THE SAFEST PLACE FOR SUFFERING

(Post by: Lilly Hobbs)

I’m not sure I have experienced suffering quite to the degree I have over the last couple of months. 2023 began with lots of exciting moments that have now become very dear memories, and as each month passed the year only seemed to grow sweeter.

And then December came. For those of you who were here with us over the course of Blogmas, you shared in our suffering each day. We experienced great grief when we lost Ruby (our family dog of 14 years), as well as a family member and a dear friend, and were shocked and heartbroken when suddenly taken away from our church family of 20+ years.

It felt as if another trial would arise just as soon as we would start to process the one that came before.

Suffering is an interesting thing, isn’t it?

You are only given two options in the midst of suffering, and those options are to stay faithful or to be unfaithful. The hardest thing about these options, at least for me, is that neither the first nor the second seem “favorable”.

Staying faithful seems nothing short of impossible, yet being unfaithful isn’t even a logical option.

C. S. Lewis once said, “We were promised sufferings. They were part of the program. We were even told, ‘Blessed are they that mourn,’ and I accept it. I’ve got nothing that I hadn’t bargained for. Of course it is different when the thing happens to oneself, not to others, and in reality, not imagination.”

Is it an odd thing to say that, as I have chosen to be faithful, I have felt safe?

Perhaps it is, yet not once have I felt as if I was not in the safest place for suffering.

Believe me when I write this, dear reader… I am not saying that to merely have a nice title for today’s blog post. There’s not much worse than hearing pretty Christian clichés and reading feel-good posts that everything is going to be alright and that you’re doing a great job when you’re currently in the fire being refined.

I write this to you today because nothing has brought me more hope and inspired me to be all the more faithful than the fact that Jesus Himself is the safest place for my suffering.

Do you know why?

Because He’s entered into my suffering, my pain, and my brokenness with me from the moment it began, and not only that, but has promised that “when I pass through the waters, He will be with me; and when I pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over me. He has said that when I walk through the fire, I will not be burned; the flames will not set me ablaze.” (Isaiah 43:2)

I read a quote somewhere online this week, and I haven’t been able to stop contemplating its words since I first read it. The quote simply stated, “Sometimes faithfulness does not feel like what it is producing.”

Once we have surrendered ourselves to the Lord and have made a commitment to be faithful to Him, it can feel as if everything is out of control. We can feel anxious and be overwhelmed by all that is going on around us and in us.

What the Lord has been teaching me, even this week, is that faithfulness always produces something glorious. Something beautiful. It just may not feel like it in the process, and that’s okay. In fact, I think the Lord made it that way.

Do you know why?

Because just like the disciples in the boat, in the midst of a roaring storm, if we’re with Jesus, we’re in the safest place for suffering.

“We shall draw nearer to God, not by trying to avoid the sufferings inherent in all loves, but by accepting them and offering them to Him; throwing away all defensive armor. If our hearts need to be broken, and if He chooses this as the way in which they should break, so be it.”  (C. S. Lewis)

SO, WHAT IS YOUR RESPONSE?

= Are you in the midst of suffering right now?

= Are you staying faithful or choosing to be unfaithful?

= What are you going to do differently?