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Have you ever suffered?



Introduction

Have you ever experienced suffering? Have you ever felt or born any pain? Have you ever been distressed in any degree? These experiences are not limited to our decaying bodies, they can reach, reach deeply, into our hearts and minds just as easily. If you have had any of these, then according to Noah Webster (1828 Original Dictionary) you have suffered.


There has never been born a human being in all the passage of time that has escaped the long and efficient arm of suffering. We can start comparing different suffering experiences and try to quantitate them, categorizing them and we will all come to the conclusion that the application of suffering is not distributed with equity. We can create an array of answers as to why suffering and this lack of equity exists. Some answers are may be right, some way off, but this we all know, suffering “is” and will not be removed as long as man is in control of our domains, individually and collectively. Man, it seems, has never and never will find the solution to suffering. Maybe the answer to its existence and eradication is only to be found outside of man? Hmm, just maybe?!


For the atheist, the existence of suffering is proof positive that God does not exist. For the pure deist, the scourge of suffering is many times used to slander the character of God. But what about us, those who call Christ our Savior and Lord, how do we reconcile with the suffering in this world? If we can’t answer to the hard questions about suffering’s existence, how are we to give Truth and Hope to a suffering world?


For me the existence of suffering of any kind or degree is the “check engine light” of humanity. Surely it wasn’t meant to be this way, with suffering taking its toll on each of us in varying degrees. This “check engine light” is the evidence that some has gone wrong in our world, in our society, in me.


When I wrote this letter to my father he was suffering. Suffering from a cancer taking over his body, suffering from the loss of his wife of 56 years, suffering from loneliness, suffering.


The words I wrote to him are just as applicable to me now as they were to him because if we find ourselves alive in this present world we will encounter suffering. Fact! Now how do we deal with it?



"Tears are often the telescope by which men see far into heaven." Henry Ward Beecher


 

This letter was written to my father on January 26, 2019


Have you ever suffered?


Whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy. James 1:2



Good morning Dad,


“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is being tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So, let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” James 1:2 NLT


Jesus didn’t candy coat the truth to us. “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 NIV. If you have breath and you are a Christ follower, you will have trouble in your life. Period! Trouble will come in all forms, in all domains, this is to include our relationship with this world, for we as believers live in contradiction to this world system. Try that from the pulpit! We don’t want to hear it, the Truth.


My skin crawls when I see the book covers of many “prosperity” preachers. “You are a child of the King and He wants you to live like one. He does not want hardship in your life, His will is wealth, health and happiness in your life always.” Sorry, that doesn’t pass the smell test, just doesn’t match the truth in Father’s Word. Sounds great, but it doesn’t fly. Pass that notion by the Apostles who were mercilessly martyred in Jesus’ name.


Heck, we live behind enemy lines. This present territory is corrupted by the Grand Liar. There is nothing that hasn’t been poisoned by His contaminating touch. The earth and we, its inhabitants, groan to be renewed and released from the impact of rebellion and sin, all which produce suffering.


So yes, we will have trouble in this world. The question is how are we, as believers, are going to respond to it when it pounds on (or kicks in) our front door.



We cannot change the fact that we all will have episodes of suffering in our lives. Some will have more and some will have less. I can account for the fact of suffering in our lives simply because Jesus stated it will be so. As to the frequency, extent and duration some suffer, I have no answer. It is beyond me. Satan tries his best to slander the name of Jesus because suffering “is.” But we know Jesus is still Lord over all, He is still Love, even in the hard circumstances we might find ourselves in. We need to dig in our heart's heels into Romans 8:28 and choose to stand firm in Father’s character and love even though our present circumstance is screaming at us, trying to contradict that truth. We do this knowing such things, Father’s pure purposes, will be revealed to us in His time, not ours.


We do know that the furnace of suffering burns away and separates the dross from what is pure. Suffering reveals who we truly are, it takes us away from the shallows of life and quickly moves us into the deeps. The things that really “count” are efficiently exposed through trials. Now we have to choose. Will I seek refuge and rest in Father’s promises that produce joy in my life or will I scream, holler and shake my fist at Him as the world does?


Two quotes to end with:


“We all know people who have been made much meaner and more irritable and more intolerable to live with by suffering: it is not right to say that all suffering perfects. It only perfects one type of person, the one who accepts the call of God in Christ Jesus.” Oswald Chambers

“The finest of men and women suffer, and the devil uses their suffering to slander God. God is after one thing-bringing many sons to glory, and He does not care what it costs us, anymore than He cared what it cost Him.” Oswald Chambers


Love you Dad


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