Suffering Makes Us Glow
A mom told me a story about a time she was standing in a long checkout line with her two boys. One was a toddler, and the other was a big kid. The big kid had a pack of glow sticks, and the toddler was screaming for one. The mother was exasperated. She grabbed the bag of glow sticks, opened it up, and gave one to the toddler.
Instantly he stopped crying. He stood there with the glow stick, smiling. Just tickled. Then his big brother took the glow stick from him, and he started crying again. Just as the mom was about to lay into the big brother, he bent the glow stick so it started glowing.
Then he handed it back to his little brother, who was now amazed with it. The big brother told him, “I had to break it so it would glow.”
Sometimes God has to break us, so we can glow. That’s why he allows us to suffer. That toddler would have been content to play with his unbroken glow stick, because he had no idea how beautiful it could be. Similarly, we are content with the way things are. We don’t know why God has to break us. But God knows how beautiful we can be when we glow.
First World Problems? No Problem!
As Americans, we are often easily frustrated with what are called First World Problems. Here are a few examples (feel free to add your own!):
• When you say something on social media which you think is really clever, but hardly anyone "likes" it!
• When your kids put dishes in the dishwasher, BEFORE they unload it. Now, you have to play the game of which one is clean.
• When you run out of hot water for the shower because someone else took too long.
• When you and your spouse can’t agree on what temperature to keep the thermostat.
• When your phone battery dies before you get home from work to charge it.
• When you're eating chips, crunching so loudly that you can’t hear the TV. So annoying!
• When you get chicken tenders from the drive through, but they forget the dipping sauce.
For most of us, the worst discomforts we face each week are trivial. That's why it is so hard to relate to all that Jesus did for us when he came to earth and suffered on the cross. The Bible says, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance" (James 1:2, 3).
Every time we patiently endure suffering, major or minor, we become a little bit more like Christ. But don't be concerned if you blow it over some trivial thing. God will give you another chance, and another, and another, etc., until, with practice, you demonstrate the longsuffering of Jesus.
First world problems are no problem to God. Rather, each one is an opportunity for you and me to grow in Christlikeness.
What Job Knew
One way to study the Bible is by marking the keywords of a book. Take a keyword and follow it through to see how it is used in the text. In the book of Job, "know" is such a word. It is used often, 87 times, in fact. However, what is most interesting in the book is how it is used.
When tragedy strikes, a conversation begins between Job and his friends in which what they "know" (or think they know) is very much at the forefront. Job will argue that he doesn't know why this is happening because he has done no wrong. His three friends contend that they know Job must have committed some great sin. All the evidence they think they need to see is in Job's circumstances.
Job answers that indeed he does not know what he has done. Still, he does know one crucial fact; that God is in control (see 19:25; 31:6, et al.).
After several rounds, a fourth friend (Elihu) stands up. He has heard enough. He rebukes these four old men for running their mouths and not doing what is right (32:6-7). This young man just knows he has it all figured out (32:10, 17; 33:3; 36:4, et al.).
Then God speaks. Rather than answer Job or his friends, God challenges them. If they know so much, let them give some knowledge to the Lord God (38:2-5, 12, 18, 21, 33; 39:1-2; 40:6). In 40:1-6, Job answers the Lord. He says, "I know nothing but You. You teach me."
So, from the book of Job, what can we know?
That we do not know why any particular person is suffering.
That we can make the suffering worse for someone when we presume to know.
That the only thing we need to know when it comes to suffering is the One in control.
I may not know what tomorrow may bring. I may never know why I endure certain things. All I need to know is the Lord God. He knows all, is all-powerful, and cares for each of us.