Some weeks the world we live in lies heavier on my shoulders than others. Right now I am trying to help my kids grieve after our cat disappeared a week ago. While he was "just a cat," he brought us all such joy. Life is hard in a care-giving family. He was a bright spot in our day.
And yet, even this seems so trivial in light of heavier tribulations...
- A friend dealing with alcoholism, abuse, and neglect among children she dearly loves in Africa
- Another friend told that her mother has only weeks to live, that the cancer is beyond treatment
- Families loving their special needs children, yet struggling with loneliness and exhaustion from the care
- Yet another friend whose mother has just been given maybe a year
- Divorce and separations, and marriages that are simply dealing with one another as broken, sinful creatures, failing at loving one another
- A runaway and children who are departing from the ways they have been given
- Persecution of pastors in India, families separated in Syria and Iraq, refugees who have no home
How to do I teach my children in the midst of the sorrow over all these things that God is good? He loves us, even when he doesn't answer our prayers to bring Scout back. He loves us, even as we watch Alzheimer's slowly take the man they call Grandpa. He loves us, even as I wonder who else we will have to give to him. It's been twelve years since we said goodbye to my mom; eleven years since Judy joined her in heaven.
The end of the verse is what I have to hold onto...
But take heart; I have overcome the world.
Through his death and resurrection, He, Jesus, my Savior, has overcome the world and all the trials and tribulations. It is a hope that will not disappoint, but I have to wait. I preach this to myself on these days when I wonder why we have lost so many so early. So many memories my kids will never have. In the midst of my doubting, I pray that my hope will be seen by them.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5:1-5
We suffer for so many reasons. These verses outline just a few. The Bible is full of other lists of what suffering produces. I didn't think I would survive losing my mom. My daughter wonders if she will survive losing her pet. Suffering shows us that through the Holy Spirit and the love of God (which is has been proven by the cross), we will survive and enter into a living hope.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith-more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. I Peter 1:3-9
In the midst of all this tribulation, I have this hope. And I will rejoice because he has saved me. And that is enough.
