A Puzzling Truth

On the way home from Jay & Rachel's wedding this past weekend, DR & I listened to a sermon from John Piper on why there is suffering in this world. This was from a time when he came to University Christian Fellowship in Birmingham and spoke to us college students. I remember feeling glued to my pew and in awe of the gospel being preached in such a vibrant, no-nonsense way. That 5' something man brought conviction and truth to a seemingly "christian" audience. It was a wonderful refresher to hear him preach this message again.

One passage he talks about in reference to how we, as believers, should feel about the suffering in this world is 2 Corinthians 6:10. "we live....as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing". We are always sorrowful because we see a dying, disease-striken, hurting world but we are always rejoicing because we have a resident peace-giver within us: the Holy Spirit. This explains so much about what my husband told me at the beginning of our dating relationship. We won't always be happy, but we will always be joyful. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit; happiness is not. Joy is unaffected pleasure from the supernatural not the natural. Happiness is circumstantial. Joy is (or should be) a constant state in a believer's heart. It's so easy to put on fake joy but you're not fooling anyone by appearing happy 24/7. Christ wants us to have open eyes to this world but at the same time to always be looking up for our joy.

"sorrowful, yet always rejoicing": a verse that's been on my husband's facebook page ever since I've known him. D.R. has had his fair share of sorrowful times. He's only 24 but I've witnessed the pain and suffering in his life these past 4 years when his dear grandmother passed away, when his brother fell victim to drugs, when he was excused from his University for a semester, when I chose someone else over him and more. God remained faithful through those hard times in his life and I watched as he trusted Him no matter how hard and hurtful it seemed. Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.

We should always be sorrowful! Sounds sad, but we live in a pornography-obsessed, adulterated, sickness-filled, pleasure-seeking, addiction-prone, disasterous, moral-less world that doesn't KNOW that life exists in Jesus Christ; and Jesus Christ alone. We should feel horribly sorrowful for the dying people around us. But we don't. Sin is more discusting than any of us give it credit for. As John Piper says, "none of us are as discusted by our sin as we should be". I know I don't cry my eyes out because I'm sinful. I'm not that upset about it. I don't think about how disheartening and dishonoring it is to God. This is why we must be sorrowful.

We should always be rejoicing! Ah, the happy part of the verse. It's true! We should always rejoice that we are God's! He chose us! (Eph. 1)We were plucked out of the ground as a corpse and given life through Christ's death on the cross. Through grace by faith we have peace and salvation! We should rejoice that God is in control of our sorrowful situations. After all, He's the one who allows them to happen. Here's a puzzling truth: When God allowed sin to enter the world, He did not Himself sin. Piper says, if we cannot handle that, we cannot handle the cross. The cross was horrific evil and totally planned by the Almighty. Piper says we've got to have a category in our brain for God willing there to be sin and yet God not doing the sinning.

So, when someone says "Why would God allow this to happen" (ex: Katrina, War on Terror, 911...) You can say with a grin, "Because God planned the redemptive history of his people from the beginning of time and if we didn't have suffering, we would have no need of Him." Bam! Done! Shock em! It's the truth! We are characters in God's story of redemptive history. Just read Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. and make sure you have kleenex!

Anyways, that's what was on my heart. :)