Futility - What to do When Things Aren't Going Right?

A teaching by Rev. Duke Vipperman

When I read the Bible I always look for the thing that speaks to my situation my life - the thing that everybody can relate to. Is there anyone has does not felt at times that your work, your life seems at times pointless?

• You do your best and someone else gets the credit.
• You work your fingers to the bone and what do you get: boney fingers.

Futility at work is an occupational hazard.

Dakota tribal wisdom says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. Business often tries other strategies:

7. visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses.
6. Increase the standards of riding dead horses.
5. Change riders.
4. Appoint a committee to study the horse.
3. Create a training session to improve riding ability.
2. Pour money in to increase the horse's performance and the top strategy for riding a dead horse
1. Promote it to a supervisory position.

Oxford Zoologist Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene argues that we are merely machines for propagating DNA. The universe he says has precisely the properties we should expect if there is no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pointless indifference and that was one of his happier days. Religion to him is a dead issue.

Futility at your business is bad for business. Futility in the faith can kill your soul.

The Servant in Isaiah found his faith-life futile. "I have laboured 'in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity." His work was the same as his faith and it all seemed pointless.

When this was written, Israel languished in Babylonian dungeons. A prisoner was the opposite of what the nation of Israel was supposed to be. They were to model for the world what life lived under the Lordship of the Almighty was like and instead they lived were in a Babylonian hell-hole. Their justice was with God and he had left them in that stinking place.

You ever feel trapped where you'd rather not be? We try to help people but there are unforeseen consequences and time turns our good intentions into bad results. You pray, study the Bible, do right things for God and life still falls apart. You do your devotions daily, meet with the Body of Christ every week, witness to your neighbours and to no effect. You memorize the prayer of Jabez and do it but your tent doesn't enlarge as dramatically as others. What do you do when, the Almighty God of the Impossible, in your case seems use-less- he seems to do little for you in spite of your devotion?

I have mixed feelings whenever I fly back through Virginia. Twenty-one years ago Deborah and I got married after my 1st year of seminary. According the plan laid out by the Diocese of Virginia that summer I should have done a field placement but instead we negotiated with them that it would be best to have our honeymoon time to let our marriage gel. Two years later I had jumped every hurdle: agonizing academics, gruelling Greek, and endless self-examination but because I had one summer ministry to do, the Diocese would not ordain me for another whole year. We were expecting my son John that June. Deborah could not hold a job with a newborn. No job, no income and it seemed no future. I felt I had laboured in vain and for nothing. I kept awake on the drive home crying and crying out to God.

How do you cope with it? Most people repress their emotions so they won't interfere with an already bad situation. You think, A good Christian shouldn't feel this way, and in the process crush the creative you. You lose vision. Afraid other's won't approve, you withdraw, questioning your own call and competence. Futility fuels hopelessness. Holding your doubts in check sucks the life out of you and the end of futility is exhaustion.

Isaiah 49 points to a prescription for dealing with this. This principle is all through the Bible. I'll give a couple of instances from my life and my church which was once down for the count, and after lunch questions.

Consider your Calling:
If you feel futile, first consider your Calling. Verse 1 says the servant The LORD called me before I was born. If life seems futile ask if God has called you to do what you do, or are you in the wrong business? Having climbed the ladder is it leaning against the wrong building?

You know of course the difference between a vacation and a vocation. You take a vacation but a vocation takes you. It is what you are called to do, compelled to do from in here. A vocation is not you choosing God but God claiming you and setting your course. It is not always what you are paid to do or to - I have been very blessed by several mechanics who sensed a call of God to repair Volvos - go figure - but a calling always requires sacrifice: it's a service you feel you just have to give. This servant had no doubts about his call.

