Why must we suffer? Suffering is very relative, but to each individual it can be all consuming. Many believe that God could not be “good” if he allows suffering… most certainly He can’t be loving… right? This is a tough paradox. How can a loving God “slay us” as Job described in Job 13:15?

Job, in chapter 13, responds to a friend who is accusing him and encouraging him to abandon the Lord. Job responds by saying, he will take his issues up with God face to face … and though God had taken everything from Job, Job will hope in Him.

Listen, like you, I walk this narrow road of Christianity with many questions, trying to find what God has for me and what this whole thing is about. God is faithful and through His word, many answers satisfy my soul. The answers I have found to these questions are, admittedly, less “soul -satisfying”. However, they have called me to a greater faith in God’s sovereignty.

So why would we say that “Though He slay me, yet I will hope in Him”?

Here is where I have found peace. My wife and I have very dear friends. These friends are faithful in serving the Lord and serving people. They are selflessly loving and incredibly kind. This couple would love to have more children. God has blessed them with a beautiful son and they have since tried for additional children. In this process, they have had a few miscarriages. From the outside looking in, it is so very easy to be a little calloused toward this, especially when struggling as i do with empathy. However, I know the devastation that this has brought to my friends. They prayed hard to get pregnant. The prayer was answered and then the child taken… “though you slay me”… That same year, the husband lost his younger brother in a car accident…. “though you take from me”…

If we as Christians never suffered and were only enveloped in some blissful utopian love hug, how could we be effective to a surrounding suffering world that experience real pain. If God never brought us through trials, how could we preach faith to those that do not know Him. How could we fulfill be “light” or being a “city on a hill” or being “salt”? I look back on my own trials and I cherish those times where I grew in faith. I would never change them. I even think about my own relationship with my wife. The tough times we navigated through together, brought us closer and into better intimacy.

My friends that I reference above? Well now she serves as volunteer for an organization that prays and comforts hurting moms that have suffered miscarriages. HOW AWESOME IS THAT??!! Her pain has brought her to a place where she can come along side other women and offer love in a real way.

As we are in these times of trial and hurt it is sometimes very hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but remember that God demonstrated His love toward us in that while we will still sinning, He suffered and DIED for us! (Romans 5:8)

Check out this song… I admit that it can only be sung by the grace of God! It’s on repeat for me.