“She was 17 years old. He stood glaring at her, his weapon before her face. ‘Do you believe in God?’ She paused. It was a life-or-death question. ‘Yes, I believe in God.’ ‘Why?’ asked her executioner. But he never gave her the chance to respond. The teenage girl lay dead at his feet.”[i]
17-year old Rachel Scott lay dead at the feet of evil and hatred. And here’s a bit of cruel irony. Not a month before she was murdered, this is what she wrote in her personal journal; “I dare to believe that I can start a chain reaction through acts of kindness and compassion.” Instead, the story that was to be her life was over and we want (often demand) to know why. We find ourselves asking, “What about the rest of the story?” We want the rest of the story! Where do we go when we don’t know the rest of the story –when the world is crashing in on us? To whom can we turn? There was a man, a king really, named David who answers some of our questions in one of the Psalms that he wrote. It’s Psalm 11 and I’d like to take a look at it together to see if it contains some answers to the questions we cry out when life begins to break down. Take a minute to read through Psalm 11:
1 In the LORD I take refuge. How then can you say to me: "Flee like a bird to your mountain.
2 For look, the wicked bend their bows; they set their arrows against the strings to shoot from the shadows at the upright in heart.
3 When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?"
4 The LORD is in his holy temple; the LORD is on his heavenly throne. He observes the sons of men; his eyes examine them.
5 The LORD examines the righteous, but the wicked and those who love violence his soul hates.
6 On the wicked he will rain fiery coals and burning sulfur; a scorching wind will be their lot.
7 For the LORD is righteous, he loves justice; upright men will see his face.
Can I just be honest with you for a minute? I really struggle with this. I don’t mean that I don’t believe it or know it to be true. What I mean is that sometimes that truth doesn’t make it the 18” or so from my head to my heart. I don’t know if your faith ebbs and flows like mine, but some days I believe that God is the answer to all my questions and other days I don’t think anyone has the answers to my questions. I wonder if this may have been the case for David as well because in Psalm 13 David starts out saying, “How long O Lord? Will you forget me forever?” I don’t know but certainly on the day he wrote Psalm 11, he believed God was the answer to all his questions.
I’m not really convinced of the exact circumstances surrounding this Psalm. Some scholars believe it was written during the time when David was being hunted by a crazed king Saul. Others believe it was written while David was hiding and on the run from his murdering son, Absalom who was bent on taking David’s throne by force. Regardless of the precise circumstances that precipitated the writing of this Psalm, these two events (and there were many others) demonstrate that David endured some very dark moments in his life. At times, these troubling times must have generated some serious life questions for David. Questions like, “Why me?” or “How long is this going to last?” or maybe even “God! Where are you?” Nevertheless, this Psalm shows us that David could still say, “In the midst of fear and trouble, God is still in control!” David is telling us that we can, “Trust God because He knows the rest of the story!”
Here’s how the verses break down in terms of their application. The first three verses introduce us to the difficulty in David’s life. Even though David experienced and endured some very difficult events, we don’t have to be hunted by a crazy king to be able to relate to him. For example, you might have a boss who is constantly riding you about your work. Or perhaps you have a teacher who unfairly criticizes your hard work. You might even be experiencing an illness either personally or through someone close to you that has dramatically impacted your life. Or maybe you are in the midst of a marriage that just isn’t what it used to be or what you hoped it would be. Regardless of your particular circumstances, you have the same response choices as David. Among other things, these verses teach us that we can respond to fear and trouble in one of two ways--we can either run from God or we can run to God. David is calling us to trust God because He knows the rest of the story! Verses 4&5 tell us that God is not caught off guard but instead He sees all things. Nothing is or can be hidden from God. Think about this for a minute. Do you really think God is in heaven looking down on the struggles in your life wringing His hands saying, “Wow! I didn’t see that coming. I’m gonna need some time to figure out what to do with that.” Do you think that when we cry out to God that He says, “Gosh Joe, thanks for letting me know about that. I’ve been kind of busy over here with Sarah’s problems and I kind of lost track of what was going on in your life.” Instead, we can agree with David when we say that God is never surprised by the fear and trouble in our lives—we can trust God because he knows the rest of the story! Finally, the last two verses close the loop by showing us that God will punish the unrighteous and reward the righteous. This is really the part that is most important to us, particularly because we don’t always experience immediate relief from our fear and trouble. In fact, relief often doesn’t come to us in this life but only in the life to come. In any event, we only have a perspective of the present and the past. So David shows us the big picture of how God works so that we can say, “Trust God because He knows the rest of the story!”