This passage is one of the four Servant songs in Isaiah. Each (42: 1-4; 49:1-7; 50:4-9; 52:13-53:12) expands on the idea of a servant of God who suffers innocently to save his people. We hear the Servant Songs and think of Jesus. In Acts 8 The Ethiopian Eunuch asked the Apostle Phillip whether the suffering servant in Isaiah 52 was talking about himself or someone else. Phillip said it was Christ. The thing is, until Jesus no one had connected Isaiah's suffering servant with the Messiah. And like the eunuch they had tried to figure out who the servant was. Was there a lesser fulfillment in Isaiah's day? Was he - a sort of corporate personality - the people of Israel themselves spoken of as if they were one person? Was it someone unknown to us but that Isaiah knew, or was it Isaiah himself.

You know the book of Isaiah is a sort of miniature Bible, didn't you? The first part of Isaiah has 39 chapters just like the Old Testament and both are concerned with a holy God's wrath against sin. The last 27 chapters focus on hope the messiah and God's wonderful future, just like the 27 chapters of the New Testament.

Had Isaiah himself tried to convince the people in captivity of their sin and of God's comfort and he felt he had failed and they weren't listening? Paul said have this mind among you that was in Christ Jesus - and then describes the incarnation, humiliation, and ascension of Jesus. Have the same mind as Christ, as the suffering servant. Our calling as Christians therefore is to have the same mind as this suffering servant.

Consider your competence:
Second, if you are feeling futile consider your competence. You can be in the right position but not have the right training or tools. Most incompetent people don't know they are. In fact, people who are incompetent are more confident of their abilities than competent people, says researcher Dr. David A. Dunning of Cornell University, "Not only do [incompetent people] reach wrong conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence makes them unable to see it."

Without Christ and the Spirit, our sin separates us from God, and even with Christ we can be blind to how bad it is with us. But the servant in Isaiah was competent. Isaiah 49:2 - He made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me away. A sharp sword is effective close up. An arrow is polished for long-range accuracy. God protected him hiding him in God's own hand, then in God's quiver. Effective, accurate and protected: all the right stuff.

Have you messed up?
Sometimes when things go wrong it's not because you don't have the right calling or you are incompetent - its because you've messed up. Mistakes happen and when they do confession is good for the soul. Once the British navy was involved in manoeuvres involving a column of cruisers moving in formation when the signal came to turn 90 degrees. The manoeuvre went well except for one cruiser, whose captain missed the signal. His ship almost collided with the next one and when it swerved to avoid a collision the whole convoy was thrown into disarray. When order had been restored, the admiral sent a message to the captain who caused the trouble, 'Captain, what are your intentions?' The reply came: Sir, I plan to buy a farm. Failure meant dry-dock.

Futility sometimes is the result of mistakes. So make your confession Life might be going down the tubes because of an error of judgment. Confession in that case is good for the soul but this servant's failure was not his fault. He had done what was required. 49:4 says, "I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity."

That might be enough for us to take home. Even this one, called by God, equipped for no fault of his own felt that life and faith was futile. In fact this is one of the most central themes one of the most the most important theological issues of the Bible. If you feel your Christian living is wasted effort, you are in good company. Isaiah: 49:6 is the great commission of the Old Testament. This passage is aimed here: the point of the sword; the target for the arrow. 49:6 God says, "It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and restore the remnant of Israel; I'II give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth." What does this mean/ he had already been a failure and now God says I make you the failure a light to the nations? What does this mean? It means at the very least that God has a bigger vision for your life. I don't mean your futility is because your vision is too small. I mean God's vision is bigger than your sense of futility.

What is God's vision?
God's vision includes the cross of Christ, Jesus was deeply despised and abhorred by his people. The Servant in Isaiah 50 says, I gave my back to those who struck me and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting. Isaiah 53:3 He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with grief. Isaiah 53:7 He was oppressed, and afflicted, led like a lamb to the slaughter. Isaiah 53:10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him with pain. Jesus' apparent failure meant his arrest, trial, humiliation, beatings, and agonizing death by crucifixion. Grace to us came at great cost and struggle. His failure from a human perspective is our victory and the glory of God: there we see God's love, there the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all, there we are forgiven. Considering the cross, live knowing God has a vision even for your sense of futility.

