late

“You’re three minutes late.”

 

These were the words spoken by a daughter in a hospital room shortly after the chaplain arrived. Her mother had passed away three minutes earlier. Whether spoken plainly, as a matter of fact, or spoken with anger and resentment, they came with an impact. Life and circumstances are beyond our control. There is no way of knowing when someone will die, yet we all will die. In the face of death, we sometimes experience guilt. That is a natural response. What could I have done differently? How would I have liked to spend those last moments with the one I love? Guilt can overwhelm. Guilt can also be something that you place on another individual when it becomes too great of a burden to shoulder alone. I was three minutes late. I had failed to meet an expectation. An expectation that was unrealistic. We have no control over life and death. Yet three minutes late is right on time when we look at it from God’s perspective. Lateness creates tension and we prefer to eliminate that kind of stress, but what if God wants to bring you to the rock bottom? What if God is using this to deepen your own awareness and acknowledgement of your helplessness? Your deepest desires and desperations rise to the surface in such circumstances and the only answers come from God. Do not move away from him. Lean into the pain and suffering. Beauty will emerge in time.

 

“Help is coming one day late.”

 

There is a song by Sam Philips with this refrain. She sings that “after you’ve given up and all is gone; help is coming one day late.” A cynical, jaded and morbid response? Perhaps. But there is or to it than what is on the surface. She continues saying “remember that there has always been good like stars you don’t see in the day sky so wait ‘til night [because] help is coming.” The good that has always been is God. We often experience his silence, but he is always there in the midst of the bad and ugly circumstances of life. Wait for him and he will show up in the night like the stars.

 

“If you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

 

Words spoken by both Martha and her sister Mary. Was Jesus late? Should he have been there sooner? Not in the least. Listen to what Jesus had to say about the situation. “Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe.” This death was not the end. It was the beginning of something big. It was the beginning of a deeper revelation about Jesus. Lazarus would rise again because Jesus was the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in him though they die, will live. Everyone who believes in him shall never die. There is hope on the other side of death for those who believe in Jesus, because he is the resurrection and the life. When we are devastated by the circumstances of life and it appears that there is no help is in sight, be assured that hope will arrive late!