Seeing a women being beaten can really make you question a lot of things about the Lord.
When I was 13-years-old, God essential handed me an opportunity to go on a mission trip to South Africa. Having never been to another country, left home, or flown on a plane, this was a big deal. I was 14-years and 3 months old the day I left my parents to pursue a month-long trip to South Africa. It was a whirlwind month, but it was a month that changed my universe. It was a month that ignited a fire in my heart, that I never even knew existed. I fell in love with a country that has dealt with the hurt of apartheid, a country that has been wrecked by the aids epidemic, a country full of hurt, but it is also a country so full of love and life. I fell in love with a people group that has everything going against them, yet they still somehow remain joyful. I fell in love with South Africa.
Two years later, I made it back to the country that had quickly become my heart, this time for two months, to work with an organization called Thrive Africa as one of their summer Outreach Staff Interns. As interns, our tasks varied from day-to-day. Some days we would spend on the base painting, doing odd tasks, working in the office, cleaning, and helping prepare for new churches to arrive for a week of ministry. Other days we would go out into the village of Intebazwe to spread seed, love, minister, disciple, and play with sweet Basotho babies, and then usually a couple of days every few weeks, each individual outreach staffer would be assigned a new church team that had just arrived, and go out with them into the village (more like massive city…. 1.2 million people as of 2007) of Qwa-Qwa (also known as Putaditjhaba) for their first day or two, and be there to help support them and help them get past the awkwardness of going up to strangers who don’t speak your language, and hanging out. These were some of my favorite days. I loved the chance to meet with different people who had come to my heart country to share Jesus, and I loved watching them blossom as they moved into their ministry each day. There’s something beautiful in watching someone who is timid, step out in boldness to declare the awesomeness of our God.
During one of these days of ministry, my little young, naive 16-year-old world, was rocked. It was early morning, on the second day of ministry for a team I was working with from Michigan. We were working in an area that was a little unfamiliar, so there was a lot of excitement knowing that we were going to get the chance to meet and spend time with people who we hadn’t had the chance to previously. After spending a few minutes getting prayed up, the team, along with one of our translators, Rabel, started to make our way to our designated street of ministry for the day. We hit the first house, no luck. We moved to the second, and they sent us away. As we moved further and further down the street, you could here a strange noise. Is that screeching? Was that a scream? It was hard to tell. We finally came upon another home, and as we worked our way down the slight slope to their front door, the noises became louder. I started to assume that maybe they had a radio or a television show on. But as we neared the front door, everything suddenly became very clear. The noises we were hearing weren’t from a radio, nor were they from some crazy South African soapy, they were the screams of a woman, being beaten.
At the edge of the house there was a slope. And as you looked down the slope, there was a home, and in the yard of home there was a screaming woman, naked from the waste down running and screaming as a man chased her all over the yard, and every time he would catch her he would brutally and viciously beat her. She would get away, and the chase would happen all over again. You could hear her pain, her heartache, and her fear in her cries, and you could see those same feelings mirrored in the face of her mother who was standing in the doorway of their home, crying. All around them were people, some were hovering at the fence watching, there were little children playing in the street next to the house, as if nothing was happening, and there were the two women who answered the door for us as we all stared dumbfounded and heartbroken, watching what was happening down the slope. Inside my heart was breaking. As the team of young people and two adults moved into the home, I grabbed Rabel’s hand and asked him what was going on and why no one was doing anything to stop this. He simply looked at me and said quietly that in this culture, it was no ones business. Apparently the man doing the beating was the father of the girl being beaten. The girl's “boyfriend” wanted to marry her but couldn’t pay enough lobola to the family, so the father had denied his proposal. The girl had decided to run away with her boyfriend, and when the father found out, well… you know what happened from there. Once Rabel explained what was happening down there, he simply moved on into the house. I couldn’t move though. I couldn’t think. All I could do was stand on the hill, watching what was taking place only a short distance below me. Tears streamed down my face. In that moment, I felt so helpless. I wanted to run down the hill, and help this precious woman, I wanted to beat the mean who was harming her, I wanted someone to step in and stop this horrible thing that was happening, I just wanted it to end.
It didn’t stop, not for a long time. It was still going as we quietly moved away from the house, whose inhabitants didn’t want anything to do with us. It didn’t stop, as we worked our way slowly down the hill to the next home, and then the next. And finally, once it did stop, it was only because we had moved so far down the street, that the cries of pain from a sweet girl were too far away to hear.
I battled that morning. I battled with the Lord. How in the world could a supposed “loving” Father let something so heinous happen? As the morning progressed I couldn’t get what we had seen out of my head. I continued to stew on it, and I continued to let my anger build. We had finally found a wonderful home with two sweet sisters that were willing and even excited about us coming, but I couldn’t interact, I couldn’t be a part of the goodness that was happening. I wasn’t present during that morning of ministry. Aside from my body, and a few smiles here and there, I was in another world, replaying images from a horrible reality in my head.
