suffering | Stray Thoughts

Here are some great reads discovered in the last week or so:

When Christians Mock Christians. Respectfully discussing issues where we differ is one thing, but unfortunately people on both sides of an issue can degenerate into mocking each other.

Putting an End to Spiritual Envy. I like this post not just for what it says, but how it is done: a wonderful example of Biblical exposition.

An Open Letter to an Older Woman. Sometimes it is hard to know how to be a Titus 2 older woman when younger women don’t seem to want our company and everyone wants things new and young and fresh. This is an encouragement to older women from a younger one along with some subtle, gentle suggestions as to the best ways to be a help.

Impatient With Grief.

A few posts on unanswered prayer for healing: Together Is A Beautiful Word, We Didn’t Get Healed…or Did We? and What If Your Healing Doesn’t Come? The last two are from a paralyzed wife and her husband.

10 Questions for Better Bible Study. Love this: simple and direct and unfluffy.

The Introverted Mother. Someone who recharges by time alone has a hard time when she’s never alone. Here is some encouragement.

The Science of What Makes an Introvert and an Extrovert.

The Holy Longings of Happily Ever After. Is a fairy-tale ending unrealistic or a beacon towards the ultimate best ending?

This Three Minute Commercial Puts Full Length Hollywood Films to Shame. I don’t know what country has three minute commercials – but this is a sweet short story in film. You could say it is about grace.

Hope you have a great weekend!

One thing I love about listening to Joni Eareckson Tada is that she’s genuine. She’s no armchair theologian philosophizing about pain and suffering: she has lived it, having broken her neck as a teenager and living in a wheelchair for 45 years. And through it all she acknowledges God’s purposes and perfect plan for her life. “I’d rather be in a wheelchair and know Him that be walking without Him.”

But in this video she pulls back the curtain a little bit to reveal the “low middle years” with her husband, his depression and feeling trapped, her own dissolving in tears over learning she had breast cancer and feeling, “I can’t do this.” I can remember hearing about her breast cancer diagnosis and thinking that that was too much on top of a broken neck and chronic pain (either of which would be “too much” for many people.) Sometimes when we have a major life crisis, we might think, “OK, I’ve had my trial and tribulation, so I’m done: the rest of life will be smooth sailing.” Probably not.

She shares ways God has used her disabilities and suffering, one of which was revealing her sin to her. When I am provoked, I tend to think, “I reacted wrongly because of the provocation,” and then I pray for its removal and think everything will be all right then, But she offers the thought that God allows provocation in order to reveal our sinful reactions to our own hearts, so that we can seek Him for forgiveness and grace to overcome. We can’t say, “That’s not me”…because it is. And we need to learn how to react as Christ did, which we can do only by His grace.

She calls suffering “a splash of hell” but maintains that a “splash of heaven” can be found through intimacy with Christ in the midst of it. And she can say so because she has found it to be true.

This is well worth 42 minutes of your time: