Why God Drives in Reverse

Think of the book of Esther as two narratives racing in opposite directions. One narrative consists of steps and stories leading toward one inevitable conclusion–the death and annihilation of the Jews. Each stride takes us closer to the finish line of the destruction of the Jewish people by the Persian empire. This path is characterized by mourning and sadness.
The alternate narrative consists of steps and stories leading toward the opposite conclusion–the salvation and exaltation of the Jews. Each stride moves us miles closer to the finish line of the rescue of the Jewish people from the Persian empire. This path is characterized by celebration and joy.

These two accounts race side by side throughout Esther. We’ll call one the “Sadness Path” and the other the “Gladness Path.” Each step on the Sadness Path is countered by a reversal, a corrective step down the Gladness Path. Notice how each of these seven strides along the Sadness Path is reversed by an opposite stride on the Gladness Path:

As you dart down the path on the left, the Sadness Path, the finish line is visible and close at hand. It’s a finish line of death and destruction. It leads to weeping and lamenting. By the time you reach the end, you are wearing sackcloth and ashes.

The clandestine God refuses to allow that course to stand alone. He quietly lays the groundwork for a complete turnaround. He makes possible a path with a different conclusion. Its finish line is life and renewal. It leads to celebration. By the time you reach it, you are wearing your very best party clothes.

This theme of reversal is summarized with these words:

Now in the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king’s command and edict were about to be carried out, on the very day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain the mastery over them, the reverse occurred: the Jews gained mastery over those who hated them. (Est. 9:1 ESV)

When it seems your course will conclude in sadness, the book of Esther reveals a reverse–God can flip sadness into gladness. The finish you fear may happen in life is not a foregone conclusion. The completion you crave but don’t believe can come about still can. Esther reveals a God who drives in reverse. He stealthily replaces sadness with gladness.

Gregory Boyles is the author of Tattoos on the Heart. He is the founder and Executive Director of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles. Every year, 15,000 gang members pound on its doors seeking help to escape gang life. Speaking in Memphis a few years ago, Boyles shared that, many times, when a gang member infiltrates an enemy gang member’s territory, it’s not because he wants to go kill someone. It’s because he wants to be killed by someone. He’s infiltrated enemy territory because he wants to die. Boyles says people often join gangs because they’ve lost hope. They look down their life’s path and they see nothing but pain and futility. They want to die. The only cure for that, Boyles says, is hope–hope that there might be another path besides the path of sadness. This is what Boyles and Homeboy Industries tries to do. They strive to show that the sadness path is not the only path.

This, the story of Esther declares, is the primary work of God. The good news, the gospel of God, is that there is another road. God is a God of reversals. He’s provided a Gladness Path onto which a u-turn can be made from the Sadness Path.

For far too many people, life appears a one-way street destined for a destination of despair. Existence is a path that, as people peer forward, only seems to end in pain. What so many seek is an alternative avenue. A highway that might end in hope. A trail that might lead to triumph. Esther’s story promises that even though it may be difficult to discern, this is what God’s up to in the world. God’s constantly carving new roads, blazing new byways. He knows how to turn a sadness path into a gladness path.

I saw this in a stunning way in Mildred’s life. She shared her story of God’s reverse at my congregation a few weeks ago. She was born to a crack addicted mother in Memphis. The state handed her over to her grandmother, although her grandmother’s health was ailing. One day her mother dropped by with two gifts for Mildred–twin babies! The grandmother physically unable to raise these abandoned infants, Mildred raised her twin siblings by herself, dropping out of school to do so. She never completed more than seventh grade. Several years later, now raising three children, she was taking out the trash from her low-end two-bedroom apartment when a man attacked her and raped her. Mildred became pregnant and contracted HIV.

It seemed like her life was headed down the Saddness Path at a hundred miles per hour. She was racing toward a finish line of futility and failure. It all seemed irreversible.

But then God showed up–and threw everything into reverse.

Mildred came into contact with a Christian non-profit agency in Memphis called HopeWorks. My friend Ron is the Executive Director. HopeWorks helped her gain the spiritual, emotional, educational, and social resources she needed to get back on her feet. She went from dying to thriving. Within a few years Mildred actually met with President Bush and then President Obama as part of a delegation seeking funding for HIV patients. Today she is a vibrant, joyful and productive woman. She is filled with hope and laughter. She’s got both feet on a Gladness Path. Mildred is a living testimony of a God who drives in reverse.

This is what sustained my friend David as he endured 19 churches rejecting him while he sought a preaching position. He and those of us close to him stubbornly believed that God had an alternative path charted for him. In the end, just a few weeks ago, David was hired by a wonderful church in upper New York state. What seemed certain to be a finish line of sadness was not. God called David to put his trust in reverse. David did. And sadness turned to gladness.

This is what ultimately kept my friend John going. When his athletic career came to an end in college from an injury, he believed that God had another path carved out for him. He put his faith in reverse. At first he thought that alternative path was teaching and coaching. But he soon realized that was not it. Then he discerned it was in water filters and pumps—a business he’s been in successfully for more than fifty years. What could have felt like the end all those years ago when an injury sidelined him was not. God blazed a new trail for John. One that ended in gladness.
One Thursday morning several weeks ago I was on 200 acres of property east of our church building. The occasion was a breakfast for area church leaders sponsored by Timothy Hill Children’s Ranch. Timothy Hill hopes to make that property their newest campus. They are praying it’ll be a spot where young men and women who’d otherwise be in danger of not completing a high school education and in danger of entering into homelessness or of entering into a life of drugs or of crime would find a second chance. They are laboring to make this property a home for these young adults where their lives can get back on track, where they can finish their education, become equipped for employment, where they can find faith and healing, and where they can experience true community and fulfill their true potential.

At my table was a Church of God in Christ pastor whose senior pastor had contacted him at the night before asking him to come to the breakfast in his place. He’d never heard of Timothy Hill. Never heard of Churches of Christ. And even though he only lived a few miles away, his GPS got him and his wife lost on the way there. But after hearing this dream, he stood and he said, “We’re on board! You can count on us! We’re on board!” For 30 years, he’d worked with troubled youth in his own community at a juvenile detention center. He knew how important a place like this was. And I suspect, he knew just how close this idea was to the heart of God. Because this is the very thing God does best. God takes what seems to be a path that’s going to end in sadness, and right next to it starts building a path that leads to gladness. And a year or two from now, if God blesses these plans, just a twenty minute drive from our church building, we’ll see dozens of Esther stories played out every year as young adults experience in their own lives these great and grace-filled reversals.

This is the story of the Gospel. Jesus seems set on a path that leads only to death, mourning and sadness. A path that leads to a cross. Friday ends with his tortuous crucifixion. But all along God has set an alternative path in place. A path leads to resurrection. A path leads to joy and happiness and celebration.

A man named David understood this. He had his fair share of heartache. But he also knew how God could bring joy even in the midst of pain. He often put his faith in the great ability of God to reverse mourning and turn it into dancing. In fact, he wrote a song about it. In a way, this is Esther’s song. It can be your song as well. No matter what you’re going through today, a reverse is possible. This tune can be yours:

1 I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up
and have not let my foes rejoice over me.
2 O Lord my God, I cried to you for help,
and you have healed me.
3 O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol;
you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit.
4 Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints,
and give thanks to his holy name.
5 For his anger is but for a moment,
and his favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may tarry for the night,
but joy comes with the morning.
6 As for me, I said in my prosperity,
“I shall never be moved.”
7 By your favor, O Lord,
you made my mountain stand strong;
you hid your face;
I was dismayed.
8 To you, O Lord, I cry,
and to the Lord I plead for mercy:
9 “What profit is there in my death,
if I go down to the pit?
Will the dust praise you?
Will it tell of your faithfulness?
10 Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me!
O Lord, be my helper!”
11 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
you have loosed my sackcloth
and clothed me with gladness,
12 that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever! (Ps. 30 ESV)