Between the Attack and the Answer

John tells a meaningful story of Jesus, waiting to go and help one of his dear friends. Knowing his friend was gravely ill… dying… even dead; and knowing his friend’s sisters were agonizingly hopeful that he would come to the rescue… he waited.

Why? Well, the Jews believed that after a man died, his soul would hang around for only three days, until it saw its body begin to decompose… and then it would move on. After three days… no possibility of the soul returning to the body.

That is, until Jesus walks into town on the fourth day. The embodiment of resurrection himself, waited to do his thing. He’d proven his abilities to teach, comfort, and even heal… but it was time to step it up a notch.

Jesus waited to demonstrate his authority and power over the grave. Now that’s a pretty big ending to a frustrating journey. And this is the very story where he even weeps for the agony he had to put Mary and Martha through, in order to display his power.

Imagine the anxiety, yet still the hope that doctors can cure… then the knowledge that there is no cure… then the prayer and faith… only no answer comes and the most unthinkable happens. Where is God between the attack and the answer? What do we do with that sickening, dreadful, fearful time in between?

I have been paying monthly, faithfully, and timely on my life insurance policy since 1985… over 30 years. Every month the money is drawn from my bank account, without ever missing a payment. In the first year or so of my policy, I’d open each month’s statement, expecting great gains on my investments. In reality, each month was little more than a brief, “We’ve received your payment… thank you, ” note.

So, as the years rolled on, it is understandable that I began to pass the monthly statement on to the mail basket without opening it. Once in a great while, the company would call me to inform me that I had options to change my policy… until a couple of years ago. After being sold to a new and improved insurance conglomerate, my old insurance company seemed to just retire into obscurity.

Still, however, I made my monthly payments and got may statements… “your payment has been received… thank you.” That is… if I was curious enough to open the envelop.

Then, this month, I decided to open my statement, in case there had been some change in the past six months. There had. My policy had lapsed, due to a technicality. I had been warned a couple of months ago, but I’d failed to open those statements… they looked just like the eight hundred or so that had preceded them.

All of that money, investment, faithful payment history… just gone. Naw. I couldn’t be so. I still lived in a land that understood mistakes and knew how to reverse them. I called my company, a smile on my face, a friendly explanation of the situation, all the while expecting the answer to be something like, “Let’s see what we can do to fix this.”

Instead, I was met with the “new” management model of corporate life insurance. “It’s a done deal, Mr. Skinner. We can’t change our decision.”

“Why didn’t someone call me? I’ve been paying for 30 years. How can you just cancel my policy without getting my approval?”

“You need to understand, Mr. Skinner… We have thousands of customers and we can’t call all of them… “.

What? Where did the old customer service and company loyalty perks of the USA I grew up in disappear to?

I spoke to two other supervisors… all basically giving me the same unconcerned, clinical, cold, answer. “Too bad for you. Have a nice day.” Or thereabouts.

Then I called the state commission on insurance… I’d get something done if I went straight to the top. Same answer. Too bad. You’re out of luck. Have a nice day.

Normally, there would be panic, anger, hostility, etc. Heads would roll! I would fight this! But I began this day early with my wife, before dawn, praying a powerful prayer for the day. And I could definitely sense its effects. I was upset, sure… but calm, and able to go about my day without “reacting” or letting my circumstances cause me to make decisions that would come back to haunt me.

I don’t think God was just indifferently going about His business either. I think He was watching, very aware of the attack on our lives… but waiting… waiting until His answer would be most inspiring.

Throughout the day, I spoke with a couple of other people about the situation, and they asked how I could deal with such a loss without losing my mind. “I think it’ll all work out,” I replied. “God’s got this.”

And, later that day, while I was in the hardware store, my wife sent a message… “You need to call 'Rori' at xxx-xxx-xxxx.” I did.

The sweetest young lady answered the phone and told me that she had just received my policy to close it out (put it in the grave) and something told her that what was happening wasn’t right. She said she’d gone to the department that had decided to terminate my policy and asked multiple people to reconsider. Just as I’d experienced, she said she was met with a cold indifference and an unwillingness to reverse the decision.

So, she headed back to her desk to again send my policy into the tomb of no return. But she said something told her to turn around and approach the same people again. And she did. Beginning her arguments anew, she was shocked when the same people looked at her and said, “Sure… let’s reverse that decision.”

I asked her to repeat what she’d said. “The same committee just looked at me and said, ‘Sure… go ahead and reverse it… as if they’d never made any prior decision about your policy.”

And my Lazarus policy was resurrected.

I asked Rori, off hand, “Rori… are you a Christian?”

“Yes, sir,” she said softly. And I knew the answer.

My Lord was watching when I was attacked. But he waited, walked with me in that dark valley between the attack and the answer, building my faith and he was there in the answer.

Attacks come… but we must walk a dark valley in between the attack and the answer… for that valley is where we build our faith and demonstrate it to the world around us. And the answer is always in proportion to the darkness of that valley.