Where is God in Suffering?

Last time, we left off with a visceral description of suffering. But in suffering there is hope (Romans 5:3-5). David Powlison shows us what that hope looks like.

The Holy Spirit works powerfully and intimately in the age of new creation to communicate God's words, presence, and love into our hearts. Sufferers awaken to hear their Father's voice and to see their Savior's hand in the midst of significant suffering.

You need to hear what God says, and to experience that he does what he says. You need to feel the weight and significance of what he is about. He never lies. He never disappoints (though he wisely sets about to disappoint our false hopes, that we might be freed of our illusions). Though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you need fear no evil. He is with you. Goodness and mercy will follow you. This is what he is doing. God's voice speaks deeper than what hurts, brighter than what is dark, more enduring than what is lost, truer than what has happened.

You awaken. You take it to heart, and you take heart. You experience that this is so. The world changes. You change. His voice changes the meaning of every hardship. What he does - has done, is doing, will do - alters the impact and outcome of everything happening to you. Your faith grows up into honest, intelligent humanness, no longer murky and inarticulate. You grow more like Jesus: the man of sorrows acquainted with grief, the man after God's own heart, who having loved his own, love them to the end.

I believe this is the last book David Powlison wrote before he died last year. David knew suffering. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. During this time, he kept people informed of his struggles, but he somehow found joy in his suffering. He found joy even in the reality that he would soon be leaving his loved ones. During his suffering, he changed. His faith grew. He grew more like Jesus. I did not know him well, but he was my teacher many years ago when I took classes at Westminster Seminary. He was a humble, wise man, who lived to help others, step into their lives, and relieve them of their suffering. He experienced it through others and in his own life. He knows what he is talking about. Take his words to heart.