Last Sunday I received a phone call from a man wanting to test drive our 2002 Ford Excursion that we had for sell. It was parked in Augusta and I told the man that I could meet him in about 15 -20 minutes.
I met the man and he seemed like a really nice fella that wanted to surprise his wife with a new vehicle. They had several children and really were in need of something that could transport all of them. He offered me a price lower than we were asking, I told him to take it for a spin around the block a few times and see if he liked it, I would call Stacy and discuss the offer. Just come on back and we’ll see what we can work out.
I called Stacy and we both agreed that it would be nice to bless this family as they didn’t seem to have too much and really was in need of the vehicle.
The man never came back with our Excursion!! He stole it and conned us. This was a huge financial loss for us and a big curve ball. It hurt, it still hurts and it will hurt for some time.
I don’t know why life throws us some curve balls, but it does. Why on earth God ever decided to create tornados, hurricanes, gnats, flies or even mosquitoes is beyond me, but He did. Life can hurt some times! I have asked the same questions of God that you have asked; “WHY?” “Why do you allow suffering and pain?” Why don’t you just take it away and help us?” “Where are you God when life doesn’t make sense?”
We believe that God is all powerful – so therefore He could stop all evil and suffering. And we believe that God is all loving – so therefore He would stop all evil and suffering. So we believe God could and should, but don’t, you and I sometimes think that He doesn’t care.
Has your faith been under fire lately because of the trials, struggles and suffering you have experienced? I can’t answer all of the questions of life, but there are some realities that you and I need to come to grips with regarding the question of suffering.
I. Reality #1 The gift of life allows us the capacity to hurt!
A. Because freedom comes with consequences!
1. It is true that sometimes we do suffer because of the sins in our life -the consequences of our actions. The person who has smoked all of his or her life can be saddened by the diagnosis of lung cancer but he/she is not necessarily surprised. The absent husband who pursued his career at the expense of his marriage can be devastated by his wife who is not home when he returns from work one day, but he should not be shocked.
2. God gave humankind freedom. We are not creatures who are void of choice. We do not serve God and live in His created world as robots without free choice and decision making.
Isaiah 41:10 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
3. Jesus is present and He is involved in our lives even when we can not understand why we do not hear from Him or where He may be as a result of the suffering we are going through.
4. God encourages us to ask the tough questions. He is not insecure – He is God. He is not afraid of our questions. He has the answers. God knows that the hardships and cruelties of life will raise tough questions in our minds and, unlike some of His insecure servants, He does not demand blind, unquestioning obedience.
5. Sometimes we just have to wrestle with what is and hold on to what we know - but that does not mean we have to like it.
Illustration: Bethany Hamilton was born to surf. A natural talent who took to the waves at a young age, she was leading an idyllic, sun-drenched, surfer girl’s life on the Kauai Coast and competing in national competitions when everything changed in a heartbeat. On Halloween morning, Bethany was on a typical ocean outing when a 14-foot tiger shark came out of nowhere and seemed to shatter all her dreams.
VIDEO: “Soul Surfer, Why did this happen?”
6. Have you ever asked, “God why did this happen ?” Have you ever questioned God because of the circumstances and situations – the suffering and pain in your life? “It’s a bloody awful mess and that’s all there is to it.”
7. The Bible is full of questions. “Why, Lord, do you stand far off? Why do times of trouble happen? How long will you hide you’re your face from me?
Illustration: When the communist countries of Eastern Europe were finally liberated the following words were found penned on the wall of a prison cell in one of those countries, “I believe in love even when I don’t feel it. I believe in God even when He is silent.”
B. Perception is our enemy, not God.
1. We must not assume God’s silence or apparent inactivity is evidence of His disinterest. How we feel about God as a result of our suffering in no way changes who God really is.
2. Loving God and growing in faith with Him does not guarantee a happy, carefree life. Just because some one may be going through tough times and hurting does not mean that God is not at work!
3. In John 16:33 Jesus told his disciples that they should anticipate suffering. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart. I have overcome the world.”
4. With God, even when nothing is happening, something is happening. Believe the truth, not what you feel! He has a plan in all things even when we struggle and hurt.
Illustration: A man found a cocoon of the emperor moth and took it home to watch it emerge. One day a small opening appeared, and for several hours the moth struggled but couldn’t seem to force its body past a certain point. Deciding something was wrong, the man took scissor and snipped the remaining bit of cocoon. The moth emerged easily, its body large and swollen, the wings small and shriveled. He expected that in a few hours the wings would spread out in their natural beauty, but they did not. Instead of developing into a creature free to fly, the moth spent its life dragging around a swollen body and shriveled wings. You see the constricting cocoon and struggle necessary to pass through the tiny opening are God’s way of forcing fluid from the body into the wings. The “merciful” snip was, in reality cruel. Sometimes the struggle is exactly what we need.
