No Is Not an Attractive Word!

In the 1970’s Phil Keaggy had a beautiful song on his Love Broke Through album–”Disappointment– His Appointment”. The song was actually a poem that he put to music and the credit was ‘author unknown’. Years later, after repeating the phrase a few times myself to others, I learned that his song was actually a poem and that poem had an author, Lillian Young. Initially published in 1933 by Fleming Revell Company, it was found in an old book, The Best-Loved Religious Poems by James Gilchrist Lawson. If you didn’t know the phrase was from a poem, you will find it in this blog.

It seems like a lifetime ago, as a young Christian, both in age and in spirituality, when things didn’t go exactly as I had planned, (or not even close) some well-meaning, super-spiritual elder would pull me aside and colloquially repeat to me, “just remember honey, ‘disappointments are His appointments’!” That was exactly what I wanted to hear. . .NOT! I was gracious and went through the motions of pretending to be thankful for their “profound” wisdom, believing they meant well.

I never did find the word “no” a very attractive word. If my mother were still alive, she could attest to that fact. At the age of 14, as I was recovering from a very tragic accident (auto x 2 v. pedestrian) doctors told Mom and Dad that I would never. . . .or that I could not. . .”no, you will not be able to do that. . .” There were those words again: Disappointment – just in different terminology. I heard everything the doctors had said. Things had changed. I was not the same. Everything I was told “no” that I could not do, I refused to accept that disappointment and pushed on relearning the things we daily take for granted and taking risks refusing to be told “no”.

Along life’s way, that phrase has been repeated to me during some very trying and difficult moments in my life. It did not bring solace. It did not make me feel better. In fact, I had to bite my tongue a few times rather than lashing out a well wisher. I have met well-meaning believers who I think felt that poem or that phrase was Scripture. It is not. I believe it is based on Job 23:14, “For he will complete what he appoints for me, and many such things are in his mind.” In that same chapter, Job says in verse 10, “But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.” 

Today, I listened again on You Tube to Phil Keaggy’s song, Disappointment – His Appointment. It is on his album, Love Broke Through (one of our old favorites). As I have matured in my walk with Jesus Christ, trusting Him explicitly, I have questioned His answers to my prayers, studied and learned His Word and ways, inquired, and sometimes pleaded for Him to change His mind about an answer I received or about His will for my life. For me, there is just something unsettling about that well-worn phrase and several other lines penned by the author, such as “Not one single choice be mine.”

Jesus always answered me in one of these four ways: Yes! No! Wait until later, and one I too often get: You’ve got to be kidding! The loving Savior that lives within my heart created me, and you, and everyone, with a free will. He gave us all the freedom to make choices – whether or not they are good for us, we are able to choose. Does my Father say “no”! Always having me and my best interest in His heart of hearts, you bet he says no. But as a loving Father, He still gives me the freedom to choose – I can accept His answer or I can choose another way.

Paul tells us in Hebrews 5:14, “But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” How do we practice? By making choices. Spiritual, emotional and intellectual exercises are necessary so that we may learn how to choose between good and evil. Our father never intended that we should be passive as believers. The poet penned, “He rejoices when He knows that His child accepts, unquestioned, all that from His wisdom flows.” Wait a minute. Are all of our disappointments God’s appointments?

It would seem to me that blind, unthinking acceptance of “whatever” is a dangerous thing. I used to think, as a spiritual child that every hand dealt to me came from God, when, in reality, it was the enemy of my soul, the Evil One thwarting and harassing me. In times such as these, we cannot be passively accepting. Complacency, passivity, or passive acceptance of situations without questioning, seeking, and inquiring, is exactly how the enemy is too often able to gain control over our thoughts, our lives, and the things that concern us. We are exhorted by the Apostle Paul as he wrote to “fight the good fight of faith” (1 Tim. 6:12). 

