A wise man once observed, For those who do not believe in God, joy is peripheral and suffering is fundamental; but for the believer, suffering is peripheral and joy is fundamental.
One cannot escape the dueling experiences of suffering and joy any more than one can escape the necessity of breathing. We regularly are prompted, through our own personal experience, to raise the question of pain and suffering. Reconciling the existence of pain and suffering with our insatiable desire for joy and comfort is a burdensome task. We even become more perplexed when we see someone in the midst of suffering and there is joy, confidence, even radiance, all despite the affliction. It is mystery and, at times, confusing.
Annie Johnson Flint, a woman who lived most of her life in pain, has left such a testimony. As a child, she was orphaned. Later, embarrassing incontinence left her body frail. She was weakened by cancer, and eventually, deformed by rheumatoid arthritis. She was incapacitated for so long that she needed multiple pillows positioned around her body just to cushion the raw, bedridden sores. And yet, the title of her autobiography was The Making of the Beautiful.
One of her best-known poems reads:
He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength when the labors increase;
To added affliction, He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials His multiplied peace.
When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed e’re the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving has only begun.
His love has no limit, His grace has no measure,
His power has no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus He giveth,
and giveth, and giveth again.
For the most part, I will admit that suffering and pain will always remain somewhat unexplainable, but some will find the mysterious ability to raise above afflictions no matter how slight or severe. No wonder the unbeliever is left in awe and bewilderment at such lives like Annie Vincent Flint, Joni Eareckson Tada, or men like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
Again, for the unbeliever, the peripheral issues of life occupy their attention, and the fundamental ones often go ignored. However, for the Christian, the fundamental questions of life are answered (life, death, God, salvation, heaven, who am I, etc.) and it is acceptable, livable, to have the peripheral ones often left unanswered. This is why the unbeliever has problems with pain and suffering in this world. In fact, a hurting or suffering person will often turn a deaf ear toward any answers of “why” until they begin to recognize that God, the cross, faith, and salvation must become part of the answer. Like the Psalmist, we must all cry, “Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And besides Thee, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Ps. 73).
© Chip M. Anderson (September 2008, rev )
Words’nTone, Habits of the Mind
Posted by Chip Anderson at 09:33 AM. Filed under: Habits of the Mind •
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