Marketing God ...

Recently in my Mom’s Group, we were discussing the role that trials play in our lives and someone made the statement, ‘I know God wants us to suffer for Him, but ...’ I missed a lot of what she said next because that statement literally hurt my heart ... I can’t explain it, but I couldn’t get past it.

Does God really WANT us to suffer for Him? It sounded just right enough to almost accept it, but something kept me from moving on. Often, one of satan’s lies begins with a subtle distortion of truth ... he rarely comes right out with a black/white lie because those are easier to spot ... it’s the gray ones that you have to watch out for ... if he can just tweak the truth ever so slightly ... those are much harder to discern, and often more dangerous.

I recognized that she’s not alone in her thought, as I believe many of us who have been through hard times have just accepted that suffering and trials are a normal part of the Christian walk, though often begrudgingly. Interesting enough, many who haven’t yet experienced their ‘unthinkable circumstance’ are often walking in fear of WHEN that seemingly inevitable day will come for them. In some Christian circles, there might even be a concensus that suffering is necessary to be ‘godly’, or at the very least as Christians, we should be ‘willing’ to suffer, if it’s asked of us. It seems like we are walking from ‘trial to trial’, instead of from ‘glory to glory’, as the Bible instructs.

It got me thinking ... what DOES God intend with suffering? Does He cause it?  Does He allow it?  Does He want it for us?

As a student of marketing/advertising, I’ve had many a discussion with God about parts of the Christian walk that are not very ‘marketable’ – things that wouldn’t go well in a ‘God brochure’, if you know what I mean. Suffering certainly qualifies as one of those unmarketable things, no matter what font you use! And trust me, I’ve combed my own ‘agreement’ with Him more than once looking for the paragraph, thinking what in the heck have I signed up for?!? It must be buried in the small print, somewhere!! In the Bible, Jesus and others are very clear that trials SHOULD be an expected part of our Christian walk. There really isn’t much pussyfooting around John 16 where Jesus says ‘In this world you will have trouble’ ... pretty clear stuff ... although we do often quit reading there, when the best part is next: ‘But take heart! I have overcome the world.’ PRAISE JESUS!!

So, the distortion in truth isn’t the part about us suffering or not suffering ... along with these words, the Bible also gives us many examples of those who HAVE suffered in their walk before us. But contrary to common complaints against God, I was very interested to discover how few of those examples were actually ‘caused’ by Him.

Does God CAUSE suffering?

This is an interesting question to me because it seems that most of us, believers or not, blame God for our suffering. And yet, the only example I could find in the Bible of God actually CAUSING suffering was in the case of His son, Jesus ... In a prophetic passage from Isaiah 43, it does say ‘the Lord’s will was to crush [Jesus] and to cause [Jesus] to suffer.’ To 'cause’ someone to do something means to ‘make it happen’ ... this Scripture is saying that God was the SOURCE of the actions that caused Jesus to suffer; implying that if God had NOT caused it to be, it would not have been. Is that overwhelming to anyone else? The fact that the only example in the Bible of God causing someone to suffer was of His Son ... FOR ME ... overwhelms my heart!  And yet, how quickly am I to accuse God in my suffering when the only suffering He has caused was to Jesus, for the purpose of saving me from an eternity of suffering? Ironic, isn’t it??  Or maybe the word I’m looking for is ‘selfish’?!

Does God ALLOW suffering?

To me, there is a difference between ‘allowing’ and ‘causing’ and the dictionary agrees ... ‘To allow’ means ‘to permit, to concede, to accept’, implying the person giving the permission does have the ultimate control, but is not doing the actual action. In contrast, remember that ‘to cause’ means ‘to make it happen’, implying the person in control is doing the actual action ... a point that can not go unnoticed is that no matter whether God is ‘causing’ or ‘allowing’, He IS in control (PRAISE GOD!). To me, this difference is huge when understanding the character of God, maybe you disagree? Maybe it’s just me, but understanding that God does not cause suffering but MAY allow it makes a big difference in my ability to trust Him. Does it for you?

Most examples of suffering in the Bible are either a consequence of one’s sin or ALLOWED by God for purposes that are varied, but not always clarified. The story of the Prodigal Son is an example of suffering caused by sin (selfishness), which interestingly enough, I think we can all readily accept. Isn’t it funny how quickly we can accept someone elses suffering for them, especially when we consider them to be a ‘sinner’?! (Matthew 7:3-5 comes to mind)

However, when we read about the suffering of Job, one of God’s faithful, we can’t get to the end of the chapter fast enough where it tells us that God blessed the latter part of Job’s life, more than the first. Ahhh, that’s much better reading!! But coming from someone who feels like much of her walk is right out of the pages of Job, I am completely honest when I say that the promise of being blessed later does not help one get through the ‘allowing to suffer’ part ... at all! New daughters just do not replace the loss of the ones you loved first.