Finally noon came, and I had the chance to get away from people, talk with some of my fellow interns, and really spend some intense time with the Lord. It was a battle… I had so many things I wanted to say to Him, yet I was so angry at Him for the suffering that had happened that morning that I didn’t even want to be in His presence, but being away from His presence is kind of difficult when He loves you so much HE doesn’t leave YOU alone, even when you are questioning Him. I’m thankful for that. I’m also thankful that over the course of a long lunch break, the Lord began to show me a few things.
Suffering is necessary.
Just listen to what Jesus said in Matthew, on the day of his betrayal. Just after Judas kiss, men step forward to arrest Jesus. Then one of Jesus companions reaches for his own sword, ready to defend Jesus, even going as far as to cutting the ear of a high priest. But listen to what Jesus says next:
“Put your sword back in its place, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and He will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way?” Matthew 26:52-54 (NIV)
“It must happen this way.” That’s the argument of scripture. Suffering is necessary. If it weren’t, God would have planned another way. Instead, He faced it Himself. Jesus overcame the cross. He overcame death itself. In Him, we can overcome it too. God’s eye is on eternity. God’s purpose in Christ is to ensure that there is a way out of this darkness for those who seek Him.
If you read the book of Job, you’ll find suffering laced throughout it. Its theme is suffering. Job is a man who has been blessed. He is a devout lover of God. God even commends Him before Satan. Satan balks. He challenges God saying Job only loves God because God blesses him. God allows Satan to test Job, in any way he sees fit. Satan brings wave after wave after wave of destruction, taking away everything Job has, and afflicting him with an unbelievable amount of pain.
Finally Job reaches a point where the pain breaks him. He cries out to God, asking God to explain himself. God speaks to Job, and you can read what He says in Job 40:1-14. But basically, the point God is trying to get across is this: He’s God, Job isn’t…. we aren’t. It’s a lot like a parent with their child. Kids don’t always understand what a parent understands. Children can’t see the larger picture, most times. Sometimes there are no explaining things to a kid. When a parent has to make kids do things they don’t want to do, no explanation is enough. Either they fail to understand or they just don’t want to understand because they want their own way. Parents can’t always make their kids understand why they say “No.” But parents love their kids anyway, and are always looking out for them.
God is without sin of any kind and He loves us in the same way. We have to realize that the one who made the universe is above us. We don’t have all the answers, and even if we did, we wouldn’t be up to the task of being God.
You know, God restored Job after everything he went through. It says in scripture that God gave him twice as many blessings. He didn’t have to do that. God didn’t owe Job anything. God doesn’t owe US anything. God gave Job grace because He loved him.
So what I learned from that example of Christ and from what had happened to Job was these three things about suffering:
- We don’t have all the information.
- Suffering has a purpose.
- Suffering is temporary.
The Bible tells us specifically this:
“Because you followed your wife’s advice instead of My command and ate of the tree from which I had forbidden you to eat, cursed is the ground. For the rest of your life, you will fight for every crumb of food from the crusty clump of clay I made you from. As you labor, the ground will produce thorns and thistles, and you will eat the plants of the field. " Genesis 3:17-18 (The Voice)
Sin, even as simple as it was with Adam and Eve, set a process of suffering and death in motion. God could have chosen not to give us freewill, or even not to create us at all, but He considered a real loving relationship with us valuable enough to accept the cost. There was no other way.
After the fall, He promised a Savior. He even increased suffering so that we would seek Him.
The Apostle Paul wrote:
“Now I’m sure of this: the sufferings we endure now are not even worth comparing to the glory that is come and will be revealed in us. For all of creation is waiting, yearning for the time when the children of God will be revealed. You see, all of creation has collapsed into emptiness, not by its own choosing, but by God’s. Still He placed within it a deep and abiding hope that creation would one day be liberated for its slavery to corruption and experiences the glorious freedom of the children of God. For we know that all creation groans in unison with birthing pains up until now. And there is more; it’s not just creation – all of us are groaning together too. Though we have already tasted the first fruits of the Spirit, we are longing for the total redemption of our bodies that comes when our adoption as children of God is complete…” Romans 8:18-23 (The Voice)
The same choice that was given to Adam and Eve is given to us. They had one choice. We have one choice. We can reject God and face spiritual death or we can receive Him and gain eternal life. Suffering drives us to seek or reject God.
“…We celebrate in seasons of suffering because we know that when we suffer we develop endurance, which shapes our characters. When our characters are refined, we learn what it means to hope and anticipate God’s goodness. And hope will never fail to satisfy our deepest need because the Holy Spirit that was given to us has flooded our hearts with God’s love.” Romans 5:3-5 (The Voice)
As hard and painful as life is, and as hard and painful it is to see people suffer, God’s purpose in it is good. In the end, there is no wrong that God will not make right, no harm that cannot be undone, no wound that will not be healed, and no pain that will not be forgotten.
“And we know that all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28 (NIV)
I learned some painful, but necessary lessons that day. Suffering sucks. Whether it’s happening to you, or it’s happening to someone you love, or it’s happening to someone you don’t even know. It still sucks. But God is good. God is faithful. And He will renew, He will strengthen, and He will build the broken back up.
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