The Calm After the Storm

Calm. Tranquility. Quiet. These are things we all need on a daily basis. Recently I’ve been getting more of them than I’ve had in a long time, due to being on holiday for a few weeks and living at home with my mum and sister. Naturally, the load is lightened from my shoulders as I no longer have to look after all things pertaining to my existence. The kitchen is well-stocked to feed me when I’m hungry. The hot water is always available and the spare toilet means that I never have to wait to use the facilities. The internet connection is faultless, the house is clean and although outside it is bitterly Scotland, inside the house is always warm. On a more serious note I’m so, so grateful for these blessings and pray that I would never take them for granted. 

This period of rest, where I have little to do but meet social engagements, help my mum around the house, get back into a sort of fitness plan and allow myself to recover from a hectic year, has given me time to look at different things in my life in a new, clearer light. Let’s take, for example, my general outlook on difficult circumstances. I believe that over this year I’ve actually managed to let something of an ever-so-slightly pessimistic attitude creep in. It goes against the core of my being and my personality to be so taken up with the dirt under my feet that I forget to look up at the stars. But it can happen. When you’re busy and don’t have time to ‘sort out your head’ (which is something I feel one ought to do regularly; take a brief analysis of the thoughts going around and see if any need rooting out), thoughts can grow up like weeds until they’re a great, big, tangled mess. Sometimes you don’t notice them until this great, big, tangled mess is beginning to kill your joy and sap the life out of you. 

I think these ‘weeds’ in my own life have often been a vague sense of ‘this will never get any better’, ‘my life will be one big stream of one bad thing after another’ and an even subtler ‘God doesn’t really care that I’m suffering and I shouldn’t be expecting anything good in case I get disappointed.’ I think these thoughts have to be fought tooth-in-nail as they are highly damaging. Yes bad things happen, and they will always happen, but thankfully they will be woven in to the tapestry of our life with joys and great, wonderful things which exceed our greatest hopes and imaginings.

We shouldn’t constantly expect bad things to happen.  That just saps the joy out of everything. We need to remember all the encouraging verses in the Bible which tell us things like, “For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome. .” Jeremiah 29:11, and, “But, on the contrary, as the Scripture says, What eye has not seen and ear has not heard and has not entered into the heart of man, [all that] God has prepared (made and keeps ready) for those who love Him [^[a]who hold Him in affectionate reverence, promptly obeying Him and gratefully recognizing the benefits He has bestowed]. .” (1 Corinthians 2:9) and, “Saying, Blessing I certainly will bless you and multiplying I will multiply you." (Hebrews 6:14) We need to remember that He is the giver of all good things, the bestower of life, the One who loves us most in all the world and who wants the very best for us. Reminding ourselves of these truths will give us hope to hold onto during more difficult times in our lives. Everything happens in seasons, and bad seasons pass away like clouds after a storm. Inevitably the storms of life will damage our sails, but then God will lead us into quieter waters where He can repair us and make us fit and whole again to continue along the journey with strength, joy and hope.

Painful Questions

I've just finished a book called "The Postmistress". It deals with the stories of three different women during the Second World war, but more than that -or at least in my opinion- it reminds the reader if the daily toil and suffering which still goes on in the midst of greater, more widespread or traumatic suffering. It struck me that during the War, while many Jews were being forced out of their homes and killed in inhumane concentration camps, while young boys (whose voices could have jut barely broken)were fighting in the front lines of a brutal and bloody war, and while innocent citizens lost their homes, their families and their lives; the normal, hum-drum kind of suffering was still going on. Women were still dying in childbirth. Cancer continued to tear lives apart. Families still struggled to make ends meet and husbands still gambled away their income and beat their wives after supper. Suffering can seem immeasurable, and sadly, catastrophes can car-tail one another and pile up on each other to make heavy mounds which crush the poor people caught beneath them.

Some people seem to be more inflicted with suffering than others. We all know that person who has lost two husbands to the one illness, who is struggling to make ends meet and battles with some illness, while their children's behaviour causes inner trauma and anxiety. That family who gets blow after blow after blow. That women who has miscarriage after miscarriage and the student who fails the same exam one time too many. The single mother who cares for her dying child. The orphan whose mother gets a life-time sentence in jail. The list could go on and on. We see so many people every day who are bruised and beaten by the cruelties, injustices and pain which has been their portion in life. We see so much despair, hopelessness and bitterness. And we wonder why. Why does it go on and on like this? Why does the one person seem to get it all?
We as Christians hear many theories. God is punishing sin. It's the devil having a field-trip. God is testing us. God hates to see His children suffer. It's a result of the Fall. We need to pray more. We need to have more faith. We need to send more money. We need to cast out demons. We need to look away from the suffering. Theory after theory until our heart hurts. I'm not stating here what I agree and don't agree with, but what I do know is that often the answers given still leave us feeling a little kept in the dark. We still don't know what to do with those deep, painful, hidden questions. Those feelings of betrayal and fear. Yes, even feeling betrayed by God.

The good thing is that none of us are alone in our quest for the answers to human-suffering. We're all looking for the same clues, asking the same questions, feeling the same fears. So many people have sought for answers and obtained deep insight, and we can be benefited by sharing our fears and questions with people who are wiser than us and who love us.

One of the best books I have ever read on suffering is "The Shack". It tells the story of one of the worst kinds of suffering imaginable -the abuse and murder of a young child- and of how her father asks the same sort of questions about suffering and has a revelation of God which ultimately brings him to peace. The book isn't restrictive in its treatment of suffering. The worst kind of human behavior is uncovered, and the deepest despair and pain analysed in such a way as to make it relevant to the situations we each have to deal with at various points in our lives.

It's tempting to ignore suffering. To put on a brave face and move on with life, with your heart ever so slightly more calloused, and your joy ever so slightly dampened. But I think there's more to it than that. As a Christian, I don't believe God wants to take away our suffering all of the time, but to draw us close to the Healer and the Comforter through it. We'd like to avoid it and have an easy life. I'm not pessimistic. I tend to see things through rose-coloured spectacles, as the expression goes. Unfortunately periods where life is easy are in reality few and far between, but when they do come up, they are wonderful and probably a foretaste of Heaven. Yet while there is suffering, let's support each other, not be frightened to listen to others and ask questions, and allow ourselves to find healing, hope and comfort in the One who truly loves us and wants our best. Let's have hope and faith, but let's be real with God. We need to admit we're broken before we can be put back together. But let's believe that our loving Father does want us to be whole again. And let's pray that He uses us to go on and help a broken world be put back together.