Looking Forward

By Chuck Ness

I am taking some time off to help my wife recuperate from neck surgery and I will be back next week. However, I would like to share something that I read from the book , “Where Is God When It Hurts“. It made human suffering on this planet a bit easier to understand and made me more aware of the need to share in the suffering of others.

The book is about how Christians in the Body Of Christ need to share and carry each others pain and suffering. The author, Philip Yancey, explains in the last chapter what Christianity uniquely offers to those in pain. He quotes a doctor named Paul Brand who said of the human body:

“Individual cells had to give up their autonomy and learn to suffer with one another before effective multicellular organisms could be produced and survive.“

Yancey believes the key to a successful relationship lies in the sensation of pain our responses to it. If humans worked together for the benefit of the relationship the way cells in a body work together for the benefit of the body humans would live together more harmoniously.

“In human society we are suffering because we do not suffer enough. So much of the sorrow in the world is due to the selfishness of one living organism that simply doesn’t care when the next one suffers. In the body if one cell or group of cells grows and flourishes at the expense of the rest, we call it cancer and know that if it is allowed to spread the body is doomed. And yet, the only alternative to the cancer is absolute loyalty of every cell to the body, the head.“

I look at the relationship my wife and I have shared through the 20 some years we have been together and I see how our bond has been made stronger through all the hardships and pain we have gone through together. Looking back at what we have had to endure, I can see why God allows suffering in a family. When a family goes through a moment, or an extended period of suffering, there are two things that can happen. The family pulls together and gets stronger or they divide and fall apart. As Christians we understand why we suffer, and when that suffering will end. My wife and I look forward to the day when the suffering will end because we know that day will come when Christ calls us home, and not a day before.

The Good Shepherd

The LORD is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the LORD
Forever. (Psalm 23)