In Suffering

 

There is a much pain in this world, pain that should never have been but was, or is.  How I want to stop or at least make sense of what I may not be able to stop in my own life and in the lives of others- and that is suffering.   I get a phone call, I read an email, I listen to the news, and I think “Why, why the suffering..”, especially the “suffering” that seems so unjust?  Why do bad things happen, let alone to good people?  What comes of the suffering, of the sufferers?  Suffering is so…..unsettling, and yet so real.  

In suffering,  what most of us want an escape; sometimes there isn’t one.  Sometimes the only way to get on the other side of the storm is to go through it.  What we need is not the unavailable alternate route we long for, what we need is grace to embrace the truth that can settle our hearts in the midst of suffering.

 

This means facing my suffering, not pretending it doesn’t exist, not numbing it, ignoring it, burying it or hiding it (and my enemy offers countless methods by which to do so).  It means  choosing grace and through grace taking my pain to the One who died to bear my sin, my shame, my pain.  

 

This means when others suffer I embrace their suffering as well.  To embrace suffering is to be involved rather than to remain uninvolved because the situation is too much for me to bear and I don’t feel qualified to help.  Sometimes I can intervene and perhaps stop or lessen the pain; other times I cannot.  Still, when I come to the end of my resources and those suffering seem to be at the end of theirs, we don’t despair.  We were never meant to do the things we cannot do, only to believe in and worship the One who can do all things.  We take our pain to the One who died to bear it; we ask for His grace, for His comfort, for His mercy.  In the midst of sufferings we embrace the Redeemer, the One who can redeem even the suffering.  We  rest in His arms and weep with Him,  both tears of sorrow because of the pain in the suffering and also tears of joy because of His promises.

“..for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”  Hebrews 13:5 (ESV)  

 

In the midst of suffering we rejoice in the coming day when..

“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.  He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.  He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’” Revelations 21:3-4 (ESV)

 

In the midst of suffering we practice what we are going to spend eternity doing and that is praising God.   We open our hearts and our bibles and sing:

 

“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”  Revelations 4:11 (ESV)

 

And as we praise the gates of Heaven open wide and the gates of hell cannot prevail against us.  And God comes in ways we have never before seen Him.  God becomes known to us in ways we have never yet known Him  and we realize, the best is yet to come.  Sometimes the only way to take it moment by moment is to take it moment by moment.  Sometimes the only way to trust is to trust, the only way to grow in grace is to grow in grace.  And at all times the only way He gets the glory, is when He gets the glory.  

 

My prayer in suffering is that you trust, that I trust.  My prayer in suffering is that we cling to His promises and by His grace praise Him.  My prayer in suffering is that we are showered with His peace.    God will come through.  He cannot be anything but God, He cannot be anything but good.  May we turn in our suffering to our Savior.  And may our hearts be overwhelmed by the love He lavishes on us and may our eyes be awed by the ways He shows up.