June 19, 2012

     We are now less than two months away from moving to Guinea.  I’ve started packing up my office, and little by little we have started organizing and packing up our house.  Last week I finished up the last of the “last” big events for the CBC Children’s Ministry, the Crosswalk Missions Trip.  The past couple months have been busy with these “lasts.”  The “last” camp, “last” children’s ministry Sunday, “last” leaders dinner, “last” official Sunday of classes.  I have to admit it was harder to finish than I thought.  I felt like a car running on empty, coasting into the station on fumes.  The combination of end of the year busyness and moving on has brought me dangerously close to burn out.  Thankfully, God provided sufficient grace for each task.  I’m now feeling relieved and will hopefully be able to take some time to rest and recharge before the move.

     Interestingly enough, with all that’s going on, the preoccupying thought on my mind is suffering.  This topic, more than any others, seems to be coming up over and over again.  A couple weeks ago Judy asked us to be thinking about this, to begin to process for ourselves a “theology of suffering.”  The same day we were supposed to meet about it, this happened to be the exact same topic discussed in our staff meeting, and then minutes later in the book I’ve been reading (though the book itself is not on suffering).  Then again, after the meeting with Judy, this topic seems to keep popping up in every direction.  One of the latest statements I’ve read told me this:  “We have come to see that God ordains suffering as the price and the means of finishing the Great Commission.”  This was one of the discoveries Piper explains in a chapter dedicated to encouraging your congregation to join the cause of missions (Brothers, We are not Professionals)  He goes on to say that he has clearly seen that “suffering is not only a result of trying to penetrate unreached peoples, but a means of penetrating them…This is the price of missions, and it is going to be paid.”  Not exactly an encouraging thought for a family about to go live amongst an unreached people group.

     Still, out of the fire comes wisdom.  I believe God is showing us these things for a reason.  So here are the lessons I’m learning.  I write them down as safe-keeping for when trials and difficulties do come.

1.        There are many reasons for trials and difficulties to arise in a believer’s life:

a.       Satan is real.  As a result of our sin, we have unleashed evil into this world that seeks to hurt, maim, and destroy us, particularly our faith in Jesus.  Though God remains in control, He allows the devil to cause harm, even to believers.

b.      For our growth.  God uses suffering in our lives as a form of discipline and training.  Suffering teaches us to be dependent on God; it refines and purifies our faith, reveals our hearts, and molds and shapes us into more mature believers, if we’ll allow it to.

c.       For the growth and comfort of others.  As Piper mentioned, it is often the suffering of Christian believers that releases power to save the lost.  When unsaved, unreached people see Christians suffering in their attempts to help them, they see the seriousness and sincerity of our faith.  In short, they are enabled to see the love of Jesus.  “For there is no greater love than this, but to lay down your life for a friend.”

2.       Ultimately God is God and we are not.  We will never fully understand God’s reasons to do what He does, particularly in the area of suffering.  This was the message of the whole book of Job.  His friends all thought they understood why Job was suffering and what He needed to do.  Job himself thought he knew best.  But in the end God had the last word, and Job was blessed by it.  None of us can see the big picture like God does.  Therefore none of us can understand why God causes and/or allows suffering into our lives, especially for those who are faithfully carrying out God’s work on this earth.

3.       Penultimately, the most important question in suffering is our response to it.  How do we respond to God when He brings us to the edge?  Will we respond in faith?  Do we persevere in our obedience to His word?  Do we maintain hope in His promises, in His character, His nature, His love?  When we are stripped of all our great strengths and abilities, does the power and strength of the Holy Spirit shine through?  In my reading last night, the author discussed various philosophical stances on suffering.  One of the philosophies, perhaps even a biblical truth, is that suffering does not exist.  For true believers, the only kind of suffering is the kind that separates our souls from God.  Yet Paul affirms, “Nothing can separate us from the love of God…”  Therefore, if our faith is firmly fixed on the Rock, that is Christ Jesus, then we should be able to say, no matter what happens to us, that “it is well with my soul.”  That should be the bottom line to all matters of suffering.  That should be our response.  But is it?

     I’m not sure what God has planned for us in this regard.  I’m not even sure how to pray about it.  I want to pray for God to protect us from suffering, or for Him to make the suffering small and short, or at least for Him to give me supernatural strength and grace to face all suffering with great courage and joy.  The more I think about it, however, the more I realize that the only kind of prayer I can pray with any measure of faith is:  “Not my will, but yours be done.”  If you are reading this as our supporters, family, and friends, please pray this prayer with me as well:

                “Dear God,

Protect us from unnecessary suffering.

                Give us grace to endure necessary suffering.

                Accomplish your good purposes in all our suffering. 

                Amen!”