suffering

We all love suffering and brokenness, right? Have you ever noticed that our society has an aversion to pain and if you’re like me, you do, too. We over medicate against it. We’ll go to great lengths to avoid it or at least lessen it. We even try to distract ourselves, so that we feel less pain.

Confession time. My dentist’s office has a television mounted in the ceiling above every one of their patient chairs. It’s one of the main reasons I’ve been going to them for 20 years. They can clean or fix my teeth while I’m distracted from the pain they’re inflicting on me. It’s great!

Several years ago, our family went on our usual 5,000-kilometer summer road trip to Alberta and Saskatchewan to visit family. While staying with my wife’s parents, I asked my father-in-law, a self-taught mechanic, whether he would be interested in fixing an oil leak on our van. He looked at me and said, “No, but I’ll supervise you while you fix it.” I’m sure I had a look of horror on my face as I responded, “Ohhh…kay.”

So, the big day came. We started taking pieces off to get to the cam seals and of course, while we were at it, the timing belt because once you get that far, you might as well keep going. After a full day of taking things apart, we got to the right spot and put in new seals and the belt. I was pretty pumped until I looked at my father-in-law’s workbench that was filled with parts that somehow had to get back into our van. My anxiety level began to skyrocket as I realized that I wasn’t sure how everything was supposed to go back together.

Life is sometimes like that workbench, strewn with various pieces that we’re supposed to somehow put together. Yet, we don’t know how. Life can be confusing, complex, chaotic. How’s this all going to work out?

Let me tell you, I was so glad that my father-in-law was there to supervise and help me put our van back together. And you know what, we did it!

As leaders, we often see people’s faithfulness, as they remain loyal in tough times or go the extra mile to achieve superior results. Yet, we also experience people’s forgetfulness, half-hearted efforts, and disloyalty to us personally and to the larger organizational cause.

I’m so thankful that God is faithful. Even after the destruction of Jerusalem, the prophet Jeremiah could write in Lamentations 3:22-23, “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

God is always with us as we go through the highs and lows of life. As the Israelites stood on the edge of the Promised Land for the second time, Moses exhorted the Israelites in Deuteronomy 31:6, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” The Israelites could count on God’s faithful presence and provision. We can, too.

Even when we face temptation, our faithful God has promised a way of escape. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”

Of course, sometimes we chose not to follow the way of escape from temptation. Thankfully, we know from 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 2 Timothy 2:13 tells us that even when we are faithless, God remains faithful because He cannot deny Himself. Nothing can separate us from God’s love as we see in Romans 8:38-39: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We also know that God is faithful to fulfill His promises as we see in the last half of Psalm 145:13: “The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does.” Near the end of his life, Joshua could attest that every one of God’s promises had been fulfilled; not one had failed (Joshua 23:14). The Bible is full of God’s promises to us. We can stand on these promises!

And one of those promises points to His faithful work in our lives. Paul could say about the Philippians that He who began a good work in them would finish it (Philippians 1:6). God is doing the same finishing work in all His children.

I abandoned my books and chose the easier option. I entered “how to develop character” into the Google search bar and readied myself for instant transformation. Instead, I was underwhelmed by a series of articles on how to create a compelling character for a fictional story. 

As I recovered from my initial disappointment, I realized that the development of a fictional character has valuable parallels to how you and I establish our own character. Authors reveal the virtues of their characters by forcing them to respond to a variety of experiences. The same is true of our lives. Our character is shaped and refined as we react to the world around us.

As we follow characters throughout a story, we see them change. A character has to change or else their story isn’t worth following. Which is partly why authors rely upon an obstacle that threatens the very nature of their character. Their character has to face a problem. The problem is what creates the required urgency and tension to keep us interested. The problem is what keeps the story moving. The problem is what instigates the character to change.

A character’s obstacle is crucial to the construction of a story. The author must insert a problem into a character’s life while also ensuring that the character has been developed enough to ably respond. The timing is vital.

While it is easy to see parallels between our lives and those who live in an imaginary world, it becomes more complicated to compare God with the author of a literary novel. For instance, there is no indication in the Bible to suggest that God will only allow us to face what we are able to bear. Instead, we read dozens of stories of God placing people in situations for which they are ill-equipped to handle. Consider the message that Elijah receives from an angel in 1 Kings 19:7—"the journey is too much for you!"—or how Moses feels in Exodus 4:10-13—"please send someone else" (thanks to Ron Edmundson for these examples).