A Tale of Suffering
Inside the Mind:
It has been an extremely busy week. Besides schoolwork starting to pick up as we close out our first quarter, I have been busy with a play we will be performing next weekend and a vow renewal ceremony (for lack of a better name) for some friends in a couple weeks. In addition to the busyness, I have felt a strong dose of suffering, especially over the past several days. My daily devotions have dealt with suffering, the book that I am reading (Letters to Malcom: Chiefly on Prayer, C.S. Lewis) has dealt with suffering, and several close friends are amidst their own suffering. A coincidence? I think not.
One might wonder, “How can a loving God allow suffering amidst His people?” While there are many theological answers to this question, I will focus on the particular portion that I have contemplated on over the past week. Something that caught my attention and even brought tears to my eyes as I was reading Lewis was the fact that Jesus stretched the word suffering to its very limits.
First he prayed to have this suffering taken away from Him in the garden. This was not granted. He then turned to the support of His friends. They were asleep. Then he falls to the Church. Denied. He is put in front of the government. Turned down. His last hope was the people. Utterly rejected. When He turns to His own Father in Heaven after all else had failed, God says, “Why have you forsaken me?”
See how similar Christ’s suffering is that to our own? When every last door of hope slams shut and you are left alone in the dark, all that you have left is our Father in Heaven. Only this time, the penalty has already been paid and God is ready to poor out His grace into your life.
It has been amazing to see the changed lives of those close to me that are suffering. Their brilliant passion for Christ has inspired and encouraged me to no end. Like a stop sign, suffering forces you to stop and look around. Why am I here? Who am I depending on? What are my priorities? How is God using this situation? What is God trying to teach me? What is God trying to teach you?
In the book of Psalms, David says this:
How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death; my enemy will say, "I have overcome him," and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me.
Whatever suffering you may endure, hold fast and trust fully in God’s grace. He will never abandon you.
Prayer Requests:
That I too, may hold fast and endure.
Verse of the Week:
He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. - Isaiah 40:29-31
posted by paroikeo @ 11/08/2005 07:01:00 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
First, I do love you so.
Second, yes absolutely. In suffering, at the end of the day, you are never alone. And suffering is a mightly force in molding us into who we should be if we will but let it. Here is my favorite verse for suffering - it gives me hope that I will see goodness here on the earth, that I won't have to "just wait for heaven".
Ps 27:13 I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Even when we constantly fall short of Christ in the midst of suffering, our relationship with Him is continually growing. Throughout our suffering, our hearts are continually being molded into the likes of Christ(provided we do not refuse it altogether). When the suffering finally leaves us, we find ourselves closer to Christ then ever before. This might be far-fetched, but it is an example I just thought of. When I first got on the giant drop at Six-Flags, I had no intention of holding on to the handles at all and was going to keep my hands out the whole time. After I arrived at the bottom of the ride, I had to pry my hands from the handlebars. Even without realizing it, I was relying on those handlebars throughout the drop. It was only at the bottom when I finally realized it.
On another note, I received some very valuable insight as I was reading about Samuel Rutherford. He was a Scottish minister who was imprisoned for nonconformity to the Scottish church. While in prison, he wrote these words:
If God had told me some time ago that He was about to make me as happy as I could be in this world, and then had told me that He should begin by crippling me in all my limbs, and removing me from all my usual sources of enjoyment, I should have thought it a very strange mode of accomplishing His purpose. And yet, how is His wisdom manifest even in this! For if you should see a man shut up in a close room, idolizing a set of lamps and rejoicing in their light, and you wished to make him truly happy, you would begin by blowing out all his lamps; and then throw open the shutters to let in the light of heaven.
This thought forces me to think even more about my sufferings. Am I clinging to and cursing the world as my Savior pulls me to Himself?
Post a Comment
<< Home