I am a huge fan of the musical Les Miserables. I saw it on Broadway when I was 11, and I thought it was just about the most amazing thing ever.
I’ve always been struck by the relationship between Jean Valjean and Javert. Valjean, the protagonist, spends several years of his life in prison, caught stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving family. But for Javert, the local police officer, Valjean’s decision isn’t justified and he is nothing more than a thief. After he’s freed from prison, Valjean doesn’t have much of a chance because society isn’t willing to forgive him either. So Valjean acquires forged documents and starts his life over again, as an honest man. The musical flashes foward several years, and he has become successful. But Javert steps back into his life. He eventually realizes that Valjean has taken an alias and he goes on the run.
And as the musical progresses, we see that Javert is incapable of ever seeing Valjean as more than that. Javert is entirely focused on the law. A person is good or bad based on if they can adhere to the law.
Javert doesn’t grasp that people can change.
In an important scene towards the end of the musical, there has been an uprising against the French government. Javert is captured in the insurrection. Valjean is in a position to kill Javert. the man who has pursued him for most of his adult life. Instead of doing what might be expected, Valjean saves his life, he lets Javert go. Not only does he let go, he tells Javert he will turn himself in and let Javert arrest him.
From Javert’s perspective, the bad man has done something good, he has spared him.
Does Javert gain a newfound respect for Jean Valjean? No. Javert’s world is shattered. His whole life, he has put his faith in the law and in obedience. It was that which made a person good or bad. And when he discovers that it is actually Valjean who is righteous, everything Javert has ever believed in has been destroyed. People can change. People who have done bad things can have transformed lives, but it’s too much for Javert. He takes his own life.
I know it’s just a story, but Les Mis shows us powerful insights into people and the world. It deals with redemption, grace, love, and sacrifice. People can change. A person’s past does not have to be their future.
Originally published October 8, 2015
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There’s a meme that I’ve seen on social media that criticizes complaining about the surging gas prices in lights of the sufferings of the Ukrainian people.
The meme says: “Instead of complaining about gas prices going up, try feeling grateful that you aren’t sitting on a concrete floor in a train terminal, holding your cat, wondering if your home and everyone you love has been blown to bits.”
I find that view to be utterly unhelpful, condescending, and impractical.
There are real struggles right now. Inflation is a problem. Gas prices were already high and they’re now the highest they’ve ever been. And they’re gong to continue going up and with shipping costs going up, more prices will increase. I don’t think it’s helpful to be dismissive of those very real challenges people are facing. It’s emotional tyranny to tell people how they ought to feel.
Of course the people of Ukraine have it worse. But challenging situations are not a competition. You don’t only have the license to acknowledge difficulties if you’re going through the most difficult circumstance on earth.
Furthermore, a person can be stressed or frustrated about these current challenges and also have empathy for the people of Romania and how much they’re suffering. It’s heartbreaking to know that families have been separated, that women and children are refugees with nothing, that an entire society has been turned upside down. I think about the people who will be at risk of exploitation in human trafficking. I even get sad when I think of pets that have been left behind.
But how does it help to suggest that Americans shouldn’t complain?
What adds further insult to injury is the knowledge that America has vast supplies of oil that we choose not to drill and the average citizen gets stuck paying more. That’s a legitimate frustration.
This all comes after two years of having our society and lives turned upside down with Covid. During the earlier stages of Covid, if a person had the audacity to dare question public health policies, it was that they were anti-science and selfish.
Now if a struggling person acknowledges the difficulties of our economy, they’re told that their feelings don’t matter and they should just look at Ukraine? It’s madness.
For anyone who shares that meme, I hope you never complain again. Because there’s a war going on somewhere at almost all times. Refugee and humanitarian crises are sadly all too common. There are any number of evils which people in our world suffer. And whatever you’re going through, if someone else has it worse, you shouldn’t feel bad about your circumstances.
There’s nothing wrong with lamenting a difficult situation. Yes, it helps to have perspective that there are others who are less fortunate. Yes it is good to also be mindful of our blessings. It’s not ideal to dwell and constantly focus on difficulties and complain. But we also can’t ignore them when they arise.
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This passage is a microcosm of the creation, fall, redemption that we see in the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis. Fittingly, Jesus is arrested in a garden. In the first garden, humanity sinned and brought forth death. But in this garden, Jesus will undo that curse and bring forth life as a result of his death at the hands of a sinful world.
It’s crazy how fast the world can change. While the Russian invasion of Ukraine last week was not a surprise, I still find it surreal that there was relative peace over there a few days ago.
Like so many, I’m struck by the senselessness of it all. Russia has invaded another sovereign nation in an unjustified and unprovoked attack, and the exact reasons why still aren’t entirely clear. Was it purely for conquest and to take back former Soviet territories? Was it to make a power play against NATO? There’s no obvious reason (that I’ve heard) as far as natural resources or great strategic advantage that makes this move make obvious sense.
The opening days of this war have been a debacle for Russia. Even if they overtake Kiev, it already seems apparent that they will never be able to occupy Ukraine among fierce resistance efforts and a global community who is increasingly coming to the support of Ukraine. It seems that Putin underestimated Ukraine and overestimated his military. The Russians were ill-prepared and ill-equipped for this invasion and to weather a strong resistance.
Putin’s miscalculation has done incredible damage to Russia. Looked upon as one of the world’s super powers, this botched invasion has made Russia’s military look incompetent.
