Is suffering a morbid topic? It certainly seems so in
Western society today. With our increasingly “connected” world of television,
internet, and social media we are more privy to the suffering of the world than
ever before. Yet at the same time it seems we less privy to the sufferings
of our neighbor as we feel the need to hide our personal struggles. Is it only
in the church that we feel the need to “put on a brave face” and act like
everything is okay? I was recently enlightened to the struggle of a friend back
in the states and it drove in deeper to me the need to deal openly and
hopefully with the issue of suffering in all its various forms.
I’ve spent a lot of time wrestling through a Scriptural
understanding of suffering and have found it to be incredibly hopeful and
strengthening - not morbid at all but rather full of life! I find my deepest
distress in suffering comes from fearing and avoiding it as though it is
unusual, shocking, and indicative of something terribly wrong with the
individual who is suffering. It is in the illusion of being able to control
life so as to avoid anything unpleasant, or at least to avoid great pain, that
I have found the greatest struggle with suffering. If I can only juggle life
just right then I can guarantee a mostly pain-free life for myself, my
children, and all those dear to me. This lie leaves me feeling panicked,
overwhelmed, exhausted, and terrified of suffering. On the other hand, when I accept
that trouble is a given, a promised part of this life (John 16:33) then I
find so much rest and relief in relinquishing control to the only One who
really has control in the first place.
Recently our women’s group here began studying through
Elisabeth Elliot’s A Path Through Suffering. It was given to me years
ago when I was going through a great loss, but I didn’t read it at the time
because I didn’t want to think more about suffering than I already was. (It
felt like a morbid topic at the time!) Now as our group studies it together
I wish I had read it many years ago and re-read it every year since! It is so
profoundly full of hope that I find myself picking it up often to read, re-read,
contemplate and prepare for our meetings because I am drawn to E.E.’s uplifting
testimony and powerfully simple sharing of Scripture - living and active able
to infuse our suffering with living hope. Brett tells me he’s proud of me for
putting so much work into it, but really it’s my re-charging time that I look
forward to. (After all, it beats meal planning and grading schoolwork!)
It is not only for the great suffering of life, but also for
the “little ‘s’ suffering” that we all encounter on a daily basis. It is not
only for the one whose world has flipped upside down, but just as much for the
one who struggles with the little deaths that must be suffered every day as we
live our lives not for ourselves. It is perhaps mostly for the one who, like
me, is prone to fear suffering and feels the panic and terror of trying to
control life to keep suffering at bay.
Obviously I strongly recommend that everyone buys and reads
and highlights and discusses and shares this book for themselves, but over the
next few weeks I hope be sharing some of the points that have impacted me the most with the desire that it will equally bless others
who are living in this world of suffering.
In my opinion, the greatest strength of E.E.’s testimony
lies in her simple acceptance of what Scripture has to say about suffering and
her affirmation of the Truth in the way she lived her life. The same Word with
all its life is open to each of us to equip us to walk this road to the
glorious and promised end of a place with no suffering, where all of our present
sufferings are redeemed to the glory of God and the joy of His people.
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