Philip Yancey wrote a wonderful book entitled, “Where is God when it Hurts?” and it takes the most pressing problems of life and asks where God is in the midst of them. And the surprising answer is that God is where God has always been, God is in Christ reconciling the world. And God’s presence cannot come closer than the Christ who came to us. That is all fine and good until hurts hits home in all their fury. It happened to Yancey. With little warning Yancey received a diagnosis of Parkinson’s, a degenerative disease that disrupts connections between brain and muscles. (read his story in Christianity Today). He concludes that article with the words: “I have written many words on suffering and now am being called to put them into practice.”
Do you think for even a moment he deserves this, did something to earn it? Is it really a question about fairness or unfairness, about good or bad as some theologies would suggest? Take time to digest John 9! “Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.'” (John 9:3 NRSV)
The real question is: how do we stand before God in our need, our brokenness, our hurt, our pain? Where is God when it hurts? Yancey’s answer, my answer, is profound: God is present in the pain. God’s love carries no promises about good or bad in life except the promise that God will not allow anything worse to happen to us than happened to His Son.
The fact is that pain and suffering are here among us, and we, in faith, need to respond. The response Jesus showed was to bear the burdens of those he touched. To live fully in this world we must follow his example. Instead of giving a pat answer to why bad things happen to good people, God points us to a cross, and to a life given to us in order that our life may be more than the chances and changes that come our way day by day.
We all have physical conditions we question and some of us need to delve deeper by theologically reflecting on the situations and circumstances that are part of our lives. So, that is what I decided to do and the results are the meditations that appear below. They carry few answers to what we experience in life but I do hope they contextualize what we experience from a faith perspective.
Is there any way to transform the walk through the valley of deep darkness and death and despair and still hold out a glimmer of light that guides the way? Does that small candle in a cavern of darkness make any difference to those who walk an unknown path toward an unknown future? The only answer I can offer for myself and for you is … yes.
Thoughts for the day:
- “Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” – Helen Keller
- “I often say now I don’t have any choice whether or not I have Parkinson’s, but surrounding that non-choice is a million other choices that I can make.” – Michael J. Fox
Kenn Stright
(To access the entire “Where Is God When it Hurts” mini-series, please click here!)