The Hope in Suffering

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

To the last syllable of recorded time;

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

                            ~from Shakespeare's MacBeth, spoken by MacBeth

As someone who majored in engineering, I want to solve problems.

I want to have answers.

I want solutions.

But the problem with suffering are two things:

1. Why does God allow suffering?
2. And how is that the U.S. does not seem to suffer?

The last question is easier to answer.  In a Western society, people do not want to go through pain and suffering.  But when we are faced with adversity, we do not...

        ...lament

        ...grieve

        ... and vent

... our emotions and experiences properly.

We really do not want to face the suffering.  But when we do, we do not know how to process it.  We either stay silent or go into denial, saying everything is fine.

And the American church (and Western society) does a horrible job at teaching us how to lament properly.

Granted, folks in most Western society do not experience the same suffering as say people in Africa who are in famine and in poverty, or people in a war zone.  

At least even the poor in the U.S., there are shelters and places that the homeless can go for help.  Charities exist to assist and serve others in need.  In the U.S., we do not experience suffering the same way as other parts of the world.  We not only have poverty, but we do have diseases (cancer, heart diseases), we have mental crisis's, we have what we call "first world problems".

But in our journey of pain and suffering, we ask why is there pain and suffering?  If God is a good God, why does He allow these things to happen?

Trying to answer this question of lament contradicts the question.  In a study of Psalms at a beach retreat, I've learned that the Psalms just highlights the question of lament.  The why and more whys.

Carmen Joy Imes wrote in her book Being God's Image regarding suffering: Humans are not in a position to understand God's ways.  God does not owe us an explanation.  He just simply invites us to trust him.

So what do we do?  How should we properly lament?  (We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in pains of childbirth right up to the present. ~Romans 8:22).  In the book of Psalms, David and others lament all the time.  They cry out to God.  And in these laments, they also remember the characteristics of God, and what he has done.  In our lament, we have to remember what God has done.  Job believed he didn't deserve his suffering, yet God put him in his place and reminded him of His (God's) sovereignty.  

God created everything: the universe, the cosmos, the earth, and all living things.

Everything belongs to God.  Everything is spiritual.  Nothing is "secular," only things can be desecrated.

We cannot move forward until we move backwards...

        ...to our deepest roots of our faith.

        ...to refresh our vision towards the future.

And in the midst of the suffering, God also reminds us that Jesus will one day come back to bring heaven to earth and restore what has been desecrated.

Salvation comes from Jesus.

Redemption.

Reconciliation through his people.  Us.  Sharing the hope of a returning Jesus.

And then restoration.