he wanted, and he got it. ‘Thank you Lord for the blessing.’ But he also got something he didn’t want – he got something he hadn’t counted on.
The view of life that many of us have is that right now some good things are happening, but there are also a lot of bad things happening, and we know that’s not the way life is meant to be. Good stuff, fine, but all the bad stuff? That’s not the way God intends it to be so I think I’ll just pull over here on the side and wait for awhile because I know that eventually it’s all going to work out and life will be all good. I’m going to put life on hold for a bit and then, when I finish school, when I get married, when the kids get grown, when I get past all of this, then I’ll really start living.
One of these days, when I’m successful enough, when I’m rich enough, life is going to be just fine. Isn’t that what we hope for? What we’re going through now is just kind of a rehearsal for the good times, but the truth of the matter is that good and bad run on parallel tracks and they usually arrive about the same time.”
“Let me try to illustrate what we’ve been talking about. Kaye and I have two good friends who have a daughter who, some years ago, started dating a boy who had serious character flaws. The parents did what all good parents would do: they began warning their daughter about the dangers of getting serious with this boy. But in spite of the warnings, the daughter went on to marry this young man.
A few years ago and two babies later, the parent’s evaluation of this person proved true, and he walked out on her. I’ve never seen anyone so hurt as those parents were. They were devastated, as was their daughter. She’d been abandoned. Kaye and I prayed with them; we cried with them; we did everything we could to help them. Then, one night while we were driving home, I began to fantasize.
Now one of my favorite fantasies is playing God. You know, I’d just like to be God for a day. Kind of like that program my mother used to listen to on the radio, Queen for a Day. Yes, if only I could be “God for a day,” I’d straighten a lot of things out. From my viewpoint it seems like God is wasting a lot of good power.
As I drove, I got to thinking about our dear friends. What if I could tell them that God has given me a special dispensation, that He has fixed it so that I’m now able to reverse this whole tragedy with their daughter. I can turn back the calendar so that she never meets that boy, she never marries him, she never has to go through all the heartache she’s been experiencing, she’ll never have to shed any tears over being abandoned.
‘Isn’t that great?’ I’d tell them. ‘God has given me the power to fix it all right now. Do you want me to do it?’
‘Oh, before you answer, there’s one thing that I ought to mention. You do realize, of course, that if I turn back the clock so this tragedy will have never happened, you’ll have to give up those two grandbabies.’
‘What’s that you say?’
‘Oh, I’m sure you love them, but, you see, you can’t have it both ways. You sure don’t want the pain, do you?’
‘No, I didn’t think so. And you don’t want the heartbreak, so… what’s that? You don’t want to give up the babies? But, you see, if I turn the clock back, you can’t keep the babies. To undo this tragedy, you’re going to have to give up those babies. I need your answer.’
Well, what would your answer be? If you had to make a choice like that, what would you say?
Recently, after a service in Louisiana, I saw an older man standing near the book table with a little baby wrapped up in a pink blanket. I walked over to him and asked, ‘What do you have there?’ Tears welled up in that ole boys eyes as he said, ‘Oh preacher, this is my granddaughter.’ He said, ‘The day our daughter came home pregnant was the darkest day of my life. I thought I’d die. But, oh preacher, this precious girl is the joy of my life.’
Let me ask you a question. ‘How can you say that what happened to the daughter of my friend was all evil when out of it came two precious lives that you would die for?’ Good and evil run on parallel tracks and arrive about the same time. Jacob got what he wanted, but he also got what he didn’t want.
The Morning After
As the sun gently nudges its way into the eastern sky, Jacob’s wives, Rachel and Leah, gather their children and servants at the edge of the Jabbok stream. The long night of waiting is over. Suddenly someone shouts, ‘There he is!’
Sure enough, it’s Jacob crossing the brook. But wait – something’s not right. He’s limping.
‘It looks like a bad limp,’ someone calls out. ‘Do you suppose he stumbled in the dark and twisted his leg?’
As Jacob draws closer, its obvious more is wrong than just a limp. His clothes are dirty and torn. His face is bruised and his hair is disheveled. Jacob looks like he’s been in a dogfight, and the dog won.
They rush over to him. ‘Jacob, Jacob! What happened?’
‘Oh,’ he says, smiling, his eyes bright. ‘I got blessed last night.’
Shaking their heads, they watch him as he limps away.
Someone whispers: ‘Doesn’t look like any victorious Christian I’ve ever seen.’”
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