Throughout this month my team and I have spent a lot of time going door to door and sharing the gospel. Through this experience we have been blessed to see some of these people come to Christ, but we’ve also witnessed a lot of hurt. One thing that almost every house that we have entered seems to have in common is that they are going through or have been through some extremely difficult times. One lady was deeply saddened because her husband had left with 3 of her 4 kids and she has no way to tell where he might be. Another man is lost because on the day he was supposed to be baptized, his wife had went home to change clothes for the Baptism and found their son dead. One family has a daughter that has been attacked and possesed by demons.
While I have been on this trip away from home and even before I left, I have been sad to hear of many sufferings going on back home, including close friends passing, close friends losing their father, one of my best friends and a roommate of mine losing a brother. There are no words to bring loved ones back, to explain the perfect reason for why we go through the things we go through, but I can promise the answer is not to turn away from God.
There is no simple answer to give when it comes to suffering. The hope is in the answerer: Jesus Christ. It isn’t a bunch of perfectly put together words, it is THE word. (Holy Bible) It is not a perfectly constructed argument; it’s a person. Suffering is not an abstract issue, it’s a personal issue. It requires a personal response from each of us. The answer can not just be someTHING, it has to be someONE, because it always involves someone. When we suffer we always find ourselves asking, “God. Where are YOU?!”
Jesus is there. He is with us through the worst parts of our lives, when we are in what seems to be the lowest of lows. We can’t understand how He can let us be so broken. He was broken like bread for us. We can’t understand how we can be despised by others. He was despised and rejected by men. We cry out that we can’t take any more. Jesus was a man of sorrows and was acquainted with grief. We don’t get how people can betray us. He was sold out by one of His own disciples. (Judas) We don’t understand how our most tender relationships can be destroyed and broken. Jesus loves more than anyone and was and is still rejected.
“No matter how deep our darkness, he is deeper still.” – Corrie Ten Boom, from the depths of a Nazi death camp
We are all quick to blame God whenever things go wrong, whenever we suffer what we feel is the worst kind of sufferings. Jesus suffered like none other when He was on the cross, and He is with us in all of our pain, because He has been through it all.
To anyone who is going through any kind of suffering, you have someone who cares, someone who can go through your suffering with you, someone who can heal you of your wounds and give you hope for tomorrow. His name is Jesus.
