Chapter 3: The Cry for a Reason in SufferingSuffering has hit me hard in life. My father was very ill and died when I was a child. Living overseas with poverty on my street showed me suffering I’d never seen in my stateside neighborhoods. Our family went through different traumas while overseas, including our daughter being sexually abused. I’ve had several serious health challenges. My trips to Thailand, Mexico and Ghana this year have given me opportunities to hear horror stories of women and children being used as sexual slaves. Examples from DRC, Darfur, Afghanistan, and Nigeria crowd the news of unimaginable tragedies.
Your list of sufferings may even be longer than mine. Suffering confronts us everywhere—it is something we dread, try to avoid and struggle to explain. When Ravi addresses this topic in chapter 3, he starts with a quick lesson about suffering from a philosophical perspective. Then, he dives into Job—the Biblical Poster Person for suffering.
G.K. Chesterton is quoted in this chapter. What he says is reminiscent of what Peter said to Jesus after many of His followers abandoned Him. “When belief in God becomes difficult, the tendency is to turn away from Him; but in heaven’s name to what? “ Peter said it this way, "Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We've already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God." (The Message, John 6: 68-69)
How is your faith in God impacted when life is difficult—when suffering makes belief seem impossible? As you read chapter 3, please be honest with yourself about the suffering you’ve experienced or witnessed. What are the real questions suffering has raised for you?
May I give you a head’s up? Ravi’s explanation of God’s work in Job’s life is one of the best I’ve ever heard. I love how Ravi describes how Job’s faith grows from knowing God as Creator and Designer, to Revealer, Comforter, Mediator and Savior, Strengthener and Restorer. Job started his journey focused on himself—his character and purity. By the end of the book, he’d come to know and understand God much better and was now focused on His character.
Please pay extra attention to the conclusion of this chapter where Ravi notes four extremely important and encouraging truths about suffering we’re able to learn from Job. I hope you find them as helpful and insightful as I did.
I look forward to reading your comments on this chapter.
6 comments:
I'm in Indonesia as I type this comment and while I've been here, I found another woman interested in our book study. She now has my book, which is great--I hope we'll be able to read her comments once she has a chance to catch up with us. Welcome, Kathy!
My husband and I have been speaking at a missionary staff annual conference this last week. And, as is appropriate, the examples I've shared have been from God's work in my life--often in times of intense suffering.
As I've been sharing, I've also been re-processing and feeling a lot of the feelings, questions, doubts that came with those hard times. I've also realized how much growth has taken place in my life and how my confidence in God has grown. If I could choose--I would choose to never go through some of the things we experienced. But, since I can't choose...I can look back and see how God redeemed, rescued, rebuilt, and restored. He is more than amazing. Much more.
To be honest, I have returned a few times to this blog with the intention of commenting--- and find myself lacking and logging out. How do you write about suffering in a "post a comment" spot,exactly? Ravi's one chapter wasn't enough--- could you fill whole books with stories, questions and comments on suffering. on Job.
I so appreciated Ravi's going to the book of Job to deal with, or begin to deal with, suffering. I really resonated with him throughout his dealings with Job's story. The book of Job has been huge for me as I have wrestled with this topic--- as I have felt it. The Creator, Designer and Revealer nature of God has been very sweet to me (informing my faith) as I have asked, struggled through, the question of suffering--- my own and others'.
Linda asked what are the real questions suffering has raised for you. One question is if I truly suffered would I come through with my faith intact and tested to be true or I would I falter? Another question is Why do some people seem to have so much suffering and others none at all? Lastly, how can I best minister to those who are suffering and help them see God's presence?
As I read this chapter, I realized I have no idea what it means to suffer but I believe the answers Ravi Zacharias gives can be applied to problems both big and small. One of my favorite parts of the book came as Zacharias explained the discussion between Job and God. God had just reminded Job of who God was and what He had done. Zacharias then said, "What God wanted him to realize was that this same God who brought such pattern and beauty into the world He had fashioned out of nothing could also bring a pattern and beauty out of Job's brokenness." I wish I could have this perspective even in the every day inconveniences that come my way. I wish I could share this with a friend whose husband died this year that God can do this without it sounding like a cliche. Right now I can only pray that she will feel God's presence in her life.
I think a partial answer to my question of how I would handle real suffering is how willing am I to personally surrender to God and His will. A point is made in the book where knowing, hearing and reading are not going to make any more difference. I need to surrender. It is true that some of my lowest times emotionally gave way to some of my sweetest times with God when all I could do was run into His arms.
