can experience the beauty of God who turns trials into gold. These times are what I call “beautiful disappointments,” where God reveals Himself to us in powerful, life-changing ways! My prayer for you while you read this book is that it will encourage you to never give up and to embrace your circumstances. God has wonderful plans for you—if you let Him lead and comfort.
– Rev. Colin McCartney
Foreword
By Tony Campolo
In the face of tragedy, you can always count on some well-meaning Christian quoting Romans 8:28, trying to remind you that “all things work together for good to those who trust God and are called according to His purposes.” Sometimes, in quoting the verse, they add their un-theological interpretation, which goes something like this: “God is in control. Everything that happens is God’s will!” I am not so sure about that these days. I have seen too many things happen to good people that did not turn out to be good at all. Maybe it’s my lack of faith, and maybe someday in the future—perhaps in another life—I will understand the good that is inherent in the tragedies that I have seen.
In reality, I believe that the verse, if properly translated, would probably read something like this:
“In the midst of all the things that are happening, God is there at work and through it all will bring about His good.”
That particular translation does not suggest that God makes everything happen. As a matter of fact, I am fairly convinced that God doesn’t make everything happen. There is a lot of evil in this world, and God is not the author of evil. The Bible says so. He is not the author of tragedy. As a matter of fact, He is the one who only comes with blessings.
What the verse properly translated suggests is that no matter what happens—good or bad—people of faith know that God is with them in the midst of their tragedies and He will work along with them to create some good. As a matter of fact, the good that He creates far exceeds our most optimistic imaginations.
As you read through this book, you will become acquainted with my friend Colin McCartney. He is a man who has committed his life to doing good for God and serving as a missionary in a very difficult inner-city situation. He and his wife are a couple of the most attractive people you could ever meet. Their photographs could easily be on the cover of a “health and happiness” magazine. They have beautiful children and seem to have everything that life could offer.
All of a sudden, tragedies struck Colin’s life. Blow after blow landed upon him, and as you read this story, you will wonder how he ever survived the ordeals that occurred in such a short period of time and how he did so with his faith in God intact.
One time, when Mother Teresa was asked about the tragedies of life and how a loving God could allow such tragedies, her only response was, “When I see Him, He’s got a lot of explaining to do!” Whenever I tell that story in a talk or in a sermon, I always humorously add, “That’s probably why she lived so long. I can just hear God saying to the angel Gabriel, ‘Don’t bring her up here right now. I’ve got too much on my hands right now. I don’t think I could handle her. Could you put off bringing her to me for just a little while?’”
In the face of the events that you are about to read about, you may be apt to ask, “Why did a loving God allow so much tragedy to enter into the life of a young man who was trying to do missionary work and serve some of the most poor and oppressed people in this country?”
This book is not, in any way, an attempt to answer that kind of question. Instead, it is a straightforward account of how a young missionary found the strength in God that enabled him to overcome the tragedies that befell him and his family and, not only to overcome, but to ascertain the good that God was doing in the midst of all that was happening.
I am not sure just how much God controls all the events of our lives, but reading through this book, I was convinced that in the midst of all that was happening to Colin McCartney, God was present and made some things happen that would be otherwise extremely unlikely. Colin McCartney is with us today, serving Christ in Toronto, Canada, because in the midst of the tragedies of his life, he became more aware than ever that God is a very present help in trouble; a strength in a time of weakness; and a source of hope in the face of despairing circumstances.
Colin’s story starts with a description of some of the work that he and some heroic young people who work with him are doing in government housing communities in a giant metropolitan area. The story begins with the tragic and senseless murder of a young man named Patrick. This young man had been won to Christ through the efforts of Colin’s ministry and had become a beacon of hope to boys and girls throughout the depressing neighborhood that had the deceptive name of Warden Woods. The name of this government housing community creates an image of a bucolic setting when in reality just the opposite is true. It’s a community that is marked by gangs, juvenile delinquency, drugs, illicit sex and all the other maladies that mark so many of these kinds of neighbourhoods. There came to this neighbourhood the good news of a ministry that was developed under the direction of Colin McCartney, called UrbanPromise, which made an incredible impact on the people who lived there. Because of his work and his partnership with a friendly social worker, life had become better in Warden Woods and the murders, which had once been all too common, had seemingly come to an end. Then Patrick’s murder broke the peace that UrbanPromise had helped to create. The loss of Patrick was a horrendous blow to Colin, his workers and especially to the boys and girls who looked up to Patrick as a symbol and sign that even kids growing up in desperate neighbourhoods could become wonderful people. In this book, you will see how Colin and his colleagues allowed God to permeate their lives in the midst of the suffering associated with this death and brought about incredible good.
Shakespeare once said, “When troubles come, they come not as single spies, but in battalions!” The truth of that quote was verified in Colin’s life, because it wasn’t too long after Patrick’s murder that other tragedies confronted him.
Working as they do in inner-city settings, Colin and his co-workers with UrbanPromise try to run a variety of programs that not only lead children and teenagers to Christ, but also enable them to have the fun and cultural enrichment that children deserve and seldom enjoy.
One summer afternoon, some of the workers took a group of boys and girls to a lakeside beach near Toronto where they could have an outing under the sun and in the water. Again, tragedy struck. A little boy was accidentally drowned.
It wasn’t that the workers were negligent. In reality, they were paying close attention and yet somehow this little boy ended up facedown in shallow water, and before anyone could rescue him he was in serious condition. It wasn’t too long after that that the boy passed away in the hospital. Colin and company had been constantly at the bedside of the child, praying and asking God for healing, but healing didn’t happen.
It was expected that the parents of the child would be full of anger and would lash out at the young workers of UrbanPromise. It didn’t happen. The parents, who had been touched by the ministries of Colin over the past several years, demonstrated a love and sensitivity that to some outsiders might seem unthinkable. Their attitudes, their dispositions, their willingness to endure the loss of their little boy with spiritual serenity proved to be a testimony of how God could equip people to handle the extremely difficult circumstances of life.
The problems of Colin McCartney and UrbanPromise did not end after the two tragedies that I have cited above. Colin’s friends knew that he needed a break, so a sabbatical was arranged. Some good people made a resort cottage in one of the most exclusive places in Hawaii available to Colin’s family for an extended vacation, free of charge. From there, they were to go on to Australia and enjoy even more relaxation. But the McCartney family was soon to learn that the best-laid plans of men and women can often go awry. On the first day of surfing at a beach on the island of Maui, there was an accident and Colin McCartney was rendered paralyzed. As the book will clearly point out, there were scores of reasons why he should have died, but by an incredible array of circumstances he was rescued and over an extended period was restored to health and wellbeing.
When