Why God? A different perspective on suffering.
One of the most influential moments in my life was working as a hospice chaplain on the Mississippi gulf coast. If you don’t know what a hospice chaplain does, don’t feel bad, when I took the job, I didn’t quite know either. Hospice, in my opinion, is an incredible opportunity where those who are in the their final season of life, as a result of sickness or old age, have an opportunity to focus on the quality of life that they have left. When you sit with people who are dying you learn a lot. As a young guy in my mid-thirties I spent a lot of time trying to anticipate the kind of questions I would get from my clients. Due to my lack of life experience I was not prepared for one specific question that I got many times.
“Why hasn’t God taken me yet?”
I was prepared for other questions like:
- Why is God doing this to me?
- Why is there sickness in the world?
- Why is God cruel?
After getting this question twice I knew I needed to spend some time thinking through a reasonable response to help offer relief. After looking at suffering through the lens of scripture, there was something I noticed…
Sometimes our suffering has nothing to do with us. Sometimes suffering has everything to do with those around us.
UNLIKELY PLACE & UNLIKELY PEOPLE
In Acts 16:11-34 we see the foundational stages of the Philippian Church. This church was birthed from God bringing the most unlikely people together. These unlikely people come together through God using inconvenient circumstances. Paul, who God used to start the Philippian church, had no intention of ending up in Macedonia but through unforeseen circumstances that’s where he and his men landed. When Paul first arrived he hoped to have preached in a synagogue and share the gospel with the men in the community but due to the nature of the community; predominantly being greek it was difficult to find a synagogues. Before Paul finds a synagogue he first finds a group of women and begins to share the good news of Jesus with them.
14 One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. 15 When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.
Acts 16:11:13-15
In a culture that undervalued women Lydia and her family were the very first people who made up the beginning of the Philippian church. The oddness doesn’t stop there.
WEIRD PEOPLE AND UNFAIR CIRCUMSTANCES
There were a couple of other odd things that happened as Paul and his crew spent their time in Philippi.
16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.
19 When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. 20 They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar 21 by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”
22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. 23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24 When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
Acts 16:16-24
Can you imagine sacrificing your time to do good by serving God and in your effort you are spiritually attacked, a mob against you is incited, you are beaten, and then thrown into prison? At this moment I would be asking God the big question…
Why?
THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. 27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”
29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. 34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.
Acts 16:25-34
If Paul simply made his horrific experiences about himself he would have missed what God was doing in lives of those around him. When we look at the whole story God used Paul’s suffering to bring about a church. A church made up of the most unlikely bunch: a woman business owner, her family, a delivered demon possessed girl, and a Roman jailer and his family. Paul’s suffering had nothing to do with him and yet his suffering had everything to do with God’s plan. Today we see the benefit of Paul’s suffering. We have the letter that he wrote to this Church ten years later. The letter of Philippians is a wonderful letter where we can learn to find joy in all circumstances.
A BETTER QUESTION
In our suffering there is always a better question then, why? The better question to ask God in the midst of our suffering is, what? the question “what” allows for us to search beyond our circumstances and potentially see the purpose in our suffering. Perhaps our circumstances have nothing to do with us. Maybe God is using our life to do something bigger than we realize. Hopefully this perspective will help us embrace moments of suffering because God is always doing something, the question is will we make it about us by asking “why” or will we make it about God by asking, “what?”