Trustworthy and True
Today has been a strange day. It feels like the final chapter in one part of my life, a day that needs to be marked somehow. But I've done very little today. I went to the hospital and gave them 10 more tubes of my blood for the clinical trial. Then I went to Old Navy to return a shirt and came home. How underwhelming! Andrea suggested driving around town flashing people for the last time (because we used to do that so often - LOL), but that doesn't seem quite the right way to memorialize the day. ;) Prayer with the elders at my church and dinner with two of my best friends are on the schedule instead.
Yesterday I got heartbreaking news about my friend's mother whose breast cancer has returned and is now terminal. My friend has gone through so much this year and learning about this new pain she is facing upset me so much. The pain I seen in this world is overwhelming sometimes. I read about famine in Africa, people who are eating cow dung just to have something in their stomachs. I read about persecution of Christians in Sudan and Egypt. I see orphans whom nobody wants and marriages that are breaking up. This world seems so cruel.
Some people turn in anger to God and blame Him for these things. It's hard to understand why a God who is all-powerful will not end suffering He sees. I don't understand it perfectly either, but what I do know is that our suffering grieves God even more than it grieves us. He knows what He created us to be and how He designed the world to work, and we are so far from that perfection now. I know God waits in eager anticipation for us to be united with Him in the new heavens and the new earth, where every tear will be erased and sorrow will be no more.
All the suffering I see and feel makes me ask, "How much more can we take? Why do sufferings have to be heaped upon sufferings for some people?" And yet, why not? Anything good in our lives is from God's grace alone. Whenever I think that I just can't handle anything else or that someone doesn't deserve the difficulties they've been given, I think of the words to the song Our Hope Endures, by Natalie Grant (below). Our Hope does endure because It is beyond us. It is above us and through us and in us. And God our Hope will not desert or forsake us, especially in our times of trouble. He never leaves us or forsakes us; His love for us is not affected by calamity or our unfaithfulness. He is near to the brokenhearted; He weeps with those who weep. We do not have a God who doesn't understand our weaknesses and pain. He fully experienced our human life and knows what it's like to suffer and grieve.
Life and faith are mysterious. But I rest on what I know about God and look forward to the day that my faith shall be made sight: "And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live 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.' He who was seated on the throne said, 'I am making everything new!' Then he said, 'Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true'" (Rev. 21:3-5).
Yesterday I got heartbreaking news about my friend's mother whose breast cancer has returned and is now terminal. My friend has gone through so much this year and learning about this new pain she is facing upset me so much. The pain I seen in this world is overwhelming sometimes. I read about famine in Africa, people who are eating cow dung just to have something in their stomachs. I read about persecution of Christians in Sudan and Egypt. I see orphans whom nobody wants and marriages that are breaking up. This world seems so cruel.
Some people turn in anger to God and blame Him for these things. It's hard to understand why a God who is all-powerful will not end suffering He sees. I don't understand it perfectly either, but what I do know is that our suffering grieves God even more than it grieves us. He knows what He created us to be and how He designed the world to work, and we are so far from that perfection now. I know God waits in eager anticipation for us to be united with Him in the new heavens and the new earth, where every tear will be erased and sorrow will be no more.
All the suffering I see and feel makes me ask, "How much more can we take? Why do sufferings have to be heaped upon sufferings for some people?" And yet, why not? Anything good in our lives is from God's grace alone. Whenever I think that I just can't handle anything else or that someone doesn't deserve the difficulties they've been given, I think of the words to the song Our Hope Endures, by Natalie Grant (below). Our Hope does endure because It is beyond us. It is above us and through us and in us. And God our Hope will not desert or forsake us, especially in our times of trouble. He never leaves us or forsakes us; His love for us is not affected by calamity or our unfaithfulness. He is near to the brokenhearted; He weeps with those who weep. We do not have a God who doesn't understand our weaknesses and pain. He fully experienced our human life and knows what it's like to suffer and grieve.
Life and faith are mysterious. But I rest on what I know about God and look forward to the day that my faith shall be made sight: "And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live 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.' He who was seated on the throne said, 'I am making everything new!' Then he said, 'Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true'" (Rev. 21:3-5).
You would think only so much can go wrong
Calamity only strikes once
And you assume this one has suffered her share
Life will be kinder from here
Oh, but sometimes the sun stays hidden for years
Sometimes the sky rains night after night
When will it clear?
But our Hope endures the worst of conditions
It's more than our optimism
Let the earth quake
Our Hope is unchanged
How do we comprehend peace within pain?
Or joy at a good man's wake?
Walk a mile with the woman whose body is torn
With illness but she marches on
Oh, 'cause sometimes the sun stays hidden for years
Sometimes the sky rains night after night
When will it clear?
But our Hope endures the worst of conditions
It's more than our optimism
Let the earth quake
Our Hope is unchanged
Emmanuel, God is with us
El Shaddai, all sufficient
We never walk alone
And this is our hope
I have never heard that song, but how beautiful the words. Love you and thinking of you. And I still think we should have cruised around with you showing off out of the sun roof. Maybe after the new boobs :)
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