10/14/2024
Mystery. It’s a part of the Christian faith. When we seek simplistic answers to the question of why there is suffering in the world, many faithful Jesus followers acknowledge that in our humanness there are happenings that are beyond our limited ability to comprehend.
Sill, we affirm the truth of scripture that says:
Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. 1 Corinthians 13:12 (NLT)
Still, we relate to the father whose son was suffering and cried out to Jesus:
I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief! Mark 9:24b (NLT)
In the face of a world in which things happen that we struggle to comprehend, we want desperately to reach the place in our faith journeys where we can say with the Apostle Paul:
Now I’m sure of this: the sufferings we endure now are not even worth comparing to the glory that is coming and will be revealed in us. Romans 8:18 (VOICE)
Henri Nouwen wrote:
“We are fearful people. We are afraid of conflict, war, an uncertain future, illness, and most of all, death. When we can reach beyond our fears to the One who loves us with a love that was there before we were born and will be there after we die, then oppression, persecution, and even death will be unable to take our freedom. Once we have come to this deep inner knowledge—a knowledge more of the heart than of the mind—that we are born out of love and will die into love, that every part of our being is deeply rooted in love, and that this love is our true Father and Mother, then all forms of evil, illness, and death lose their final power over us and become painful but hopeful reminders of our true divine childhood.”
What will it take for you and for me to “come to this deep inner knowledge” of the love of Jesus that sets us free from fear and anxiety and gives us the confidence of faith even in the face of happenings we struggle to understand?
-Michael