The strange machine along the streets of Madrid seized my attention.

Its long arms reached out and wrapped themselves around the trunk of a tree. Its motor vibrated those arms at high speeds so they could shake the tree violently. Its net sat suspended just beneath the lowest branches. As the machine buzzed and roared, a hundred ripe oranges fell from the branches to land in the net below — a hundred ripe oranges that could feed and satisfy a hundred people. That machine was carefully designed to release the fruit from the tree — to release it by shaking.
The nets filled with oranges remind me of something the apostle Paul once wrote about times of trial and tribulation, of deep sorrow and loss. He contended that Christians must be prepared to be afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, and even struck down — a collection of words meant to display the variety of ways in which God may call us to suffer (2 Corinthians 4:8–9).
The God who is sovereign over all things may lead us into times and contexts that are deeply painful. Yet we can be confident that our suffering is never arbitrary and never meaningless, for God always has a purpose in mind. Hence, Paul says more: we will be “afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.” For those in Christ, God’s purpose is never to harm us and never to ruin us.
So what is God’s purpose in our suffering? Why does God sometimes lead us away from the green pastures and still waters to call us instead to follow him into deep and dark valleys (Psalm 23)? These were questions that were much on my mind in the days, weeks, and months following the Lord’s decision to call my son to himself.
(Note: this article was commissioned by Desiring God and posted to their site last month)
God Left Us Sonless
Nick, age 20, was at seminary and taking a break from his studies to play a game with a group of his friends when, in an instant, his heart stopped, his body fell to the ground, and his soul went to heaven. His friends tried to revive him, a passing doctor tried to revive him, responding paramedics and emergency-room doctors tried to revive him. But it was to no avail. God had called him home. And since God had summoned him to heaven, there was no doctor, no medication, and no procedure that could keep my son here on earth.
I don’t know why God determined that Nick would live so short a life, why he would leave this world with so little accomplished and so much left undone. I don’t know why God determined to leave Aileen and me sonless, Abby and Michaela brotherless, Ryn fiancéless and ultimately husbandless. I don’t know why God did it — why God exercised his sovereignty in taking away a young man who was so dearly loved, who was so committed to serving Jesus, and who had so much promise. But I don’t need to know, for, as Moses said, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God” (Deuteronomy 29:29).
While I don’t know why God did it, I am already beginning to understand how God is using it.
Lamentation Without Resentment
On the streets of Madrid, a machine shakes the orange trees to cause them to release their fruit. It shakes them violently, shakes them so hard that it almost looks as if the branches must snap, as if the trunk must splinter, as if the entire tree must be uprooted. Yet this is the way it must be done, for the delicious fruit is connected tightly to the inedible branches. And the moment the machine has collected the fruit, I observe, it ceases its shaking, it furls up its net, it withdraws its arms, and it backs away, leaving the tree healthy and well, prepared to bear yet another harvest.
And just like that machine shook the orange tree, Nick’s death has shaken me and shaken my family and shaken my church and shaken Nick’s friends and shaken his school — shaken us to our very core. Yet this shaking, though it has been violent and exceedingly painful, has not caused us to break. We have raised our voices in lamentation, but never in rebellion. We have raised hands of worship, but never fists of rage. We have asked questions, but have never expressed resentment.
To the contrary, as I look at those who love Nick most, I see them displaying fresh evidences of God’s grace. I see them growing in love for God, in the joy of their salvation, in the peace of the gospel, in their patience with God’s purposes, in kindness toward others, in the goodness of personal holiness, in faithfulness to all God has called them to, in gentleness with other people’s sins and foibles, and in that rare, blessed virtue of self-control. I see them bearing the precious fruit of the Spirit as never before (Galatians 5:22–23).
Shaken to Bear Fruit
Just as the fruit of the tree clings tightly to the branch, the evil within us clings tightly to the good, the vices to the virtues, the immoral to the upright. God does not mean to harm us when he shakes us, but simply to release the fruit — to do what is necessary to separate what is earthly from what is heavenly, what dishonors him from what delights his heart.
As I consider my wife, as I consider my girls, as I consider Nick’s precious fiancée, as I consider his friends and fellow church members, I see that they have been deeply shaken by his death — shaken by God’s sovereign hand. But I see as well that they have been shaken for a beautiful purpose. They have been shaken to bear fruit.

This week’s Free Stuff Fridays is sponsored by The Master’s Academy International (TMAI), who also sponsored the blog this week with the article “Your Invite to TMAI’s International Symposium.” They are giving away the e-book “How to Build an Effective Missions Program.”

