and posted in Explore
From the unexpected nature of death, betrayal or illness, to the plight of billions living in extreme poverty and oppression, suffering has the nasty habit of interrupting our lives and piercing our hearts.
In the face of such anguish, it can be hard to believe in a God other than one who is distant and uncaring…
So why is it suffering for many people is actually the birthplace of their faith in God?
Imagine you are at an event where the speaker invites people to stand if they have been affected by cancer. Over half the people in the audience stand up. If you were one of the people standing would you not feel a warmth and connection to the complete strangers standing with you? Wouldn’t you feel encouraged to know you were not alone?
People find faith amongst their tears and pain, because they meet a God who has suffered too. They meet a God who identifies with their pain and who draws close to the broken-hearted. At the centre of this revelation is a Roman cross upon which people find a sinless Jesus, God-in-the-flesh, voluntarily dying a horrific death at the hands of those he created.
It’s like on the cross Jesus is saying, “I know how you feel. You are not alone.”
And suffering does not have the last word either. Three days after Jesus died on a cross, God raised him to new life! Jesus’ resurrection infuses our suffering with hope because it tells us that suffering and oppression and injustice and even death itself cannot overcome God’s love. By believing in Jesus we put our trust in the God of the resurrection who can turn darkness into light, despair into hope and death into new life.
May you, in times of suffering, experience the God who is close.