When Everything Suddenly Turns Upside Down

“We are assured and know that (God being a partner in their labor) all things work together and are (fitting into a plan) for good and for those who love God and are called according to (His) design and purpose.” (Romans 8:28) Amplified Bible

I have seen a pattern in this Christian journey that seems universal. Real transformation for us usually needs crisis, when everything suddenly is turned upside down, when what we are trusting in for our sufficiency seems to be cruelly taken away. It could be a job or a profession. It could be health.  It could be a person we depended upon removed us by death or divorce. It could be a place we felt would be home forever… no longer is.

We didn’t realize our sufficiency was in a certain person, place or thing but, once it is removed, we realize in retrospect that it was. Then following that there comes the scary realization that we are not sufficient in ourselves to face the future, with what had become an idol, gone. It is there He shows us His sufficiency.

In the masterfully done 2012 film, “Evelyn,” set in 1953 Ireland, a true story is told of a young Irish girl whose mother runs off with another man on Christmas Day. Though this film’s title is Evelyn, after this little girl, it is the total rebirth of her father, Desmond Doyle, is what this movie is about. Desmond must first suffer a gut punch of his wife’s adultery and abandonment in running off with another man, leaving him with the responsibility to raise their three children alone.

Then things just go from bad to worse for Desmond. His children are taken from him by the government and the Catholic church (they were one in the same in 1950’s Ireland). As he loses his first case for custody of his children and learns his daughter is being mistreated by a particular nun, who now has custody of his daughter. He falls into depression. That is exasperated by his drunkenness.

As the story plays out all the way to the Supreme Court of Ireland (I will not give up the ending in case you haven’t seen the film) we find that Desmond had to learn what genuine fatherhood really was. And He had to learn  this lesson from the one who was the first make him into a father, his oldest daughter, Evelyn.

He needed to turn away from seeking to escape his pain to be able to embrace his children’s pain and fight for hers and her brothers’ custody. He had to realize that it was heavenly Father’s will for him to play an irreplaceable role in his children’s life and that he would be given the strength to succeed in it.

Desmond, before this giant unexpected and unwelcome shock, was what we could call a “functional father,” providing the best he could, trying to stay in a difficult marriage, taking refuge from his pain in the drink. But after the shaking he became a “transformational father,” leading, inspiring his children and those who watched him, in ways he never was able to before.

Back to the idea that our lives being turned upside down. For those who are being called to follow Christ this painful shock will never be the end but rather the beginning of a providential path that leads us to first let go of our dependency on things we thought we could depend upon.  Then we realize that we are not sufficient to move ahead on our own but, with redeeming and transforming love, Christ will be sufficient in us and through us.

In His All Sufficient Name, Amen.