II. Reality #2 The healing we want for our pain and suffering is not usually easy.
A. Because we can’t always find God in our situation. It is not to say He is absent. It is to say however that sometimes we don’t see Him or feel him.
1. As John the Baptist lay imprisoned for his faith he did what any one of us
would have done. He questioned where he was at and what was going
on. In Matthew 11:3 John sends a message to Jesus from his prison cell
and asks, “Are you the one or should we expect someone else?”
2. He had not given up on Jesus by any means, but if you are going to loose you head over something, first check out the questions that are swirling inside of it.
Illustration: James Dobson in his book, “When God doesn’t make sense,” says, “Interestingly enough, pain and suffering do not cause the greatest damage. Confusion is the factor that shreds one’s faith. The human spirit is capable of withstanding enormous discomfort, including the prospect of death, if the circumstances make sense.”
3. You and I can understand this by the many martyrs, political prisoners and war heroes who died willingly and confidently for what they believed in. They understood the sacrifice they were making and accepted its meaning in their lives.
4. In John 9: 6 we read where Jesus spits on the ground and makes clay. Then he applies it to the eyes of the blind man and told him to go wash it off. The mud pack was hardly the healing I would have preferred.
5. Just touch my eyes and heal me Jesus - What’s with the spit and mud! Maybe that is why the duration of our suffering is extended - we are looking for another way, another alternative. Maybe we are resisting God’s present interaction because it is not what we expected.
6. Some questions just don’t have the answers we hope for. In our story from John 9:25. When the man was questioned a second time about who Jesus was and how He enabled the man to see, the man responds, “Whether He is a sinner or not, I do not know; One thing I do know, I was blind but now I see!”
7. No one seems to understand what is going on here. The man’s parents are called to verify that this is or was their blind son and they can’t explain why he can see. The Pharisees definitely are confused and the people who are witnessing all of this are looking for the answers from others.
8. Pain and suffering doesn’t always have explanations, but they do come with a promise “I am with you! Trust me” Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Illustration: Somerset Maugham, the English writer, once wrote a story about a janitor at St. Peter’s Church in London. One day a young vicar discovered the janitor was illiterate and fired him. Jobless, the man invested his meager savings in a tiny tobacco shop, where he prospered, bought another, expanded and ended up with a chain of tobacco stores worth several hundreds thousand dollars. One day the man’s banker said, “You’ve done well for an illiterate, but where would you be if you could read and write?” “Well,” replied the man, “I’d be janitor for St. Peter’s church in Neville Square.”
9. Those who know the path to God can find it in the dark. And sometimes it takes the rocky hard path with many bumps and bruises, some pain and turmoil in order to meet Jesus.
III. Reality #3 You can’t go through your pain alone. Share it with others
A. The way through suffering to find our healing is to allow others to help us.
1. The man was born blind. He lived as a beggar. Yet after Jesus applied the mud pack to his eyes, He tells him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. Now how do you think a blind man with mud on his eyes could physically move from where he was to where he was told to go - the Pool?
2. This man had some help! The Christian faith is a helping hand. We are in it together. One of the great truths of the church is that we are all members of one body and if one member hurts, we all hurt.
3. Tornados have torn apart Branson and there is much pain and devastation but they are not alone. We hurt for them as well and as Christians, we will stand beside them and help get them back to their feet.
4. After our service today we will have an opportunity to be a blessing and help those in Branson that are currently going through much pain and much suffering.
5. I take nothing away from the difficulties they are going through but I must say that there is no worse pain and suffering than when you go through it alone.
B. As difficult times arise, it is sometimes hard for us to accept help isn’t it?
1. Solo suffering may eventually see you through to healing, but just think of how much care, love and help you missed by not sharing with those around you.
2. The person who does not share his/her pain with others, who isolates him or herself often becomes a critical and cynical individual. They soon turn on the world and begin to blame it for all of the hypocrisy they see and much of the pain they experience.
3. If God does not seem to make sense in your life right now because of what you are going through, I would like to invite you to reach out to others and allow them to help you.
Conclusion:
Suffering is not God’s way to punish us. The tornados were not sent to punish Branson. Through suffering we can discover God’s love for us in a way we never thought possible.
I don’t think that we have to like suffering and I personally pray that I don’t have to experience it, but this is my hope and my prayer, When it does come, and come it will, “help me God to hold on to you when everything I believe and feel is being questioned.”
How about you? Have you wondered where God has been in your life lately? Have your hurts and sufferings separated you from the God you know and love, and put your belief system in question?
I do invite you to step forward and pray. Fall on your knees before God and cry out to Him. Share with Him your hurt, your anger your questions.
