I Peter 4:12-13 (CEV)
Dear friends, don't be surprised or shocked that you are going
through testing that is like walking through fire. Be glad for the chance to
suffer as Christ suffered. It will prepare you for even greater happiness when
he makes his glorious return.
Someone once said
that the question “Where is God when you are hurting” might be the #1 question
that has driven people to become atheists.
Did you ever see
the 1982 movie “Sophie’s Choice”? It is
considered Meryl Streep’s finest performance that won her the Best Actress
Academy Award. It is one of the saddest
movies I’ve ever seen. The movie title
was based on Sophie’s imprisonment at Auschwitz where she was forced to choose
which of her two children would live and the other would die. If she didn’t choose one, they both would
die. At the end of the movie, after
Sophie had committed suicide, the narrator (Peter MacNichol) voiced the followed words above the haunting
musical score of Marvin Hamlisch: “And
so ended my voyage of discovery...in a place as strange as Brooklyn. I let go
the rage and sorrow for Sophie and Nathan...and for the many others who were
but a few...of the butchered and betrayed and martyred children of the
Earth. When I could finally see again...
I saw the first
rays of daylight reflected in the murky river.
This was not judgment day. Only
morning. Morning: excellent and fair.”
I refer to
“Sophie’s Choice” because I have never forgotten the images of the Nazi
concentration camps in the movie and the haunting voice-over words at the end….”let
go the rage and sorrow….many others who were but a few of the butchered and
betrayed and martyred children of the Earth.”
Oh, the suffering that people who live on this earth must endure. Peter writes that you must not be surprised
or shocked when you are tested, when you must suffer. He even writes that you should be glad for
the chance to suffer as Christ suffered.
Who receives that kind of statement with gladness and open-arms?
People who see God
as a sadistic brute who enjoys seeing His people suffer so much turn away from
Him and in their own minds easily can justify their atheistic or agnostic
choice. However, this position ignores
the greatest act of love that ever occurred in the history of humankind----that
God chose to become a human too, walk upon the earth, and subject Himself to
the ridicule, rejection, and ultimate suffering and death through the acts of
other humans. Jesus Christ became God’s
response to suffering. Since Jesus
suffered so much, He is able to help any person undergoing trials and suffering
who comes to Him (Hebrews 2:18).
You will never know
why you suffer, but you know that God promises to help you go through the
suffering and that your suffering, despite your never completely understanding
why, will help you for preparation of your eternal life. I like what Levi Yitzhak and Philip Yancey
wrote about suffering and suggest that you meditate on these words carefully:
"Some of us
will not see pain as a gift; some will always accuse God of being unfair for
allowing it. But, the fact is, pain and suffering are here among us, and we
need to respond in some way. The response Jesus gave was to bear the burdens of
those he touched. To live in the world as his body, his emotional incarnation,
we must follow his example."[1]
What have you learned from
your own experiences with suffering? How
might you be living your life today because of your suffering of the past?
[1] Philip
Yancey, Where Is God When It Hurts? (Zondervan; Revised and Updated
edition,1997) (Note: Yancey also spoke at Virginia Tech two weeks after the
mass murder there in 2007 and you can read his sermon at http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/june/14.55.html
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