Lastly I am encouraged by the following statement. "God is not just the God of power in creation; He is the God of presence in our affliction. He had not abandoned Job but was with him personally." Amen is all I can say to that.
I look forward to hearing that rest of the comments and learning from what the other readers have to say.
What a powerful chapter. I do believe I have actually heard parts of this chapter in messages that Ravi has delivered on the radio before.
I think I have questioned the why behind suffering more in these past two-and-a-half years on the mission field than ever before in my entire life.
Within two months of moving to Kenya I went through the Post-Election-Violence here. It was tough. We watched houses burn and heard gunshots at night. I was threatened at machete point at one point.
I then was introduced to starving children. I watched some of them die after we poured so much into these innocent little ones. I began to meet people who had tried so hard to do the right thing and were met by pain and suffering. I still ask "Why?" quite a bit. I just can't wrap my head around it.
I appreciated the look at Job and the reminder that what I sometimes think I have suffered is nothing compared to what others have gone through. It was also a good reminder that I'm not really in any position to be the one questioning God, the maker of the universe.
For me the end of 1Cor 13 has been powerful in my life these past few years. Know that we see through a glass darkly helps me realize that I'm not the only to have had these questions. And it is comforting to know that the day will come when we will see face to face and know fully.
Ravi's sharing of his suicide attempt really hit me because I often think of him as such an intellectual who has switched off the emotions in favor of a solid faith. But hearing how he came to Christ was a reminder of how incredibly complex the human race is.
Now hopefully I can get done with the next Chapter before this week comes to an end!
I was still catching up with you all, but now I've finished chapter 3 and can go on. I don't really know what suffering is. I remember in the book The Heavenly Man, Brother Yan said something like, "I wasn't in prison for Jesus, but I was with Jesus in prison." (Totally my paraphrase...I'm only remembering.) And I long for that kind of fellowship. But could I endure suffering? I know that God gives us the strength we need as we need it, and I pray that I would be faithful.
Zacharias comments, "For Job, as for us, the process was as necessary as the answer." With my goal-orientation, I want to get to the answer. But during a time in my life when I was devastated, exhausted emotionally, and heartbroken at the loss of dreams and goals, I remember praying, "God, right now I don't even care about you or anything else. I don't have energy. But I pray that someday I would care again." It certainly wasn't the intensive soul-searching my organization's leadership was looking for, but it was all I had. And it WAS a process. I am thankful for that process now, although I would never want to repeat it. I need to allow others to go through the PROCESS as well, recognizing that IN the process, "third-person knowledge" about God BECOMES "first-person trust in God and commitment to His will." And THAT, not sterile answers, is the real cry of our hearts.
And...I wonder...how does it work with our cousin friends? I'm thinking of a particular neighbor lady who is thinking of giving up her newborn son to an orphanage because she can't care for her two children, and her husband is a jerk. How does this process fit in her life? It could, I think, if she was sincerely asking questions.
And now I'm going to try to post this...never did it before, and I don't really know what all the "comment as" choices mean and don't think I have any of them!
This was a really good chapter. I have always had a hard time understanding the book of Job. This has helped tremendously!
I received some advice when I first came to the mission field that has served me well when I remember it. My friend told me to remember that no matter what happens to me or those around me I must cling to the sure knowledge that God is good no matter what. Even if I am gritting my teeth when I say it. There have been times when I was gritting my teeth hard but still having to say in faith that God is good. When I see people starving or a child dying in child birth because no one cared enough to do what was medically necessary. I have to grit my teeth and say God is good. I know it in my heart and in my head, but it has taken the process and friends reminding me that it is so.
The people I work with have a hard life. They are shepherds in a desert. When their children are quite young they keep food from them for several days to teach them that they will not die if they don't have food every day. They never know for sure when their next meal will be. The childhood death rate from Malaria and other diseases is high. And yet, my friends have taught me how to really have faith that God is Good. They worship the Lord with great joy even when they have such hardship in their lives. They know that their redeemer lives! They get it that it is the relationship with Jesus that matters and that helps carry them through this life.
I am so thankful to the Lord for allowing me to serve here. To see that suffering is a part of life. It is never easy, but friends and our faith make it possible to get through the process and to be strengthened and restored on the other side.
Post a Comment