Free E-Book Giveaway
This free giveaway is a succinct and important e-book titled “How to Build an Effective Missions Program.” It’s designed for pastors, but can be useful for any believer and will be given to everyone who enters.
“The seven steps below are intended to guide your missions leadership team through this process…Our goal is to aid you in making the necessary adjustments in order to ensure that your program is as biblical, God-honoring, and effective as it can be.”
Steps Discussed:

Understand the Motivation
Recognize Biblical Principles
Build Your Leadership Team
Devise Your Strategy
Communicate to the Church
Evaluate Your Current Program
Adjust Program as Necessary

“Ultimately, with your new missions strategy as a foundation, your congregation will be able to consider, within a biblical framework, what existing or new missions support opportunities best concur with your goals. As such, your church will be better equipped to maximize its efforts to glorify God and reach the world for Christ.”

The Story Behind the Book
“For over a decade, The Master’s Academy International has been helping to strengthen churches around the world by training indigenous church leaders to become approved pastor-teachers. That has been accomplished primarily by churches sending missionaries to establish and operate training centers in other countries. We are also committed to assisting sending churches by producing and collating resources that assist in the global missions endeavor.
As I have interacted with churches across the United States and around the world, I find that many are struggling with how to get involved in missions and sustain the effort through the years. I have spoken with many pastors who have come into a church to find either no missions effort or one that needs to be re-aligned with biblical priorities, but are unsure how to make this happen. I have spoken with elders who sense the need for their church to be less reactive and more proactive in the area of missions, but are not clear about how to go about it. TMAI desires to serve local pastors in asking and answering these questions: What should be our priorities in missions? What principles should govern our investment of time, people and money? How can we participate most effectively and efficiently in serving the church around the world?
This booklet is intended to…help churches to accomplish the task given by Christ in the Great Commission. We pray it will be useful to you as a pastor leading your church in thinking through the motivations and methods for carrying out the Church’s glorious mission.
Mark TatlockPresident, The Master’s Academy International”

TO ENTER:
Giveaway Rules: You enter—you win! You may enter one time only. By submitting your information, you agree to receive regular updates about the ministry of The Master’s Academy International. The giveaway closes on Friday, January 13, 2023, at midnight. Enter your information into the form HERE.

I trust you enjoyed—as we did—a restful, worshipful, enjoyable Christmas Day. Because this is the week when few people visit blogs, I’ll be posting only A La Carte between now and Saturday. A more normal schedule will resume on January 2.

Today’s Kindle deals include a nice little selection of books from Crossway.
(Yesterday on the blog: Today of All Days, Be of Good Cheer)
Persecution and Kingdom Expansion
We know that persecution tends to go along with kingdom expansion, but this article wants us to consider that “perhaps we miss just how inevitable persecution is in missionary contexts.”
Link by Link, Yard by Yard
Samuel James: “We humans in the modern West are micro-beings living in a macro-society. Every square inch of our news and political culture, our entertainment, and even religion is preoccupied with “big” problems that allegedly demand even bigger solutions. Nothing is more common than to hear people talk about the real issue facing the whole nation, or the problem with the church or Christianity at large. We increasingly attribute our daily angst to systemic troubles and our ordinary frustrations to major dysfunctions with our lives. This is why there is a seeming willingness among many to blow up their lives regularly…”
When Praying Hurts: How to Go to God in Suffering
Vaneetha Rendall Risner: “My desire to pray when I’m suffering can swing wildly in a single day — and sometimes within the hour. Through the severe trials in my life — losing a child, having a debilitating disease, losing my marriage — prayer has been both arduous and exhilarating. Exhausting work and energizing delight.”
God’s Purpose Isn’t Ruined by Unbelief: Don’t Be Discouraged
“The evangelism/missions cause can never be thwarted by the unbelief of the masses who will ‘keep on hearing but will not understand,’ any more than Jesus’ own earthly evangelism was hindered by it. It has always been part of the plan that people will not understand. If a missionary hacks his way through jungle and finds no reception in some villages, it isn’t defeat.”
Does it mean I am not saved yet if I continuously doubt whether I am saved? (Video)
Derek Thomas and Burk Parsons consider questions of doubt, repentance, and assurance.
Remember
Glenna Marshall remembers some difficult times, then says “I don’t want to forget the ways He carried me. Remembering tightens my grip on trust. He’ll carry me through the next season of suffering.”
Flashback: When I Get to the End of the Way
Some of my favorite poems are those that pick up on one particularly important line and then repeat it throughout, thus consistently building upon a theme. This is the case with an old poem titled “When I Get to the End of the Way.”

We should count ourselves happy the day we discover a new fault in our life or character—not happy because the fault is there, but because we have discovered it that we may rid ourselves of it. —J.R. Miller