But after questioning God a great deal about Job’s story, He showed me something ... for years, I’ve heard teaching on it, but it never made sense to me ... it always seemed so uncharacteristic of God to seemingly pick on one of His most faithful servants, just to settle a wager with satan, the deceiver?! And let’s be honest, when we are in the midst of our ‘allowing to suffer’, isn’t it the character of God that we often question? As I questioned God on this particular example of ‘allowing to suffer’, He lead me to Job 42, which I believe is what the Book of Job is all about ... and consequently, what I believe to be the point of all ‘allowing to suffer’.  

Giving context to this portion of the story, Job has just finished pounding on the chest of God, asking Him, ‘Why, God why?” ... maybe you’ve been there? God answers him with something like ‘who do you think you are’, which is an entirely different discussion on it’s own ... but for now, I want to focus on Job’s response to God’s answer ...

Job’s response: Job 42:5-6
“My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

This story isn’t about God grandstanding with satan and poor Job getting in the middle of it (although satan would surely like to lead us in assassinating God’s character in that way) ... God wasn’t picking on Job ... He was promoting him!! While God did ‘allow’ satan to run havoc and chaos in Job’s life (and I’m sure satan thought he was even winning for a time), I believe God’s intention in Job’s suffering was so that Job would be promoted in his faith to the point of SEEING GOD!! Do not miss the point that at the end of ourselves is where we see God ... Once we see who we are, next to Him, everything drops into place ... our priorities, our responsibilities, our roles.  I can totally testify to this as I remember the very day I discovered who I was next to God ... David had been diagnosed and I was huddled in the corner of a hospital bathroom, completely helpless and terrified ... priorities, responsibilities and roles fell right into place ... and yet, here in the midst of Job’s unjust suffering, the Bible testifies that Job was satisfied!!  How is that possible?! Job asked a lot of questions and didn’t really get ANY ‘real’ answers ... and neither have I ... ‘but now my eyes have seen you’ ... I believe Job’s satisfaction is a sole result of this experience with God in chapter 42. I believe that the fact God blessed him more in his later years didn’t even matter to Job because HE HAD EXPERIENCED GOD ... the One who gives and takes away!

Does God cause suffering? He did cause Jesus’ suffering.

Does God allow suffering? The Bible show us yes, many times over and over.

Does He want us to suffer? It was not His original plan (no suffering in Garden of Eden), but in this fallen world, if it corrects our path or is what it takes for us to see Him, then yes, He does!

But perhaps the more relevant question is what do we do in and as a result of our suffering and trials?  Will we keep our eyes inward, asking ‘why, God why’ or justifying why we should be ‘protected’ from suffering? Is it our ‘righteousness’ that should protect us?  Is satan telling us, ‘if God loved you, He wouldn’t allow you to suffer?’ Or maybe satan is saying ‘you made your bed, now you get to lie in ... you deserve to suffer’. The truth is, we ALL deserve to suffer ... none of us are exempt from sin and the penalty of sin is death ... BUT GOD!!

There is only one answer for satan ... Jesus!! Who is more righteous or more loved by God than Jesus? And yet He suffered beyond anything we can comprehend ... we can’t even watch it in videos, let alone imagine living it. But, we can’t have a Sunday, without the Friday!! His suffering at the hand of our Father was FOR US to receive our own resurrection (life!) in our own suffering ... He has walked that path ahead of us, THANK YOU JESUS!

For the past couple years, I have actually been praying that God would change my heart so that I would truly understand and believe Paul’s crazy words in 1Peter 4, where he says ‘Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But REJOICE that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.’

I really like the ‘overjoyed in His glory’ part, but ‘do not be surprised by painful trial’ and ‘rejoice in sufferings’ ?!? Not so much! But I think I’m starting to get it ... when we KNOW that our suffering is going to lead us to an experience with God (His glory revealed), we can truly rejoice in the midst of our ‘allowing to suffer’. Unfortunately, there’s that pesky, unmarketable ‘death to self’ issue that lingers somewhere in between ...

But, I’m starting to understand that ‘marketable’ isn’t what Jesus came to be.




[comment on this entry] [sign guestbook]