There was a time when my world view was pretty blissful.
It wasn’t because I was sheltered from pain. It was because my personality was to accept and move on.
I believed doing good would reap good. This is often true. But life is not so neat and tidy like that. Because bad can happen to anybody at anytime for no particular reason.
That’s because of sin. That’s because the world is broken. We are broken. There is a kind of physical “law” in place which our world is immersed in: the effects of sin. God promises not to keep us from it, but to be with us in it.
We should certainly avoid sin at all costs. The Bible guides us in this. We make choices everyday to do wrong or right. Yet, we will fail and it can cause us trouble.
But other people fail and it can cause us trouble, too.
After losing my oldest adult son 18 years ago to suicide, my heart and everything I thought I knew was shattered. He, along with my other children, were raised in a family centered church. We were first generation Christians who wanted to see our children anchored to their faith in God and living their lives better than we did. I once taught a class on praying for your children – and believe me – I prayed constantly for them.
How can these things happen when you’ve covered all the bases?
Because-
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55
We walk in as much light as we have. We may not do everything correctly as we follow the scriptures the way we understand them. But once God shows us how we are thinking is wrong, we must step back and trust we don’t have all the answers.
The scriptures that I thought was having faith gave way to the scriptures of what real faith is. Even though others around me were still doing their “prayers of faith”, believing for “complete healing” and such, my prayers of faith took a u-turn and I went a different way.
While the church was singing “I Surrender All” one Sunday, I wanted to say, “Do you? Do you really? Do you know what that might mean?”
Growing in faith when you have good outcomes is one thing. Growing in faith when you don’t is another thing.
Maybe it’s our western world culture. We are conditioned to grab hold of the shiny object we want when we should be grabbing the hem of Jesus’ garment. Either way, there is room for both. We can ask God for good things. But we have to be ready when the affect of living in a sinful world will knock us off our feet.
I found comfort in the scriptures of God’s protection. Until I realized it doesn’t necessarily mean from suffering but in suffering.
But there’s more.
The affects of sin is far greater than I thought. It touches every human being in some way. And I think when we have a greater understanding of this, we are more able to forgive (that’s for another day).
We are all prisoners to this world of sin. Yes, we see God’s presence in all the beauty around us. But we also have loss, sorrow, and death.
For now, the world is locked into its present state. But that’s not the end.
One day, God will break the hold of sin on the world.
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
When we are suffering because of sinful humanity in a sinful world, we should remember this promise. We have centuries of believers who have suffered greatly and endured.
We can, too.
when it hurts 