On suffering

Jac3510 · Post by **Jac3510** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 9:14 pm

How can we offer words of comfort when even God does not have them to give?

We are called to persevere through trials and agony. We are assured that God is with us, and that He works all evils together for our good. He promises to be with us, even we when are not with Him.

Take comfort, we are told, in these truths. When on nights so dark the eye can be opened or closed without effect, we can cling blindly to such promises for our hope. For that, we are grateful, for how overwhelming is hopelessness?

But this blessed hope is only so blessed when it is all that we have. In times of suffering, the blessing works not as an anesthesia, but rather as a promise of purpose. There is nothing offered to dull the pain. It is only to be endured.

The merciful surgeon uses his sharpest blade. Our faith cannot grow in absence of pain. The Lord trims from us what is impure, and at times the process seems unbearable. Indeed, there can be no other choice. To ask God for growth without agony is as senseless as to ask for a harvest without rain.

And so, suffering remains. There is no remedy. There is no comfort. There is only the cold, sharp blade. There is only the refiner's fire. There is only the will of God, which we must face with gladness. How ironic that the child must run for protection to the very Hands that wound him? But where else can he go? The Hand that wounds is also the Hand that heals. But the order still remains, and despite the knowledge of future comfort, there still remains the cross.

What words of comfort can we offer the hurting? There can be none. There can only be the steadfast arms of a friend and the tear stained shoulder of a compassionate heart. We cannot ease the pain. Let us not be so flippant as to think that we can. But let us share one another's burdens that we may suffer in our brother's sufferings, and that we may rejoice is his glories. This is Christian love. All other is counterfeit.

Canuckster1127 · Post by **Canuckster1127** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 7:03 am

That's beautiful Jac, and very true.

Is that original with you or do you have a source?

As a person who has suffered in some regards and been there in a role to assist in the suffering of others, I agree. Often times, the answer we provide is just simply to be there, to love and grieve alongside the one afflicted.

Jac3510 · Post by **Jac3510** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 7:23 am

It's original. It's the kind of thing I don't typically post, but this is an issue God has been dealing very heavily with me as of late. On one hand, I could have written up a standard type post to discuss the various ways we comfort those in pain, but that . . . it's more personal and get's the message across much better, I believe.

Anyway, I absolutely agree with you that sometimes the best answer to give is to be there. That's a good way to put it. I think we do a disservice by always trying to provide an answer. Sometimes, it's best to acknowledge the reality of the suffering and be there with someone through it.

YLTYLT · Post by **YLTYLT** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 10:41 am

Jac I also agree iwth Canuck: That was great.
I know being analytical as most computer programmers are, I always tend to try to solve problems, when really there is no solution but to endure the suffering and come out on the other side hopefully better for it. But trying to explain this to the person suffering does not really help them at all.

Mywolverine · Post by **Mywolverine** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 9:09 pm

YLTYLT wrote:Jac I also agree iwth Canuck: That was great.
I know being analytical as most computer programmers are, I always tend to try to solve problems, when really there is no solution but to endure the suffering and come out on the other side hopefully better for it. But trying to explain this to the person suffering does not really help them at all.

Could not agree more!

Judah · Post by **Judah** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 3:52 am

That is spot on, Jac!

I know that when I have been hurting the most, the hurt has been too great and overwhelming for my brain to comprehend the many words that someone is trying to have me pay attention to, and they are just clattering sounds like gravel thrown against a window pane, an irritation irrelevant to my reality. It is not a time for words to take away one's experience, but a time for the experience to be lived, felt, endured until it changes by it's own hand.
If you can endure your friend's experience with him, not leading or directing it in any way at all, just being with him through it - then that is usually more comfort than anything else at all.

Canuckster1127 · Post by **Canuckster1127** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 5:00 am

It's cliche, but still very true.

People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care.

The time for teaching is before suffering comes to be prepared or after some time has passed and the person is ready to true and find what sense there is in the experience.

In the valley is where someone needs Jesus with some skin. That means, Christian friends who are there to walk with them.

Canuckster1127 · Post by **Canuckster1127** » Sat Apr 22, 2006 8:00 pm

In my other life I write poetry.

This is one that tries to capture some of what it feels like to experience cancer. Fortunately my experience is such that I am coming up on 20 years since I had it. This poem is a mixing of the emotions I went through in accepting and coping with the diagnosis and treatment and also some folding in of others whose experience was not a positive as what mine has been thus far.

_____________________________________________

Cell Mates

Freedom's cry is dim indeed
when one can roam the world at will
and never have the path impede
the goal, and be imprisoned still.

A gaze into my mirrored eye
and I can see what others fear;
a victim of biology
with cells that walk the prisoner.

While others have a radiant smile,
I have a radiation burn
that pulls from me a forlorn frown
and tufts of hair, each in their turn.

My rebel organs rising up
within my chemo mixing sphere
I fight to draw a line of death
for cells that walk the prisoner.

Within my quiet battlefield
I fall upon my own grenade
and hold to hope, however mild
that bad is killed, while good is saved.

And so in quiet desperation
I stalk myself, and self inter
my rebel suicidal faction;
those cells that walk this prisoner.

© Bart Breen 7/16/2001

Mywolverine · Post by **Mywolverine** » Sat Apr 22, 2006 10:30 pm

In your case Canuckster1127 it is good to have another "life."

Judah · Post by **Judah** » Sat Apr 22, 2006 11:23 pm

Good one, Canuckster.

Evidence for God from Science

On suffering

On suffering

Poem