When the Unthinkable Happens: A Journey Through SufferingSample

When I was in the middle of my chemotherapy and all my hair was gone, I was so ready for the treatment to be over. Can you relate? “When is it going to be over, Lord? How much longer?”

In my heart of hearts, I was holding Roman 8:28 tightly. God promised He would work everything out in a way that was for my good. What I needed to grasp was the fact that God gets to define what is good.

Sometimes in life, especially when the going gets tough, we need to reconcile ourselves to the fact that God’s good might be to take us home rather than heal us.

The Bible tells the believer that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, and embracing that truth was helpful to me. Whether God chose to heal me or take me home it, was going to be good. God said so.

Recently a dear friend of mine called me sobbing. Her oldest son was near death. His choices in life had not been good, causing a big rift in their relationship. She didn’t want him to die while they were on the outs. She asked me, “What if it’s God’s will for him to die?” Then in painful honesty, she said, “If that’s true, I don’t want God’s will.”

Have you been there when the suffering was great and you preferred to bend God’s will to yours instead of patiently waiting for His will to come to fruition? This is hard for me to type, but the truth is when the pain is great enough, I want God to do things my way instead of His.

Paul was writing to the Philippian church from a prison cell. Life was miserable, but he knew that whether he lived (stayed here in the body) or died (went to be with the Lord), it would be good because that was God’s will for him. That mindset allowed him to go through his sufferings with joy rather than pleading with God to let it be over.

Help us follow Paul’s example, Lord.

“God is too good to be unkind and He is too wise to be mistaken. And when we cannot trace His hand, we must trust His heart.” -Charles Spurgeon