Suffering and Safety
Today, as Rachel finishes her 12th and hopefully final round of chemotherapy, our minds have already begun the drift into an all-too-familiar pattern of thinking. As we look at a potential future that is not filled with aggressive treatment, sickness, and a perpetual focus on Cancer, we are filled with relief, hope, and a little bit of crippling insecurity. I’m not sure I can put to words, but it’s kind of like outrunning the mountain lion but still being in the woods. You are relieved to be out of immediate danger but are watching for the now hidden stalking cat. There is a letdown of adrenaline that is replaced with a realization of the longer, less dramatic, journey ahead... with the temptation to always look over your shoulder for that lion.
We are not imprisoned to this pattern of thinking though, and God brought two examples to our mind on our drive home.
Job
Job went through a terrible season of suffering. His possessions were taken, his family was killed, his physical health was taken from him. He was struck down on all sides…but not destroyed.
“And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold.
And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, four generations. And Job died, an old man, and full of days.” – Job 42:10-17
The Lord restored Job and blessed him beyond his wildest imagination. He lived a full life with friends and family.
Joseph
Joseph went through a terrible season of suffering. He was thrown into a pit by his brothers, sold into slavery, slandered and imprisoned, he was struck down on all sides…but not destroyed.
“But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. So Joseph remained in Egypt, he and his father's house. Joseph lived 110 years.” – Genesis 50:19-22
The Lord restored Joseph after his many years of suffering and used his blessings to save his family and to preserve a nation.
A season of suffering is not a prediction of the future, as much as the weather today makes no promise of the weather next month. Sometimes, God uses a season of a specific type of suffering to lay a foundation upon which to build, like He did with Job and Joseph. Though we don’t know what the future holds, we are comforted by the possibility of having a story like these men did, with the ability to bring glory to God through the dawn that comes after a long night.
When you spend so long in a valley, there is a temptation to feel wary of the mountaintop. But God brings us out of valleys where He had shown himself through sustaining strength and brings us to the mountaintop where He shows His unmerited favor and unconditional love to us. This is His model time and time again and we can find comfort in this as we look to the future.
…
Psalm 91:7,9-10
A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place—
the Most High, who is my refuge[b]—
no evil shall be allowed to befall you,
no plague come near your tent.
God will be glorified in the suffering and in the saving.