When You Need A Bone Deep Belief
“Suffering is real. Jesus is real. Eternity is real. I pray you will believe, bone deep, that you never have to suffer alone, and that Jesus is strong enough, powerful enough, loving enough to carry you through. ”
For the past two weeks I have been by my sister’s bedside in Western Canada as her grip on this earthly life is slowly loosened and God prepares her heart for the journey to her heavenly home. She has been a brave warrior in her battle with cancer and now is looking forward to a new glorious adventure with her Saviour in eternity. We believe the veil is thin, the portal is wide and she will be welcomed home very soon, with a “well done” from her Lord.
I did not expect to be here with her, far away from home, in this thin and liminal space somewhere between what was and what will be. To be honest, sometimes I don’t know what to make of it because I can’t predict how long I will be here, and the discomfort of the unknowing wreaks havoc with my heart. I have things I had planned to do – with Gather, with my speaking and coaching, with my family. And yet, I am here, in this space somewhere in the middle of what is real and what is surreal.
How about you? Have you been called into a liminal space in the past year where you have entered an unfamiliar terrain of suffering and discomfort, of fear and insecurity?
Like many of us, you may have had new plans for a new year and a new decade. And yet here you are. Entering into the new year after a new decade and you are still finding yourself searching for landmarks of familiarity and finding they have disappeared from the landscape.
WHILE YOU ARE NOT TO PURSUE SUFFERING, YOU CAN WALK INTO IT WITH COURAGE AND RECEIVE IT AS YOUR ASSIGNMENT WHEN IT COMES.
IT IS ONLY WITH A BONE-DEEP BELIEF IN GOD’S LOVE FOR YOU THAT YOU CAN FACE SUFFERING, BE OPEN TO THE TRANSFORMATIONAL LESSONS IT SCHOOLS YOU IN, AND EMERGE TO WHATEVER AWAITS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF IT.
WHAT YOU BELIEVE, BONE DEEP, ABOUT SUFFERING, AND ABOUT GOD’S NEARNESS IN THE MIDST OF YOUR SUFFERING, INFORMS WHO YOU WILL BECOME WHEN YOUR SUFFERING IS BEHIND YOU.
HERE IS WHAT YOU MUST BELIEVE, BONE DEEP, AT YOUR CORE.
Suffering is not meted out as punishment but as a triple promise. Everyone suffers at some point, to some degree. You will have suffering, you will have peace, and you will perceive the other side of it. John 16:33:
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Suffering not only brings pain, but has a purpose. There are very few who are transformed in character by continual success.
Helen Keller said: “Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.” Without suffering our stories would only be two-dimensional. Suffering explores the depth of our humanity and offers us the experience of resiliency and rising again – to new hope – and even to new life on the other side of eternity.
Suffering was part of Jesus’ experience so He can be trusted to carry the heartbreak and tears of yours. Only suffering gives us the opportunity to experience just how close Jesus really is.
There’s not a Friend like the lowly Jesus:
No, not one! no, not one!
None else could heal all our souls’ diseases:
No, not one! no, not one!
Jesus knows all about our struggles;
He will guide ‘til the day is done:
There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus:
No, not one! No not one!
I don’t know if seven days from now my sister will still be walking through the valley of death. But I do know that she is not going alone. I believe that she is being carried by Jesus and His presence is more real than Covid, than protests on capitol hill, than a crumbling economy, and more real than the fear that media can instill in our hearts.
I don’t know if seven days from now I will be reeling in grief or rejoicing in hope or both. I don’t know if I will process with integrity the trauma of this present journey.
I TRUST, BONE-DEEP, THAT WHEREVER I FIND MYSELF, JESUS WILL FIND ME THERE.
Suffering is real. Jesus is real. Eternity is real. I pray you will believe, bone deep, that you never have to suffer alone, and that Jesus is strong enough, powerful enough, loving enough to carry you through.
Cathie