WHERE SUFFERING AND SOVEREIGNTY MEET

                             WHERE SUFFERING AND SOVEREIGNTY MEET

               I wanted to share some excellent thoughts from John Pipers book, "Suffering and the Sovereignty of God", in a chapter written by Dustin Shramek. He presents very eloquently the tension between our faith in God's sovereignty and the very real pain of life. Let me share several quotes.

               "Good theology is essential if we are going to suffer well...But we must never forget that often the night is long and the weeping uncontrollable...No amount of good theology is able to take the pain out of suffering. Too often we allow ourselves to believe that a robust view of God's sovereignty in all things means that when suffering comes it won't hurt...The pain of suffering is both dark and deep. This is critical to see, for when we minimize the pain we fail to love others and we fail to honor God...There are times in our lives that we can barely make it out of bed in the morning and we have no energy to do anything. Our pain and grief is so great that we are unable to concentrate...We don't love others in the midst of this kind of pain by pretending that it isn't all that bad or by trying to quickly fix it with some pat theological answers. We love them by first weeping with them...But let us not so quickly go from the afflictions to the deliverance and thus minimize the pain in between..."

               Hopefully I haven't too badly butchered Shramek' thoughts, but just given a little of the flavor of what he has to say.  He follows up by saying, "God is a big God who can handle our questions, our anger, and our pain." This is from a man whose first-born son died twenty minutes after birth. It was not theoretical to him.

               There is a real tension between suffering and sovereignty, though mostly because we can't understand it. The Bible doesn't flinch at this. It still presents that both are true, and that God has a plan in all of it. His ultimate goal for us is that we trust Him

WHY ME, OR WHY ME?

               WHY ME, OR WHY ME?

Isn’t it amazing what a difference context can make? I was struck by this as I read David’s response to God in 2 Samuel 7:18-21.
 ¹⁸ Then King David went in and sat before the LORD, and he said:
   “Who am I, Sovereign LORD, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? ¹⁹ And as if this were not enough in your sight, Sovereign LORD, you have also spoken about the future of the house of your servant—and this decree, Sovereign LORD, is for a mere human!^[c]
   20 “What more can David say to you? For you know your servant, Sovereign LORD. ²¹ For the sake of your word and according to your will, you have done this great thing and made it known to your servant.”
Often our “Why me” moments are fueled by confusion or even despair over circumstances that may be very difficult. But once in a while we have a moment like David appears to have had here. A moment when we are smacked in the face by the absolutely unbelievable thought that He has chosen us, and our cry of “Why me?” takes on a totally different meaning. Can’t you see David? He went in and sat before the Lord. Plopped down, came to a screeching halt and said “Who am I?” What could I have possibly done to deserve your favor? Why? I deserve nothing good. My wicked heart cannot even desire to know you, if you don’t incline my heart toward you.  

The group Casting Crowns sings the following song “Who Am I?”

Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth
Would care to know my name
Would care to feel my hurt
Who am I, that the Bright and Morning Star
Would choose to light the way
For my ever wandering heart

Not because of who I am
But because of what You've done
Not because of what I've done
But because of who You are

I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
Vapor in the wind
Still You hear me when I'm calling
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling
And You've told me who I am
I am Yours, I am Yours

Who am I, that the eyes that see my sin
Would look on me with love and watch me rise again
Who am I, that the voice that calmed the sea
Would call out through the rain
And calm the storm in me

Not because of who I am
But because of what You've done
Not because of what I've done
But because of who You are

I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
Vapor in the wind
Still You hear me when I'm calling
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling
And You've told me who I am
I am Yours

While I’m not sure that this song was inspired by the above passage, it certainly could have been. And my hope is that in my life the moments of stunned wonder at His grace to me would be a firmer foundation to support me when I encounter the “Why me?” moments when I cannot see the direction His sovereign love is taking me. That the contrasting “why me” moments would become entwined to strengthen my faith. As Randy Alcorn says, “Faith that cannot be shaken is faith that has been shaken.”

WHAT IF...

Randy Alcorn asks the following. “What if suffering is God’s invitation to trust Him?” This seems to me to be a pivotal question. It is why sovereignty is so important. If I’m hurting, and he’s sovereign, I can trust Him. If I’m hurting and He isn’t, then I’m left alone with my pain.

Two of the most influential books I have read in the last couple of years are Alcorn’s book “If God is Good”, and John Piper’s “Suffering and the Sovereignty of God”. Both are packed with both tough questions and thought provoking answers. They have challenged and solidified my thinking, and I cannot recommend them highly enough. They have also been instrumental in my desire to write this blog, on a couple of levels.

The first was Alcorn’s statement that, “Our failure to teach a biblical theology of suffering leaves Christians unprepared for harsh realities. It also leaves our children vulnerable to history, philosophy, and global studies classes that raise the problems of evil and suffering while denying the Christian worldview. Since the question will be raised, shouldn’t Christian parents and churches raise it first and take people to Scripture to see what God says about it?”

 Darrell Scott’s daughter Rachel was the first to die in 1999’s Columbine shootings. He said the following. “In my experience, most Christians lack grounding in God’s attributes, including his sovereignty, omnipotence, omniscience, justice, and patience. We dare not wait for a time of crisis to learn perspective! Don’t be content to be hand-fed by others. Do your own reading and study, devour good books, talk about the things of God.” I couldn’t agree more. And it is especially true if, as Alcorn says, the only way to escape suffering in this life is to die. 

This leads to my second reason for writing.  I thought that I might be able to correlate some of the things that I have read, in order to pass it along in this fashion to people who would not read the entire book, for a myriad of reasons. I absolutely love to read, but others may not. But some of these things are so foundational to our thinking, to our understanding of who God is, and to the lives we live based on that theology, that we should at every opportunity “reason together” about them. The problem I have here is that I find myself wanting to quote whole chapters of these books, because there’s that much good materiel in them! Here’s one example from Alcorn.

            Vicki Anderson, who was born with a facial abnormality called hypertelorism, says,

I don’t really like the phrase “birth defect”-it contradicts my theology. A “defect” implies a mistake and I believe that God is sovereign. If he had the power to create the entire universe according to his exact specifications, then my face was certainly no challenge for him! If God is loving, why did he deform my face? I don’t know-maybe because with a normal face I would have been robbed of the thousands and thousands of blessings I have received because of my deformities. It seems odd, but usually our greatest trial is what most molds and shapes us. It gives us character, backbone, courage, wisdom, discernment, and friendships that are not shallow.

Vicki’s mother says, “I believe that God has chosen this sorrow for our family…We have all learned, we have all grown, and we love the Lord and His sovereign direction in our lives.”

Wow. This is from people for whom suffering and pain are not some abstract discussion. Two of their statements stand out to me. One is Vicki’s perspective that her theology dictates even what she calls her deformity, and especially her mom’s statement that God “chose this sorrow for our family”. Not accidental, not out of His control, not caught when He wasn’t looking and now He’ll try to make up for it.

Chosen sorrow.

For my good, in fact for my highest good.

I hope that I can continue to learn to trust in his “chosen sorrows” for me.