Psalm 60

The title of today’s blog comes straight from Psalm 60: “You have shown your people desperate times.” (vs 3) That’s the New International Version. The New Living Version puts it even more strongly: “You have made Your people suffer hard things.”

Wow. Could that be true? Would God ever want us to suffer? Of course, when you ask a question like that, you must first define what suffering is… and that varies from person to person. Some people would say that poverty causes suffering. Others would say that wealth causes suffering. Some say children suffer when they don’t have enough to eat; others would say children suffer when they don’t receive enough love and attention.

You can’t really pin down a definition of suffering. In fact, I would imagine that all suffering—just like beauty—is in the eye of the beholder. So much depends upon our perspective. Do you remember this famous quote? I cried because I had no shoes… until I met a man who had no feet. Everything depends upon our perspective.

There are probably a lot of people who wouldn’t agree with the idea that God allows or even ordains desperate times for His people. They would prefer to believe that God is somehow cosmically restricted from getting involved. Perhaps they think He would like to get involved, but His hands are somehow tied.

I don’t believe that. I don’t know if I’m ready to say that God causes suffering… but it’s clear from Scripture that God certainly allows it. (You’ll remember that from the beginning of Job.) If He wanted to, He could stop every bad consequence of every evil action. He could put a halt to the desperate times.

But He doesn’t.

I won’t pretend to know all the reasons why. But what I do know is that God blesses us through suffering. No matter where our desperate times come from, God can work through them, turning sorrow into joy, turning despair into peace. In this world, He allows us to experience desperate times for, I’m sure, a variety of reasons. So, instead of shrinking back from suffering, perhaps we should embrace it and try to discover what God wants to bring to us in the midst of it.

As you and I continue to ponder this, I want to end this blog by sharing four truths about suffering that my excellent father observed during the course of his terminal illness. And as we all seem to be in the middle of some desperate times right now, I hope you will remember that God has blessings in the suffering (or He wouldn’t allow us to experience it).

Suffering exposes the myth that we are in control of our lives.
Suffering does not remove the fact that God has given us His eternal life now to begin living now. (That’s right. If you are connected to God, you are—at this moment—living eternal life.)
Suffering helps us give up our attempt to control the future and enjoy God’s control of today.
Suffering is an attention-drawing spotlight, illuminating the fact that God is actively working out His plan in our lives.