The Insanity of God: A True Story of Faith Resurrected

by Nik Ripken

Suffering is one of God’s ordained means for the growth of his church. He brought salvation to the world through Christ, our suffering Savior, and he now spreads salvation in the world through Christians as suffering saints. In the words of Paul, “All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12). Clearly, there is a sense in which the danger of our lives increases in proportion to the depth of our relationship with Christ.

They know that following Jesus, in so many ways, actually increases suffering instead of lessening it. But they also know that Jesus is better than all the pleasures, possessions, and pursuits of this world put together.

From my parents and my neighbors, I learned that life is hard work and that happiness is being with family and friends. Those simple lessons have served me well over the years.

But that also meant that church and real life seemed to have little in common.

I realized then that the supply line for evil was better established, and a lot more efficient, than the supply line for good. And I was not at all sure that I could do anything to change that when, and if, I managed to get back to Nairobi.

I saw no separation or distinction between accepting Christ and surrendering my whole life to Him to do what He wanted me to do.

I considered it a clear command from God for me personally. I knew that I had to go; I knew that He wanted me to go. I knew that I had no choice. Until or unless He stopped me, I would go. I couldn’t imagine how such a thing would be possible. But I took God at His word.

How is it, I wondered, that so many people are willing to die for financial or humanitarian reasons while many Christian groups insist on waiting until it is safe to obey Jesus’ command to “Go” into all the world?

read Matthew 28. When I read that chapter, I notice that Jesus never says if or whether you go; He simply talks about where you go! God may have to give instructions about the location—the where. But there is nothing to negotiate about the command to go—God has already made our primary task perfectly clear.

“Serving God is not a matter of location, but a matter of obedience.”

What they wanted even more, however, was for someone, anyone, even a stranger who was still trying to learn their language, to sit for a while, or just stand with them, and let them share their stories. I perhaps should have known this, but I was amazed to see the power of human presence. In my pride, I thought that I knew exactly what these people needed, but I never would have thought to put “conversation” or “human connection” on my list. Once again, I was profoundly humbled.

Sometimes, we listened to their stories. Sometimes it was enough to remember that they had stories! By doing that, we were saying to them that they mattered. We were saying that they were important enough to be heard. Just by listening, we could restore a measure of humanity.

Often, that felt more important and more transforming than one more dose of life-saving medicine or another day’s worth of physical nourishment.

We struggled to steel our emotions without hardening our hearts. That was not easily done.

Quickly, I learned that I could never divorce my decisions from my prayer time and my relationship with God. I guarded against assuming a level of responsibility and authority that was not mine to assume.

Neither do you, Nik! You were no less lost than they are—but, by my grace, you were born in an environment where you could hear, understand and believe. These people have not had that opportunity.

I saw the lost condition of every human being without the grace of Christ.

I had to work hard to remember that neither Islam nor Muslims were the real enemy here. Lostness was the enemy. The enemy was the evil that viciously misleads and traps people like lost sheep without a shepherd. The Somalis were the victims. They were not the source or even the cause of the evil in their land. They were victims suffering evil’s grim effects.

Those of us who have grown comfortable with the teachings of Christ have allowed His teachings to lose their edge.

Ruth and I were captive to the conviction that, if Jesus is not the answer to the human condition, there is no answer.

one of the most accurate ways to detect and measure the activity of God is to note the amount of opposition that is present. The stronger the persecution, the more significant the spiritual vitality of the believers.

For us, persecution is like the sun coming up in the east. It happens all the time. It’s the way things are. There is nothing unusual or unexpected about it. Persecution for our faith has always been—and probably always will be—a normal part of life.”

what if persecution is the normal, expected situation for a believer?

He was convinced that people flocked to Christ in greater numbers during difficult days of persecution because that’s when they could recognize how God sustains and strengthens His followers through times of trouble.

“Don’t ever give up in freedom what we would never have given up in persecution! That is our witness to the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ!”

Their lives were evidence to the strength that can be found in community and fellowship and faith.

Personal trust and respect for spiritual maturity were often in direct proportion to the amount of suffering that had been endured for the faith.

who had endured persecution and had come out of it with deeper spiritual roots, a more mature faith, and a greater appreciation for fellowship with other believers. They had also come out of the experience with a much stronger relationship with the Lord.

You can only grow in persecution what you take into it.”

These believers seemed to understand that the only thing that mattered was sharing Jesus.

God, evidently, was doing today everything that He had done in the Bible! The evidence was compelling.

At least among people who were faithfully following Him in the world’s toughest places, God was still doing what He had done from the beginning.

Believers who experienced and endured persecution found their faith strengthened, deepened, and matured.

Evidently, God is still very much at work in His world. And, evidently, He still speaks to those who walk with Him. The man was certain that we would come; God had made that clear to him. In response, he had already prepared breakfast for four.

I have been doing this for a long time. If you will take My Word out into the world, I will get it in the right hands.

At that point, he didn’t have anybody to disciple him. In his country, there was no church that he could attend, no Bible study that he might join. On his own, he kept reading and studying the Bible. And he did everything that the Holy Spirit told him to do.

This man not only knew Jesus—he was also convinced that Jesus was worth whatever his faith might cost him.

what our faith costs and how much we are willing to endure for Jesus’ sake.

Multitudes of people were eager to bear witness to a faith that had not only survived persecution, but had thrived because of it.

Instead of developing a curriculum, we were being taught by believers in persecution how to follow Jesus, how to love Jesus, and how to walk with Him day by day.

In truth, I am certain that Aisha was afraid. She, like so many believers living in persecution, simply refused to be controlled by her fear. By faith, she found a way to overcome her fear.

It was clear that a vibrant faith like Aisha’s could take root, survive, and thrive in hostile conditions.

Evidently, those Muslim jailors recognized the power in HeartSongs a lot quicker than I did. And they didn’t need hundreds of interviews to reach that conclusion. When I finally connected enough of the dots, I came to understand the significance of music as a faith factor and recognize its presence and power already at work in the Islamic world.

I began to understand that God is not helpless without us.

I also came to understand that our all-knowing God is completely aware of all that is happening in His world—even in places where evil seems to be running rampant. Even in these dark places, our ever-present God is not somehow absent until we show up ready to help.

It is crucial to understand that God values our help. But it is even more crucial to remember that our all-powerful God is able to work with or without us, that our all-knowing God is not blind to the evil in His world, and that our ever-present God is there . . . whether we are or not.

would be to learn what God already has been doing and is doing there, join Him, and together figure out how we can build on that.

Ruth and I have shared this journey from the beginning. Our life and work have long been part of a shared adventure that neither started nor ended in Somalia.

the greatest enemy of our faith today is not communism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Atheism, or even Islam. Our greatest enemy is lostness. Lostness is the terrible enemy that Jesus commissioned His followers to vanquish with the battle strategy that He spelled out for them in Matthew 28:18–20.

Our hope is that believers around the world will get close enough to the heart of God that the first images that come to mind when we hear the word “Muslim” are not Somali pirates or suicide bombers or violent jihadists or even terrorists. When we hear the word “Muslim,” we need to see and think of each and every individual Muslim as a lost person who is loved by God. We need to see each Muslim as a person in need of God’s grace and forgiveness. We need to see each Muslim as someone for whom Christ died.