But what happens next? Putin has talked of a nuclear alert in his military, though many see this as little more than saber rattling. It’s still a scary prospect.
All the while, the people of Russia will suffer for this. I feel bad for both Ukraine and Russia. I feel sorry for Russian soldiers who were thrown into a pointless war. It’s estimated that the Russians have lost more soldiers in less than a week in Ukraine than America lost in nearly nine years in Iraq. The world has ratcheted up economic sanctions against Russia. Russian citizens are going to suffer consequences for a war that I have no doubt that the average Russian never wanted to fight.
And certainly, I feel bad for the people of Ukraine who have had their lives and country turned upside down.
In America, for the first time in a long time, I feel like we all agree on an issue that matters. Russia had no right to do what they did. It cannot get much more clear cut of a country being in the wrong.
I’m not an expert. I’m just sharing my thoughts and observations today. On this day, I’m hopeful that it won’t escalate into a massive global war, but sadly, I could be wrong. But the concern that I have is still that it’s going to get worse before it gets better. What happens with Russia when this is over. Do we just absolve Putin of war crimes?
Will the western world cut Russia out of the club? I mean, after we figure out how to get away from Russian oil and gas. Or will we continue to condemn and sanction Russia and still be a customer?
Wisdom of the Crowd
There’s this idea called Wisdom of the Crowd which is about how a greater number of inputs from people is closer to the right answer than what the average individual person would be. The classic example is if you have a jar of jellybeans and are asked to guess how many beans are int he jar, you might end up being way off. But if you have 50 guesses, 100 guesses, and if you average those guesses, it’s often pretty close to accurate.
I feel like the average person knows that we need to get off of Russian oil. Sadly, politicians often do not have the wisdom of the masses.
In the Book of Exodus, God had worked in mighty ways for the Israelites. He had brought a series of plagues against the Egyptians. He dramatically parted the waters of the Red Sea. Once the Israelites were in the desert, God continued to lead. But through a series of uncertain events, the Israelites continued to respond by grumbling.
They ran low on water. Israel grumbled. God provided water. They didn’t have food. Israel grumbled. God provided food. After all that the Lord had done, the people should have trusted that God would provide.
But their struggle is one that we too can have. In spite of all of the ways how God has provided for us, blessed us, sustained us, in a time of adversity, it can be easy to fall into grumbling and doubt.
But this isn’t God’s desire for us. He wants us to live in faith. We can be so quick to forget what God has done, how he’s blessed us.
Forgetting can lead to unbelief and faithlessness.
Let us actively remember the blessings of the Lord in our lives.
We forget about his past blessings and forget about his future promises.
And so we grumble.
God is the Lord of our past, present, and future.
God has promise all of his children a wonderful and glorious future.
And between now and then, he has not abandoned us in the desert.
God is God of your life today.
If you’ve placed faith in Jesus, you know that you’re a sinner, saved by grace, and know that Jesus saved you, you have that to thank God for.
Ad that’s the most important thing of all.
He redeemed you. He saved you from the penalty of sin. To remember that the Lord is good. The Israelites lose sight of that.
To remember that God made everything and that everything belongs to him.
You’re here today. Which means that God has provided for you up to this point in your life. For some of us, it might not have always been easy.
There might have been times of real hardship.
But we’ve made it to this moment.
It’s easy to forget.
For some of us, when a blessing gets answered, we might celebrate for a moment, but it can be easy to just move on to the next thing to stress about.
And we can go through so much of our lives grumbling, complaining to God, feeling like he hasn’t given us enough.
For the Israelites, they’ve seen God act in mighty ways, but then they go right back to worrying.
The Israelites face difficult situations. And they choose to grumble instead of trust.
Part of the root of a grumbling heart is one that loses sight of the sovereignty of God.
I mentioned earlier that it was God who had led Israel to their circumstance between the Egyptians and the sea. It was no accident.
It was God who was leading the Israelites in the desert. It’s so easy to lose sight of the divine hand of God at work in our lives. Israel did. In our passages, they actually don’t even grumble directly to God. They actually grumble to Moses and his brother Aaron.
As if it was their fault.
Nothing happens outside of the sovereign will of God.
And while they might have directed their complaints to Moses and Aaron, the real displeasure of the people was with God.
God is God of all circumstances.
Grumbling is a lack of trust in God. Grumbling is feeling like God hasn’t give us enough. It’s a sense that perhaps God isn’t good.
Grumbling is turning away from God. It’s complaining to others, it’s ignoring the goodness of God, and is not rooted in the truth of the character of the Lord.
We don’t like the unknown.
Israel didn’t know how they’d get water, they didn’t know how they’d get food. And even with the promises and presence of God, they didn’t know how it was all going to work out.
At a certain point, you need to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).
I think we sometimes look at the Old Testament. We see the things God did there and think “well yeah, it’d be easy to believe back then.” But people still often struggled, even when seeing incredible signs and miracles that the Lord was doing.
Because it’s not constant wonderment and awe. We live in the real world and it’s really imperfect.
But when we don’t know what’s going to happen, when we don’t see the clearest path of how we’re going to get to a destination, let me challenge you today.
Instead of doubting or being a catastrophist, instead look to God and see how he’s going to work.
Do you have a situation in your life right now? That’s causing you stress? That’s robbing you of joy? That’s distracting you from God and where you’re tempted to grumble?
Let me challenge you in that situation to consider that the same God who’s blessed your life, the same Lord who came into the world and died so that you be reconciled to him, the same God who has made you eternal and glorious promises is also your God for today.
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