God will not disappoint

Thanks to a gift from Brad Hughley, I’m reading Malcolm Guite’s devotional The Word in the Wilderness which offers a daily poem and commentary from Shrove Tuesday through Easter Day. For Monday in the first week of Lent I read “The Pilgrimage” by the 17th century priest and poet George Herbert. The poem does not sugarcoat the realities of the Christian life.

At length I got unto the gladsome hill,

                                        Where lay my hope,

                Where lay my heart; and climbing still,

                When I had gain’d the brow and top,

A lake of brackish waters on the ground

                                        Was all I found.

With that abash’d and struck with many a sting

                                        Of swarming fears,

                I fell, and cry’d, Alas my King!

                Can both the way and end be tears?

This reminds me of an article in the January edition of The Christian Century, “Giving Disappointment its Due” by Jonathan Tran who teaches at Baylor. He writes that scripture “does not hold back on acknowledging disappointment. Adam and Eve’s catastrophic disappointment over the garden. Cain’s murderous disappointment when God rejects his offering. David’s disappointment when kingdom life turns out less than kingdom-like. Judas’s disappointment with Jesus. In each case, God turns out to be our greatest disappointment. Is it more heretical to say this or to deny it?”

Of course, it’s not necessarily God who disappoints us. Our disillusionment often arises from the unrealistic expectations we project onto God; the prayers that don’t appear to be heard or answered, the tragic events we wish God would prevent. In times of disappointment, we need eyes of faith to perceive God’s presence and promise. So, Herbert continues:

Yet taking heart I rose, and then perceiv’d

                                        I was deceiv’d:

My hill was further: so I flung away,

                                        Yet heard a crie

                Just as I went, None goes that way

                And lives: If that be all, said I,

After so foul a journey death is fair,

                                        And but a chair.

Guite explains that in Herbert’s time “chair” could be understood as a litter or even a carriage. In other words, as a way of being carried. In death, then, we are carried to eternity, to the welcome end of our long pilgrimage. Which reminds us that Lent leads not only to Good Friday but also to Easter. When it comes to the promise of resurrection, God will not disappoint us.