If you are doing what God has called you to do, are equipped to do it, and still feel futile, then the tasks which defeat you may be the ones the Lord has prepared for you to do, and your sense of futility what God knew you would experience.

Isaiah 49:3 "You are my servant Israel in whom I will be glorified." How can God be glorified in a servant? That's backwards. A servant's glory is his master. How can a master's glory be in the servant? Here's how: I said, "I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity yet surely my cause is with the LORD, and my reward with my God."

"I have laboured in vain, yet my cause is with the LORD." What will bring light to a world hungry for meaning? What will glorify God? Not us being a success. It is when in spite of what seems like futility we show the world that to us God is still worth it. This servant did that and God says that's not failure: enduring futility for the glory of God may be harder than heroic deeds!

Ray Anderson of Fuller Seminary has a handy little chart for this. We see the same pattern often. Moses is in Pharaoh's homehaving all the advantages of higher education, on track to be the next Pharaoh. Yet one murderous mistake and its 40 years in the desert [ ] with stupid sheep [ ] But God appears to Moses in the burning bush and calls him to save his people. He does [ ]

The people follow Moses out of Egypt: they're free!but Pharaoh changes his mind about letting them go, comes after them with an army [ ] and traps them against the sea [ ]. But God separates the waters and the walk through dry shod. [ ] They go to Mt. Sinai get the 10 commandments blow it [ ] lose their courage spending 40 years walking in the desert [ ]. then enter the promised land [ ].

You'd think with all the possible plot lines God could have been a little more creative but the same pattern is written into the creation. In the beginning when God made the heavens and the earth , the earth was formless and void [ ] and darkness covered the deep [ ]. Then out of nothing God spoke his word and there was light [ ]. That's how God loves to work - out of nothing - speak His word - light and order and creation.

Isaiah adds to this that it is the persistent faith of the servant in the down stroke - when there is absolutely no evidence that God is there, that will bring light to the nations - because anyone who continues to believe in the down stroke must either be a fool, or know someone deeper than we can see. "To be a light to the nations" says Christopher Seitz "does not therefore mean going out and converting people from far away by word and thereafter associating with them on equal terms. Instead to be a light to the nations means bearing affliction and hardship - brought about on account of obedience to God - and precisely thereby conveying the knowledge of God. To witness to the God if Israel is not so much to share information with others but more to the point to be faithful to God in such a way that confrontation will occur but will not be an end in itself. The final accomplishment is God's Affliction and hardship is how salvation will reach the ends of the earth! (New Interp. Bible p. 433.)

Consider Job. Job 1:8-11 According to God Job was blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil." But Satan replied. You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face." That is, no wonder he is blameless and upright you've made him a success but ruin him and then he will fall. Job's wife gives the challenge: when in your case God is useless - give up curse God and die. What does it mean to be blames and upright? To be a man of integrity? It means to believe in God when everything about life and your faith seem totally futile. Light to the nations says Isaiah does not come from our success stories. It's not as much Jabez as Job and Jesus and Isaiah. It is not in the highs of experiencing God: but when God seems absent, will you keep faith?

A young Presbyterian trying to get ordained was being grilled beyond all reason by the presbytery. A minister stood up and asked a classic Calvinistic question. Young man would you be willing to go to hell for the glory of God?" The lad weary from hours of interrogation, replied without thinking, "Sir, for the glory of God, I would be willing for this entire presbytery to go to hell!" Some of you will go from here to thankless seemingly meaningless jobs. How can you light up the world?

