Suffer Us An Answer
Today I am thinking about Tom, Lord, and Amy. What pain he must feel to see his wife go through this -- changed from his partner to his daughter -- and her painful loss of herself. When I think about the sheer hours or prayer delivered with rivers of tears, I wonder why you don't answer from heaven. What possible purpose could this have if it ends in death? But if it ends in healing, it will be for your glory and your renoun.
Do you wager with our lives? Is this suffering a bet with Satan like the suffering of Job? You allowed his children killed to make a point. They were not possessions. We could understand destroying his wealth. But his children? They were people. Please say we are not chips on the table in some cosmic poker match -- some testosterone-driven game for bragging rights in the heavenlies. If you are playing with us, what makes you better than the pagan gods with all their pettiness and using men as pawns? For their manipulation, we call them demons.
The answer of Job gives little comfort. Sure, Elihu is academically right: we should justify you rather than ourselves. We should always trust that you are right. But although we may force our minds to this conclusion, our hearts still worry that your inaction is a sign of our expendability or cheapness in your eyes. And if you remind us that we are ignorant, not understanding the why and hows of your universe, we will admit it. But we've never liked it when our father's told us, "because I said so" or "I'll tell you when your older." That has always seemed to us a bully tactic and a cop-out.
So all these questions hang in the air unanswered. They could easily become a reason for resentment and unbelief. They would likely steal my faith, except for this one thing. In all the pain and suffering, beyond our threshold to bear, in the misery of life -- true you do not often relieve us. But Jesus, you enter the mess and suffer with us. Master, Brother, I wonder: is a God who suffers with us -- who has the compassion to enter our pain -- greater than a God who eliminates such pain from the world? If the purpose of life is a conversation, what does that say about you, and about us?
Do you wager with our lives? Is this suffering a bet with Satan like the suffering of Job? You allowed his children killed to make a point. They were not possessions. We could understand destroying his wealth. But his children? They were people. Please say we are not chips on the table in some cosmic poker match -- some testosterone-driven game for bragging rights in the heavenlies. If you are playing with us, what makes you better than the pagan gods with all their pettiness and using men as pawns? For their manipulation, we call them demons.
The answer of Job gives little comfort. Sure, Elihu is academically right: we should justify you rather than ourselves. We should always trust that you are right. But although we may force our minds to this conclusion, our hearts still worry that your inaction is a sign of our expendability or cheapness in your eyes. And if you remind us that we are ignorant, not understanding the why and hows of your universe, we will admit it. But we've never liked it when our father's told us, "because I said so" or "I'll tell you when your older." That has always seemed to us a bully tactic and a cop-out.
So all these questions hang in the air unanswered. They could easily become a reason for resentment and unbelief. They would likely steal my faith, except for this one thing. In all the pain and suffering, beyond our threshold to bear, in the misery of life -- true you do not often relieve us. But Jesus, you enter the mess and suffer with us. Master, Brother, I wonder: is a God who suffers with us -- who has the compassion to enter our pain -- greater than a God who eliminates such pain from the world? If the purpose of life is a conversation, what does that say about you, and about us?
posted by soulster at 9:08 AM
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