I have been involved in ministry to single moms for 3 and a half years. Week after week, women in painful circumstances come and pour their hearts out to each other, asking all kinds of questions, sharing unbelievable stories.
I've sat and listened for three and a half years. I've met and talked with over 40 women in these circumstances. We have shared many tears as they talk about the unthinkable: Abandonment. Domestic violence. Verbal and emotional abuse from parents. Drug abuse. Legal trouble. Criminal records. Poverty. Chronic joblessness. Homelessness. Unplanned pregnancy. Co-habitation. Divorce. Breakups. Disease. Dying children.
What is this all about? Why does it happen? We pray in our pain, over and over again, asking for relief, for answers.
We take great comfort in God’s power. But we get confused and hurt, just like Mary and Martha when Lazarus died, when God doesn’t use His power to help us in our times of pain.
This happened to Jesus, too. In Gethsemane, Jesus asked God for something he knew he wouldn’t receive. He asked God to change his circumstances and keep Him from having to die. But God didn’t.
We focus so much on this life. No, our view is even smaller than that. We focus so much on our own little corner.
Look at this world map. There are thousands – even millions – of prayers going up every single day. God has the power to say yes to all of them. He could fix every single hurt in this world. Cancer, divorce, poverty, wars, drugs, child abuse, you name it. God could wipe it out. Forever.Why doesn’t he?
Due to some writing Lance and I have been doing, we have been trying to think about "the Problem of Pain" (as CS Lewis calls it) from His perspective. Lance told me something so profound, and though I heard it, it didn't hit me in the heart until this afternoon. God chooses not to fix this world. Jesus often withdrew from the needy crowds pressing on him for healing. Jesus didn’t save John the Baptist from getting beheaded by Herod. God didn’t save Jesus from the Cross. Unanswered prayers.
God is not going to change every circumstance that is hurtful to us, even though He could. But God is fixing the problem of pain by pointing us to the next life. That is what Jesus was trying to tell us. He didn't raise Lazarus from the dead only out of compassion for Mary and Martha in their grief. It is much, much bigger than that. He wanted to make a statement:
The next life begins now, if we let God use our suffering. He won’t fix this world. But he can fix our hearts.
Faith is not preventative – it’s only an insurance policy that gives us security. When disaster occurs (and it will), we have a foundation from which to operate.
Relieving the problem of pain was not why he came. He just wanted to give a few “signs….” To show who he was, to point to the future, at the end of time. Only then will everything be put right.
"We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who he has given us."
--Romans 5:3-5
