This month, our meditation has been excerpted from the book entitled Extreme Devotion, compiled by Voice Of the Martyrs. In the following passage, the account of a Dumitru Bacu (a Romanian Christian) provides us with fodder for reflection and perhaps application:
I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. (Philippians 4:11)
Dumitru Bacu was a Christian prisoner during the 1950s and 1960s. Like so many others, his crime was simply being a Christian. Dumitru used his twenty years in prison to compose poetry of love to God. The poems were carefully written in small bars of soap or tapped through walls in Morse Code so that others could learn and pass them from cell to cell.
"The pains which weakened our bodies were not able to master our hearts," Bacu said after his release. "Instead of hate, we cultivated love, understanding, and wisdom."
Here is one of his poems, composed in solitary confinement in a cell infested with rats, bedbugs, and lice:
Jesus appeared in my cell last night;
He was tall; He was sad, but oh He was light.
The moonbeams I treasured grew suddenly dim
As, startled and happy, I looked upon Him.
He came and He stood by the mat where I tossed
And silently showed what His sufferings cost.
The scars were all there, in His hands and His feet,
And a wound in His side where His heart did beat.
He smiled, and was gone. And I fell on the stone
And cried out, "Dear Jesus, don't leave me alone."
Clutching the bars, I was pierced through the palms;
Blessed gift, blessed scars.
FURTHER: A dilapidated prison cell and the loss of basic freedoms aren't usually the stuff of poetic inspiration. Dumitru was able to turn his sufferings into opportunities to praise God and impact other people's lives for Christ. His sufferings paled to him when he considered what Christ had suffered on his behalf. Experiencing what Dumitru faced, many believers would feel frustrated or insulted, not inspired. Some would doubt that God cared about them at all. Composing lines of poetic praise to God would be about the farthest thing from their minds. Yet Dumitru focused on Christ instead of his cell, and he was filled with praise. How do we react in times of suffering? When we are called to suffer, will we see obstacles to our happiness or opportunities to praise and serve God?
A moment of consideration: It seems, these days, that poetry is not in vogue; fewer books on poetry appear in bookstores, and one might rightly or wrongly conjecture that it has seen its day. What a blessing to read of Dumitru's gift of versification, and to see at least one of his poems still extant with us. More than the form of writing, though, his poem was the window into Mr. Bacu's soul and his faith in God. He lends a new voice in praising God for the suffering he experienced (like Peter and the apostles – Acts 5:41); this led him closer to His Lord and magnified his faith.
Looking at Dumitru's suffering, it is a reminder of the anonymous words which posited, "A man who has not suffered, what does he know?" The prisoner knew much--of his own suffering and of Christ's. He knew in Whom he believed. Christ also knew of the world's suffering, from His vantage point in heaven, but Jesus Christ did not remain at base headquarters in heaven, receiving reports of the world's suffering from below and shouting a few encouraging words to us from a safe distance. No, he left the headquarters and came down to us in the front-line trenches, right down to where we live, where we contend with our anxieties and the feeling of emptiness and futility, where we sin and suffer guilt, and where we must finally die. There is nothing that he did not endure with us. He understands everything.
Many on this orb we call "earth" do not understand Christ's sacrifice in coming to this planet. Ted Turner is one such person who spoke to a group of people at a United Nations summit meeting:
Addressing religious and spiritual leaders from around the world at the Millennium World Peace Summit at the United Nations, Ted Turner said:
“We are all one race, and there is only one God who manifests himself in different ways.
Basically, the major religions which have survived today don’t have blood sacrifice, and they don’t have hatred behind them. Those which have done the best are the ones that are built on love. God had to love us, didn’t he? He wouldn’t have made us if he hated us.”
Yes, God does love us. Unfortunately, Turner doesn’t understand that God’s love is what led him to the cross--to shed his blood as a sacrifice for our sins.
Know how sublime a thing it is, to suffer and be strong.
Both the apostle James and apostle Paul laid out the benefits of suffering (when we must endure it): steadfastness of faith, and completeness as a believer (James 1:2-4); endurance in the throes of affliction, character, hope in Christ, and Christian love (Romans 5:3-5). Paul instructed the church plants that he established in the types of trials and challenges that he had faced throughout his travels (2 Corinthians 11:23-28). More recently, in the early 1300's, Raymond Lull was a missionary and scholar who dedicated himself to reaching Muslims with the gospel. Once he wrote, "I was fairly rich and tasted freely of the pleasures of life. But all these things I gladly resigned that I might spread abroad a knowledge of the truth. I studied Arabic, and several times went forth to preach the gospel to the Saracens. I have been in prisons; I have been scourged. Now, though old and poor, I do not despair; I am ready, if it be God’s will, to persevere unto death." After writing those words, Lull was stoned to death in North Africa in 1316 after gathering a small flock of converts. He used his life experiences to reach out to others, as Stephen had in the Scriptures (Acts 6:8). Dumitru likewise reached out to others with Christ's love. Perhaps we too might use our testing and trauma to express our love of God and to our Lord to others.
Through the centuries believers have suffered for their faith. (Check out Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, or Martyrs’ Mirror) To most of us in the West today, true persecution is something we only read about. But it’s always been a reality for God's people, and it could become reality for us someday. We need to be reminded that God is faithful even during the darkest times. Persecution of Christians is normal and present in every country. Do we seek to avoid suffering at all cost? Sometime in the not-too-distant past, it became safe to be a Christian… And, as the time of martyrs largely passed, so did the life blood begin to flow out of Christianity and out of the Church. Persecution should be an omnipresent risk for every Christian. Mr. Bacu said, upon his release from prison after 20 years, that the pains which weakened their bodies were not able to master their hearts. In the prison setting he sought to encourage those around him, cultivating love, understanding and wisdom--instead of expressing hatred to guards or fellow inmates. His suffering demonstrated his love for God and his love for his fellow cell mates; in this he evinced his devotion to God and to Christ Jesus.
Much of Christ's teachings, and Paul's, Timothy's, James' and Peter's writings as well, present us with the challenge to change our perspective on life and its trials and sufferings. Perhaps we might use our own sufferings to express our love to God. He is our Blessed Hope, the Immanuel who walks with us through our individual and corporate trials and distresses. Perhaps we too might in our afflictions find opportunity to communicate love, understanding and wisdom to those around us. It is for the love of Christ that we are here; to glorify Him in enjoying the good times and persevering in the bad. "God leads us along"--what an encouraging note. And the words of this old hymn tell us,
Though sorrows befall us, and Satan oppose,
God leads His dear children along.
Through grace we can conquer, defeat all our foes,
God leads His dear children along.
Refrain
Some through the waters, some through the flood,
Some through the fire, but all through the blood.
Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song,
In the night season and all the day long.
In Philippians 1:29-30, Paul acknowledges that some believers have been granted not only to believe in Christ, but also suffer for His sake. For more on this subject, please refer to my previous devotional, "We Are The Clay, He is The Potter".
His strength and His courage, offered freely for our use, can bear us along in this journey of life. Acts 5:41
We’re called to remain faithful and trusting obediently as God leads, accepting His blessed gift and if it is our lot, blessed scars. There have been reports of Christians, showing their bullet scars on their body as the apostle Paul did (Galatians 6:17), as their bearing the marks of Christ even on their own bodies. Let us praise Him forever, and live our lives for Him. Paul’s next sentence (Galatians 6:18) leaves us with this blessing: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit... Amen.