I have to admit-given the chance, I’ll take the easy way. The path of least resistance. I really don’t like to struggle. Just give me that big red easy button and life is good.
Don’t you ever wonder why God made life so hard? Why does He put us in difficult circumstances or allow us to experience pain? He spoke the world into existence in a matter of days-couldn’t He have devised that kind of system in developing our characters, in planning our lives? He’s obviously able-so why didn’t He?
I know, I know. It’s a mystery. That much I understand. I just haven’t been able to figure out why He chose suffering as a part of His wonderful plan for our lives. (Other than the trite clichés and well-worn platitudes that well-meaning friends offer us when we’re drowning-it builds character, it makes us stronger, it’ll help someone else along the way.)
My friend Sandy buried her husband of thirty-five years last week. My brother-in-law cried over his eighteen-year-old son’s casket last month. Last Monday I celebrated my mom’s seventy-second birthday without her. (I can’t imagine her with wrinkles-she’ll always be forty-three to me.)
Each of our goodbyes were wrapped in more pain than any of us wanted to experience, yet God was involved in our heartache. He made the decision for each of our loved ones to return to Him and to be absent from us, knowing His decision would inflict suffering.
And still, He is good, and He intends the pain to work His goodness into our lives.
That’s where I want the easy button. I’d be just as appreciative if He’d deliver “good” into my life another way-probably more so, certainly with less distraction, if I wasn’t struggling with the bandages on my heart. I’m not always satisfied that He offers His grace instead of an easy fix.
His word assures us, though, that suffering is our bond-we’re children of God, fellow-heirs with Christ, and somehow He links sharing in His suffering to the process of glorification with Him. Mystery magnified.
But the story isn’t over. The time of the unveiling of His glory hasn’t arrived yet. When the time is right, He won’t need an easy button to make us understand. We’ll sigh in relief and understanding. We’ll even smile. Until that day, we trust. And we wait for our faithful Creator to do what is right.
(Romans 8:16-39; 1 Peter 4:12-19)
Adapted from an earlier article by Jayme Durant, published 2007.
