A Better Way

Here in Illinois we are in week 4 of the Coronavirus lockdown and our house is rapidly edging toward stir crazy. I am used to working from home. Pretty much no one else here is. My wife is a raging extravert and my daughter, a sophomore in high school, desperately wants to see her friends. Our oldest can’t go to work because it is shut down. Even my autistic son Nathan, who is in a transition program he doesn’t really like, wants to go back to school. Online school simply isn’t the same. His mom has been his paraprofessional and she is tough.

For most of us, the coronavirus pandemic is inconvenient, but for others, it really is causing suffering: people are dying from this disease, businesses are failing because they cannot operate. There is going to be fallout for some time to come. Just like our series looking at the causes of suffering related to our special needs children, many of us are asking why this pandemic is happening. Is it our fault? Is it God’s fault or the devil’s fault? Is there no fault at all? What are we to do about this?

As we have seen, these questions often lead to answers that come up short. The Bible simply doesn’t offer us a catalog of reasons for suffering. Sometimes we will suffer for following God, but that is clearly not the only kind of suffering we see in Scripture. Sometimes the reason is hidden. Sometimes we don’t get a reason. So what are we to do? How do we face another day, another meltdown, another shattered dream?

We look to God.

I know, I know, that sounds trite. A “Jesus Juke”. Something the person who has never had a problem says. I get it. I am tempted to respond that way, but beyond the cliché there is something real. When I say “look to God”, I mean it. Look to God’s character. When we do this, something very important comes to light.

Throughout the Old Testament, God is patient with his people. Old School King James: “long-suffering”. Over and over again God’s people fail. Adam and Eve, Cain, Abraham (often the same failures repeatedly), Jacob, Moses, the entire book of Judges, Saul, David, Solomon . . . you get the picture. God never abandons his people. He never walks away. They provoke his anger, yet he is patient. When his people repent, he is always there for them. He may have seemed far away, silent, but he is always closer than they think. Perhaps the most dramatic picture is the book of Hosea – a man who is repeatedly betrayed by his wife, who suffers greatly because of it, but who sees restoration and healing. Hosea is a picture of God and his wife Gomer is Israel. God understands suffering and is in his very nature long-suffering. But this is not the end of the story.

 In Jesus we see something more. Not only does God suffer because of his people, in Jesus he suffers with his people. Paul, in Philippians 2:5-11 reminds us that Jesus was God who chose to become a slave, a human and to die a violent death on our behalf. God suffers with his creation. God suffers for his creation. 

When we ask “why?!”, we mostly want to know that this suffering matters, that someone cares. Jesus shows us that God does care, that he is paying attention even if we do not see it. This changes everything. When we realize that God suffers on behalf of his rebellious children, the very children who broke his beautiful creation, when we see that he has taken the job of repairing the breach on himself, we can be encouraged to face the next day, the next challenge, the next . . .

We do not always see or understand how or where God is at work. We know, we have seen, that he is trustworthy. Jesus reminds us that God sees even the sparrow fall and that we are worth far more than a sparrow (Matt. 10:29-31). 

“Why?” is an important question, a question that does not, I believe, offend God in the slightest. It is a question we ought to ask. But we can’t live there. In Jesus God shows us that we don’t have to. In Jesus God holds out his hand to us and says

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matt. 11:28-30)

Written by Kevin O’Brien

Kevin O’Brien is a husband, father, ordained minister, writer and volunteer theologian. He holds a Master of Divinity and Master of Theology from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary where he won the Th.M. award in 1997. He has also done graduate work at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto.  Kevin worked as a brand manager on the Bible team at Tyndale House Publishers. During his time at Tyndale he has helped to develop several Bibles and has written articles which have appeared in The Way, the iShine Bible, and the Illustrated Study Bible. He also wrote a series of devotionals for WAYFM’s World’s Biggest Small Group.

Most recently, Kevin wrote an Advent devotional eBook. You can find it here. 

Kevin lives in the far western suburbs of Chicago with his wife, three children, a dog, and a cat. He would prefer to spend his time reading, writing, woodworking and watching the Chicago Blackhawks.