Right now I’m thinking of a family coming to terms with a cancer diagnosis and the mental health challenges that come with that, I think of another household in which the torment of addiction threatens to pull everyone down with it, I think of a family burdened by an upcoming custody battle over a precious child, I think of a young father with an all consuming battle with chronic pain, I think of victims of arson who no longer feel safe, I think of a relationship breakup which has left significant heartache in its wake, I think of a woman who has been ostracised and shunned by her family….
And God weeps.
This world constantly sends the message that if we work hard enough, spend enough money, exercise enough, know the right people then we can live our best life now….. except when we can’t.
The church sends the message- both overtly and subtly- that if we pray hard enough, serve often enough, have enough faith, read the Bible often enough that God will shield us from suffering and remove significant burdens from our lives…. except when He doesn’t.
And God weeps.
I have no doubt one of Satan’s greatest ploys is to make us lose all hope, and sink into despair. To be plagued by depression, hopelessness and apathy. Essentially to forget that a good God exists.
And God weeps.
Yet our God is not a distant God who hides from us in our pain nor is He punishing us when life is hard. Our God is One who sits with us, weeps with us, collects our tears in His bottle and sings over us.
Our God is not one who says “you need to do x, y & z before I will be with you, comfort you, love you”. He is the God who says “Come to me all who are weary, and I will give you rest, take my yoke upon you for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
He is not a God who is absent in hardships. He is the God who pursues us constantly and never lets us go. Even the most seemingly minor heartache or frustration is something He sees and cares about.
The thing that is wrong with the “live your best life now” motifs, and “God wants to heal and remove all your pain” anthems is the truth that this world is not as it should be- none of it. We live in a world that is a broken and dying world reverberating the effects of a fall at the garden of Eden. This world and our bodies are wasting away. We battle with our own sinfulness and suffer because of the sinfulness of others. Our bodies suffer with sickness and pain.
“Everything sad will come untrue”, a statement uttered by Samwise Gamgee at the end of The Lord of the Rings, means that one day all will be made right again. Sometimes things are restored in this world, sometimes relationships heal, sometimes health is restored, sometimes people are released from addictions, but nothing will be made truly perfect till the world to come. We will live our best lives there, not in self-absorbed glory, but in continual worship to the only One worth worshipping “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”.
The questions remain in this troubled world of heartache and pain but there is such abundant hope in a Saviour who gave everything so we wouldn’t suffer the effects of our sins and opened the way to spend all eternity in the safety of His presence forevermore. He didn’t leave us in our struggles but gave us both the Word of God and comfort of the Holy Spirit. The book of Psalms gives us the words to say when we don’t have them. We can repeat them, shout them, sing them back to Him. The Psalms are God’s way of giving us permission to ask questions, the “Why’s” and “How long” questions which are repeated over and over again throughout the Psalms which are full of lament and grieving.
The final line in the book, Till we have faces by C.S. Lewis says “Before your face all questions die away”. When we at last stand in His presence nothing else will matter because all the sad things will truly be made untrue and we will be able to say with every ounce of our being “To him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honour and glory and power, for ever and ever.” Amen.
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