Dangerous Wonder

by emma | Dec 8, 2005 | Faith

What a week guys. What a week. I’ve been so challenged this week. I have no idea if this post is going to come out in any kind of coherent form, but I think I need to post it anyway.

Really struggled this week, if i’m being honest. Seems like when one thing gets you down, everything else gets to you more, like your emotions are heightened or something. Being honest about how I’m feeling is not one of my strong points, in fact transparency is probably my weakest point. It’s hard to let other people see your flaws, your weaknesses… thats human nature, right? Self-preservation and all that.

I’ve raved about Red Moon Rising on here many times before, and I’m making reference to it here again because this is one book that continues to simply transform my life, challenging me and making me ask questions – and search for the answers! There’s a chapter in it particularly that many of these following thoughts have come out of it, so rather than constantly refer to it, heres the big reference!

Pain is a difficult subject. I’m sure we’ve all heard the questions… How could a ‘good’ God allow suffering? You know, i’ve been thinking about this lately, and heres what I’m getting…
Think about how much it hurts us to think about suffering, how hard it is for us to understand.

Here’s my question: Do you think God does not feel the pain too?

Do you think a God who is so holy and yet so close to His people, do you think this God can possibly NOT feel our pain? What must it have been like for him to watch his Son die? I guess this point particularly has come from Cheryl’s death, thinking about how her family must be feeling. But God not only watched his Son die – he sent him to die. The only way I can comprehend this is to put it in terms of my family. Its like my dad sending my little brother to die, for example, an organ transplant or something similar, so that this other young person we have never met and do not know, can live. It comes back to Isaiah 43 – “I have traded their lives for yours.”

I guess the stuff i’ve been thinking about from Red Moon Rising is about Paul’s ‘thorn in the flesh’. Pain is inevitable – this is a broken, hurting, imperfect world. Maybe pain is the thing that keeps us depending on God? We can’t do this alone. We are witnessing such amazing blessings, seeing tremendous victories, and at the same time experiencing incredible suffering – whether that be financial, physical, or spiritual warfare. Maybe pain is our thorn in the flesh, the thing that keeps us from boasting about these things. Yes, we are living in the day of God’s favour… we are blessed… and yet, we will not boast, this is not our work, it is clear that God is moving through this place in mighty ways. I’ll say that again, because I know we do this unintentionally at times – we can not boast, for this is God’s work. His signature is all over it. What a dangerous wonder.

I’ll be honest… I dont know the answer to some of these questions. I dont know for sure why God allows pain and suffering. But here’s something I do know… “All things work together for the good of those who love the Lord.”