Do you know the two countries of the world who receive the most missionaries. They're at the bottom of your page. Brazil and Canada. In my case, God was saying It is too small a thing for you to stay in the states. Go to Canada. I was interviewed by Bill Hockin a Pastor in London, Ontario who needed an assistant. He took me to see the Bishop. I explained the delay in my ordination and the Bishop sunk deep in his chair. Well, I'm afraid if your diocese won't ordain you in June… lets schedule one here in Sept. What's a good day. Holy Cross Day Sept. 14 Bill who can preach. Would you schedule the Archdeacon for me. Thank you young man nice meeting you." And he ushered us out. We got into Bill's rusting Toyota and he said, "Do you have any idea what just happened in there? I said no. He said I haven't called you yet and you are being ordained in Sept. The next day, Easter, Bill called me to St. George's because, "sometimes God speaks through Bishops"

I served up there in several churches including blessed time with Peter Moore at Little Trinity Toronto. When it was time for me to move God sent us 3 options. A major church in a big US city, a spirit filled church in the country, and a small struggling church in the inner city. A friend said summed up my options: It sounds congestion, isolation, or depression. God chose depression.

In 1912 The Church of the Resurrection was planted in a rapidly growing area of the city. They first met in a tent on a street corner. When the wind blew the tent over, they built their first church but quickly outgrew it. The present building went up in 1922 and seated about 350. They were hoping to expand the building to become one of the largest in Canada. But the 1960's-90s, there came a general decline in mainline churches called now "the end of Christendom." We declined. Tragedies and conflicts took their toll on us. By 1999, we had fallen to under 57 people on a Sunday. The Diocese of Toronto challenges churches under 60 to ask whether their ministry is viable. In some cases churches that small call a pastor to only part-time ministry, or they amalgamate with another church.

However and this is absolutely key to God's plan, those who remained were faithfully persistent. 1/3 of the church was over 75 but those old ladies will take flyers and stick them into people's mail-boxes all over the area. Problem is when they people would show up, they'd say nice warm and welcoming church but there's nobody here my age. Clara Suter, God bless her every Sunday would photocopy a Sunday School lesson and wait for children to show up. In the fall of 99 they had two kids. Meanwhile they prayed.

Through the new rector of Little Trinity, Chris King, God gave me and some folks at Little Trinity a vision to send 10% of our people over to help those folks. I let my name stand on condition that people from Little Trinity might be welcome to come with me. After much prayer, the Selection Committee unanimously felt God saying yes that was his plan. Little did anyone know what God's had in mind! It has been a long struggle: struggle we have been asked to talk about nationally and internationally but now each Sunday 210 people praise and worship with us. On Easter Sunday more people gathered at 6 AM on the beach for the sunrise service than we used to have in the whole church on good Sunday. And that day another 275 came to hear the news Jesus Alleluia Jesus is risen indeed.

What has been crucial is this: 1) The older people at the Rez hanging in there. 2) The people of Little Trinity leaving a great church to endure months of maudlin music, and struggle over two years to get organized and reach out. Only because of their endurance of various kinds of futility, did God make us a church bulging at the seams with more children now than we no what to do with and all that without a parking lot. We are beginning to have an impact on our community. Only God knows whether our prayers had any role to play, but just last week the largest prostitution ring in Canada run out of a house near our church was busted. Several of us had been praying hard for that to happen.

We believe we are discovering a model that can be used across North America to renew some inner city parishes and word of this I know has been proclaimed throughout the world. We at little old the Rez who were nearly ready to fold, is becoming even if just for a little while a light to the nations! That is where I was going to leave the story - but whenever we tell out tale we always bring people up to date with the most current news. Last Sunday we had to announce that two of our staff had suddenly resigned. Right now I'm it! Some of our people are really hurting and I don't know how many will be back next Sunday. Was it all futile? Maybe, but God can still be glorified because we know God is worth it.

You know who my heroes are? Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer: the two American missionaries who cared for poor people in Afghanistan in the name of Jesus and were caught at it and spent 105 days in a Taliban prison and not one convert to show for it and now that they have been miraculously set free, you know what they want to do? Go back to Afghanistan. God bless them. May we all have such tenacity? Here is the answer to stress, regardless of its origin, nature, or intensity, said Charles Stanley. "Let the pressure drive you to the source of all your strength, peace, and stability--the Person of Jesus Christ." Have the mind of Christ: Glorify God in the heroic and glorify God in the mundane even if it all seems futile.