Did you ever consider why Paul also provided the believers in Ephesus with a list of spiritual armor given in Ephesians chapter 6, if there is no war and we are to simply accept all the “disappointments are his appointments” that are thrown our way? An author from Prophetic Prints drew my attention to a classic text on spiritual warfare called War on the Saints, by Jessie Penn-Lewis (published by Overcomer Literature Trust, 1977 & Christian Literature Crusade, Fort Washington, PA, 1983). The original was written in 1912.

Jessie devotes an entire chapter to The Perils of Passivity. The author quotes: “The chief condition for the working of evil spirits in a human being, apart from sin, is passivity, in exact opposition to the condition which God requires for His working. ...God requires cooperation with His Spirit, and the full use of every faculty of the whole man. In brief, the powers of darkness aim at obtaining a passive slave or captive to their will; whilst God desires a regenerated man, intelligently and actively willing and choosing… 

The powers of darkness would make a man a machine, a tool, an automaton; the God of holiness and love desires to make him a free, intelligent sovereign in his own sphere–a thinking rational, renewed creation after His own image (Ephesians iv. 24). Therefore, God never says to any faculty of man, “Be thou idle”.

God does not need, nor demand non-activity in a man, for His working in and through him; but evil spirits demand the utmost non-activity and passivity. God asks for intelligent action (Rom. xii. 1-2, “Your reasonable service,”) in cooperation with Him.

Passivity must not be confused with quietness, or the “meek and quiet spirit”, which in the sight of God is of great price. Quietness of spirit, of heart, of mind, of manner, voice and expression, may be co-existent with the most effective activity in the will of God (1 Thess. iv. 11). 

There is a passivity of the will; …This originates from a wrong conception of what full surrender to God means. Thinking that a “surrendered will” to God means no use of the will at all, the believer ceases to (1) choose, (2) determine, and (3) act of his own volition. The serious effect of this he is not allowed by the powers of darkness to discover, for at first the consequences are trivial and scarcely noticeable. 

“Suffering directly caused by evil spirits may be discriminated from the true fellowship of Christ’s sufferings, by a complete absence of result, either in fruit, victory, or ripening in spiritual growth. If carefully observed, it will be seen to be entirely purposeless. On the other hand, God does nothing without a definite objective. He does not delight in causing suffering for the sake of suffering, but the Devil does.” 

It is amazing and profoundly comforting to know that, even though some of our ‘appointments’ come from the enemy of our soul, our God is able to make all grace abound to us in those circumstances, since “… And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28 ESV)

We cannot automatically presume that the trials that come into our lives have come from the Father’s hand. As much as I detest the “disappointment” and the word “no”, it is important for me to continue to grow and discern from where these “appointments” come from. The Lord does understand, and yes, everything is open before Him. He is omniscient. 

We need to yield every moment, every thought and all of our plans to the love and wisdom of our Heavenly Father. Most importantly, we need to insure that our “disappointments are, in fact, His appointments”. If we accept the lie that every disappointment comes from the hand of God then we may find ourselves getting angry or bitter toward Him. Use your freedom to choose to seek, to question, to ask, to inquire, to study. 

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15 ESV)

God bless you! -RS 

Here's the poem:

 

Disappointment -- His Appointment

"Disappointment -- His Appointment"
Change one letter, then I see
That the thwarting of my purpose
Is God's better choice for me.
His appointment must be blessing,
Tho' it may come in disguise,
For the end from the beginning
  Open to His wisdom lies.

"Disappointment -- His Appointment"
Whose?  The Lord, who loves me best,
Understands and knows me fully,
Who my faith and love would test;
For, like loving earthly parent,
He rejoices when He knows
That His child accepts, UNQUESTIONED,
All that from His wisdom flows.

"Disappointment -- His Appointment"
"No good thing will He withhold,"
From denials oft we gather
Treasures of His love untold,
Well He knows each broken purpose
Leads to fuller, deeper trust,
And the end of all His dealings
Proves our God is wise and just.

"Disappointment -- His Appointment"
Lord, I take it, then, as such.
Like the clay in hands of potter,
Yielding wholly to Thy touch.
All my life's plan in Thy moulding,
Not one single choice be mine;
Let me answer, unrepining --
"Father, not my will, but Thine."

Edith Lillian Young