Let me show you how this has worked in my own life. When my oldest daughter was just 6 years old, she slipped on the wet bathroom floor and broke her leg. When we took her to the hospital for treatment, we were shocked when x-rays revealed a tumor in her leg that caused her femur to weaken and break. Our lives crashed when we heard two words; “Pediatric oncology.” During the days and weeks that followed, we pursued less invasive treatment options to start with and I prayed desperately for healing. The alternative treatment was surgery and a long recovery. At the end of the initial treatment period, it was immediately determined that the less invasive treatment was unsuccessful and that the more invasive procedure was required. Honestly, I was disappointed with God. I knew He could heal her through the work of the doctors, but I didn’t want my daughter to have to go through the trauma of surgery. Ultimately, although the surgery was successful, I struggled with the nagging question of why God didn’t answer my prayer. About a year after the surgery, I was putting her to bed on some particular night and we talked about the previous Sunday’s church message on being thankful. I asked her if there was anything she was particularly thankful for. She said she was thankful God was with her during her surgery because it brought them closer together. I saw no redeeming purpose in what she had to endure, yet God was using it to develop a deeper relationship with my daughter. I didn’t understand because of my limited perspective. So instead of questioning God, I should have trusted God because He knew the rest of the story. Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying, I was fortunate to find out the rest of the story but not everyone is that fortunate. We witness and endure many tragic events without every knowing God’s purpose behind those events. In other words, we seldom find out the rest of the story. For example, after 9/11, lots of people had lots of questions. Questions like, “Why would God allow something like this to happen?” and “What good could possibly come from this?” Honestly, I’m not sure we’ll ever know the rest of the story behind the tragic events of that day during this life. But, sometime after the events of 9/11, the folks at The King’s College in New York in partnership with Priority Associates produced a little booklet titled, remembrance-fallen but not forgotten, with heroic stories and other words of encouragement for the people of New York and elsewhere whose lives were forever changed by the events of 9/11. A man named Darrell was one of the contributors to this piece. He wrote.
“Shortly after hearing the news of our nation’s multiple tragedies, I wrote this simple poem:
The pain, it seems will never end
The hurt is here to stay
The agony within my soul
Will never go away
It seems that it’s impossible
For me to ‘make it through’
(I know that feeling, precious friend, for I have been there too)
I won’t attempt to offer cures
That will not ease your pain
But I will say, the life you lost—
It was not lived in vain
It’s been dispersed in memories
That now reside in you
And in the months and years to come
They’ll help you make it through
Today you feel the dark despair
Today you mourn and cry
But from the seeds of memory
That life will multiply
The torment seems too much to bear
The whole world seems insane
But if their life reflects through you
They did not die in vain!
I’m so grateful that I chose to turn to my Heavenly Father for strength and comfort in my own personal loss. There I found the courage to forgive, the strength to ‘let go’ and the ability to see beyond the tragedy to a divine purpose that has slowly emerged with time.”[ii]
That beautiful piece was part of a chain reaction that has brought comfort and encouragement to thousands. You see, Darrell was uniquely qualified to write this piece because of the tremendous loss he experienced in his own life. Darrell lost someone very close to him. I’m sure you know her. Her life and especially her death inspired thousands and it inspired him to reach out to a hurting world with a message of hope and encouragement. We wondered at the beginning of this writing about the rest of Rachel Scott’s story. Would you say that her death was really the end of the story of her life? Not if you knew that the author of the 9/11 poem was Darrell Scott—the father of Rachel Scott…Trust God because He knows the rest of the story!
Laura Story wrote a beautiful song titled Blessings and there is a line in the song that is particularly important to me in light of the above narrative. The lyrics read: “What if my greatest disappointments or the aching of this life is a revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy…” Our disappointments, pain and brokenness say something very important—they say “I don’t understand, it’s not supposed to be this way, it can’t end this way!” And we’d be right. It’s because we weren’t made for a broken life or a broken world. But this is precisely where humanity’s sin, our sin, has placed us. However, for all those who recognize and accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior, this life isn’t the whole story. Revelation tells us that one day “He will wipe away every tear from their [believers] eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:4) I’ve included a video link below where you can listen to Laura Story’s beautiful song. While we are in the storm, it is difficult to consider the storm a “blessing.” Yet God has written a grand story and this life is not the end of the story. Jesus’ life, death and resurrection has made it possible to live forever in right relationship with God. Knowing this leads me to say, “Trust God not only because He knows the rest of the story but because He is the rest of the story!”
[i] dc Talk and The Voice of the Martyrs, Jesus Freaks, (Tulsa, OK: Albury Publishing, 1999), p. 17.
[ii] Kings College and Priority Associates, remembrance-fallen but not forgotten, (New York, NY: King’s College and Priority Associtates, 2001), p. 7.
[“The Rest of the Story” is an adaptation from radio broadcaster Paul Harvey’s story segment of his radio program}
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