Pain and Suffering
The news drips with pain and suffering. Someone, somewhere in the world is enduring the fire of affliction. This fire is inescapable. Even as I read about the pain and suffering of others, I can understand. We all can relate. Because we all are acquainted with burns. If not in the present, there are certainly scars of the past. And we’ve lived long enough to understand its inevitability in our future. The world is inflamed with the ravages of pain and suffering. And the fire rages on. Perhaps this is why I’m rereading Tim Keller’s book, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering. I commend it to you. It’s wise to prepare for what’s sure to come. Let me share a couple thoughts about the book.
First, consider the title. It’s counterintuitive. The common sense strategy is to move away from the fire or “stop, drop and roll.” These are substituted for walking through it. Such boldness is explained by who goes with us. We don’t walk alone but with the Lord. “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior... Do not be afraid, for I am with you” (Isa 43:2–3, 5). The promise of the Lord’s presence is granted for those who have been adopted into His family by grace through faith in Jesus alone. The presence of the Lord gives us the consistency of simply walking through the fire of pain and suffering. Keller writes:
“Walking with God through suffering means treating God as God and as there, as present. Walking is something nondramatic, rhythmic—it consists of steady, repeated actions you can keep up in a sustained way for a long time. God did not tell Abraham in Genesis 17:1 to “somersault before me” or even “run before me” because no one can keep such behavior up day in and day out. There are many people who think of spiritual growth as something like high diving. They say, “I am going to give my life to the Lord! I am going to change all these terrible habits, and I am really going to transform! Give me another six months, and I am going to be a new man or new woman!” That is not what a walk is. A walk is day in and day out praying; day in and day out Bible and Psalms reading; day in and day out obeying, talking to Christian friends, and going to corporate worship, committing yourself to and fully participating in the life of a church. It is rhythmic, on and on and on. To walk with God is a metaphor that symbolizes slow and steady progress” (236).
Second, how can we be sure that the Lord is with us? It’s especially easy to feel abandoned in times of pain and suffering. Is the Lord really there? Oh yes. And we can know for sure. Remember in the book of Daniel, when King Nebuchadnezzar threw Daniel’s three friends into the fiery furnace because they would not bow down to the idol? Daniel 3:24-25 says, “Weren’t there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?” They replied, “Certainly, O king.” He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.” The three friends weren’t alone. There was a fourth figure who sustained them from any harm. They literally survived the flames. Ultimately this angel of the Lord points to Jesus Christ who endured the ultimate furnace of God’s wrath on the cross. The gospel proclaims that the cross speaks of the love of God for us. So even as we go through the fire of pain and suffering, those who are in Christ have the promise of God’s presence with them. He will never forsake nor leave them. He is with those of us in Christ.
May you be encouraged as you experience the fire of pain and suffering. Suffering doesn't automatically make people better. There is a responsibility for us to respond well and the only way to have suffering actually refine us is to really claim the promise that Jesus is indeed with us in the fire. So may you walk with God through pain and suffering. All for your good and His glory! Amen.