In recent days we have seen the devastation that has taken place in Japan and are moved by the images with compassion on the losses suffered there. We have expereienced so much tragedy in the US within the past 10 years it's easy for us to understand what the Japanese people are going through.
I also received word that a precious child (4yearsold I dedicated to the Lord is facing brain surgery and another young man (4 years old) that I've been praying for with cancer has just a few more weeks to live. My heart is broken this morning over these two.
We ask God many times simply "Why?" when we see the trials, tribulations, and troubles so many are facing today and wonder where God is. That leads me to the creation of my blog for today and most of this week on "Why Bad Things Happen To Good People">
First, let me say there are four ways that most people use to cope when they’re facing suffering and difficulty.
A. Denial.
This is where most of us begin in dealing with suffering. It’s the John Wayne mentality. Grit your teeth, smile even when you’re hurting, never let them see you sweat. When someone is in denial, they won’t admit the truth even when they know you know the truth. You’ll say, “How are you doing?” They’ll say, “Great! I’m doing great!” You know they’re not telling the truth. We’re all like that occasionally. There’s something in all of us that makes us pretend that everything is going OK even when it’s not. We pretend the problem is not there or we pretend that it’s not as bad as it really is.
B. Getting angry.
Sometimes we react to difficulty by getting bitter, by getting recriminatory, and sometimes by shaking our fists at God. When you don’t deal with your anger constructively, it affects every relationship in life–including your relationship with God. It is impossible to go through life angry at others and maintain a warm and positive relationship with God. You can’t hate your neighbor and love God at the same time. Some believers live that way for years–and then they wonder why God seems so distant and their prayers so empty and their Christian experience so lifeless. If that describes you, please take a good look inside, because you will never get better until you deal with the anger within.
C. Blaming others.
This is a very popular option. We all use it sooner or later. Not long ago I met a man who went through a bitter, bloody, difficult divorce. He told me in all seriousness, “My divorce cost me one million dollars.” He was not exaggerating. I said to him, “Whose fault was it?” “Hers!” he said–and he meant it! He went on to say, “I taught Sunday School, I studied the Bible, I went to church, so when our marriage broke up, it was basically her fault.” I thought to myself, “A million dollars and he still hasn’t figured it out.”
D. Accept it and learn from it.
Our final option regarding suffering is to accept it and to learn from it. You can deny it, you can get angry, you can blame someone else, or you can accept what happens to you and begin to learn from it. Of those four ways, only the last one is a truly Christian way of dealing with the difficulties of life. When trouble comes, you really only have two choices. Either you can become a victim or you can become a student. How much better it is to be a student than a victim. Being a student means asking yourself, “What have I learned from this? What is God trying to say to me? How can I grow from this painful experience?”
Having said that, I have to admit that there are many questions I can’t answer about why bad things happen to God’s people. Sometimes the reasons are obvious; more often they are obscure. If I had all the time in the world, I still couldn’t answer all the questions about suffering because some of them simply defy any human explanation. However, what I do want to do is call your attention to one of the central passages in the New Testament on the issue of the believer and his suffering. The New Testament contains a number of helpful passages on this subject, but this one is one of the most important. We find in our text a liberating perspective. It will lift you up if you are in the throes of despair. All of us need to learn what God is saying in this passage of Scripture–Romans 8:18-27.
The theme of the passage is given to us in verse 18, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” Underline the word “sufferings” and the word “glory.” Paul invites us to make a comparison of those two things. Most of us see only our sufferings. We’re acutely aware of the bad things that happen to us. As I said, we all have a story. All of us know what difficulty is all about. But there is a another side–the glory side. There are sufferings and then there is glory.
If you could put all the difficulties of your life on one side of the scale, and the glory that will someday be revealed to you on the other side of the scale, the glory would be so much heavier than your present sufferings that they would be blown away like a feather. The sufferings of this life, although they are terrible, are not even worth comparing with the greatness of the glory that will be revealed to us. That is a revolutionary perspective on life. If you ever let that thought grip you–that what God has for you is incomparably greater than what you are going through right now–it will revolutionize the way you look at your problems.
(Part 2 tomorrow)
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