Category Archives: suffering

Good Friday

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Jesus Christ died. The son of God was crucified on a cross. We’ve heard the end of the story – He was raised again and lives forever.

But on Good Friday we celebrate His death. “Celebrate” sounds like the wrong word to use. Why should anyone be happy about such a cruel event? The reason we can celebrate is why Jesus died. Because of his death, our sins are forgiven. We don’t have to live under the troubling guilt of the wrongs we have done to others, to ourselves and to God. The consequences of our actions may well remain, but our internal guilt can be totally wiped away. God says in Isaiah 1:18, “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow.”

However, we need to turn away from actions that are keeping us from accepting God’s forgiveness. Acts 3:19 says, “Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away.”

The movie, The Passion of the Christ will stay with me a long time. The scenes of the pain Jesus went through to die perhaps the worst possible death are very haunting. Seeing Jesus suffer truly did bring tears to my eyes. I would recommend that you watch the film, if you haven’t seen it yet. It’s good to ponder the cost that Jesus paid for our gain. Just going through Good Friday like any other day is all too easy to do, with the busyness of our lives. Take at least a few moments to reflect on what Jesus did for you and thank Him for it. Pause your routine and go to a different room or outside and express your feelings to God. Bask in His forgiveness.

Today is a Good Friday.

(Paul Merrill writes here every First Friday.)

Complete Acceptance

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David was pretty far from perfect. 2 Samuel 11-12 is the account of a very rough patch for him.

David was relaxing when he should have been leading his nation. During a hazy warm afternoon after a nap, he saw a beautiful woman and had to have her. He killed her husband Uriah so that nothing would stand in the way of their relationship. (That wasn’t an easy task. Uriah was a very dedicated soldier and wanted to return immediately to the battlefield. David called in the commander of his army, Joab, to help him pull off the murder. I doubt if Joab was happy about that.)

The child resulting from David’s rendezvous with the beautiful woman died.

And yet, God said David was a man after His own heart.

God’s acceptance of David did not mean He gave him everything he wanted. In the 2 Samuel passage, you can see that David had to go through lots of horrible stuff before he reached a point of peaceful favor. And even then, the consequences of his destructive actions would remain with him for the rest of his life. God sometimes makes the consequences of our bad actions disappear, but that’s more the exception than the rule.

God’s complete acceptance of David meant letting him experience some really tough stuff. God then sent Nathan to tell David how wrong he was. David finally admitted his wrongs.

Luke 15:7 says “…there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!” God loves it when we confess our wrongs to Him. What a beautiful thing!

So when we make mistakes, let’s bring them to God and say we are sorry. Things will get better from there.

(Paul Merrill writes here every First Friday.)

help.

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“I don’t like to ask for help.”

That’s what she told me today. Out of work. Heart problems. Great reasons to ask for help. But she waited.

And we can help with food and paper goods and toothpaste and razors. I can offer a phone number to someone else.

A couple weeks ago, someone else said, “I don’t like to ask for help.”

I said, “But you help all the time when you can, right?”

“Yes,” she said, “but…”

I know. I understand. I don’t like to ask for help either. I do my best to figure it out, whatever it is. In a learning styles inventory awhile back, I found that my learning style is “intrapersonal.” I learn inside my head.

But I really like to help. I really like to figure out how to solve someone’s challenges, to answer questions, to think about how something can be done. And both of the women that I talked with are helpers, too.

So why do we like to help and not like to ask for help? I can’t speak for anyone else, but for me it’s about pride. Helping makes me feel good, asking makes me feel beholden.

But sometimes, we can’t do it alone. Sometimes we must ask for help. And sometimes the sooner we ask, the less deep we get.

David wrote,

Yet I am poor and needy;
come quickly to me, O God.
You are my help and my deliverer;
O LORD, do not delay.

There’s no particular time this is in his life. It could have been many. And David was often, I think, alone. Shepherds are, of course, but so are kings and generals. And they are pretty independent. But David knew that all the stuff doesn’t keep you from poor and needy.

So ask.

From the middle of the congregation.

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There was a man in front of me at church on Sunday. The long blond hair on his shoulder wasn’t his wife’s. But I wasn’t worried. It was her wig’s. They have spent the year learning about chemo and radiation.

The woman with her hands in the air, singing isn’t with her husband. It’s because some complications from his stroke several years ago have him back in a nursing home on this Sunday. They aren’t fifty yet.

The family near the front who are singing loudly are doing so without one of their sons. He never comes to church with them anymore. He died a few years back.

Sometimes I wish I didn’t know the stories people live in. It would make it easier on Sundays before Thanksgiving if I didn’t know about the struggles of the people around me, the family members lost this year, the dreams shattered. I would rather not have to think about how hard it must be for some of those people to sing, “How great is our God.”

And yet, on this morning, that is exactly what those people are saying. Some sing crying. Some sing smiling. But each of those people whispers a life from Psalm 107, which starts

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.

Let the redeemed of the LORD tell their story— those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,  those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south.

I know more stories in this room, of course, stories that have, as of right now, neither happy endings nor hope. There are people here that are wondering where God is, exactly. They are wondering whether God is.

I understand.

But then I look at tear-stained singers. And see hope.

An interesting prayer story.

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I love stories about people praying and then having answers. It’s exciting.

I mean, look at this story. Paul writes a letter to some people in Rome. He talks about his travel schedule and his desire to visit them. And he asks them to pray for him.

Pray that I may be kept safe from the unbelievers in Judea and that the contribution I take to Jerusalem may be favorably received by the Lord’s people there, so that I may come to you with joy, by God’s will, and in your company be refreshed. (Romans 15:31-32)

In the travelogue that is the book of Acts, we find the end of that story.

And so we came to Rome.  The brothers and sisters there had heard that we were coming, and they traveled as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns to meet us. At the sight of these people Paul thanked God and was encouraged. (Acts 28:14-15)

It’s wonderful, isn’t it? Paul asks, God answers, and he is refreshed by the people from Rome. It would never happen that nicely for us, of course, not being as spiritual as Paul, but it’s nice nonetheless.

Of course, there is part of the story that doesn’t show up between the prayer and the answer. Paul does go to Jerusalem. He’s beaten and then arrested. After a plot to kill him, he’s taken to Caesarea. He stays in prison there for a couple years. He appeals to Caesar and is taken as a prison to Rome. On his way there, the ship is wrecked but they safely gets to Malta. He’s bitten by a snake but lives. Another ship takes them.

And so he comes to Rome, in chains, but safe.

Sometimes the middle is muddled, but the ship may yet arrive.