an observation
why is it, when we see others going through pain, we can say wholeheartedly "I am praying for you..." which is in itself a statement expressing some amount of faith in the sovereignty and love of God, yet when we experience pain ourselves, lean to doubt God all around? some people even go so far as to say, "there is no God." (when, in reality, they are just angry at Him and don't know how to express it)
i haven't experienced a wealth of suffering to bring forth wisdom from, but from an outside-looking-in perspective, an observation...
the temptation in pain is to become selfish. gasp.
what i mean is, for some reason, my faith isn't shaken until it's the ground under me that appears to be giving way. as long as it's the ground under you, i can praise God all day long. yeah, that's called selfishness.
this reality makes the story of job that much more remarkable. figure this one out...after job's cattle are slaughtered, his servants murdered, and his children killed in a horrific natural disaster, he is able to make what i believe is the most astounding statement of faith in the Good Book.
"Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him;" (job 13:15)
i sit astounded.
Not all Christians can say "I'm praying for you..." with unshakable faith when the ground under someone else's feet is shaking. I remember a time in my life where I saw immense pain going on in the life of one of my peers. I prayed hard for that individual, and then God didn't answer my prayer the that I had hoped he would. That shook my faith.
ReplyDeleteI don't feel like that was the proper response. I agree with you that Job's ability to maintain the proper attitude and perspective on God is astounding.
I only bring it up to say that we are not immune to the pain of others. Certainly ours is closer to home, but the pain of peers can rock and shape our faith the same as our own.
I see what you're saying, Matt. Another thought....in considering your story of praying for your friend, I'm thinking their pain became your pain. And so, in becoming your pain, your faith was affected. However, if you stood detached from the pain, your faith would be as strong as ever. I mean, right now in the world millions of people are starving, and I can go about my business in posh Atlanta, GA fully believing God is at work in the world. However, I bet if I were the one starving it would be a lot harder to believe that. Hopefully I would....
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