Made to Rely

Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 1:8-11

Paul’s description of his experience in Asia is vivid. He doesn’t try to hide it. “For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers” (verse 8). I get the sense that Christians believe that the validity of their faith depends upon an “everything is rosy” life. Therefore, they hide the truth of their suffering behind of veil of smiles and professed “best life now” stuff.

An honest reading of the New Testament shows us that is not the way of God. Yes, we have joy unspeakable and full of glory. Our hearts overflow with gratitude. We feel love and wonder. And we even laugh and joke. We also suffer and grieve. We feel sadness and sorrow. We are not strangers to pain.

It is not wrong to acknowledge that. When you read Paul you find that he often wrote about his suffering. He didn’t do this in a “woe is me” way. He wasn’t the guy that you kind of avoided because you knew that every conversation with him was going to devolve into a litany of complaints. He was, to use a way overused term, transparent. He didn’t hide his pain.

Paul’s way of talking about his suffering is instructive. He is honest about it, but he always puts it into the context of faith and looks to see what God is doing through it. For example, when he wrote to the Philippian church he talked about his Roman imprisonment and the criticism he was undergoing as God’s means of furthering the gospel.

Then, there is this passage in 2 Corinthians where he gives us this honest assessment about what he felt like during his trials in Asia. He felt “burdened beyond strength,” so that he “despaired of life itself,” and he believed he “had received the sentence of death.” But he doesn’t stop there. He goes on to point us to Christ and to what God was doing: “But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead…”

We don’t have to be phony Pollyanna Christians. We don’t have to hide our suffering and pretend it isn’t real. (That’s Christian Science which is neither Christian nor science). We just need to always be looking for what God might be doing in and through our suffering. Some of us have convinced ourselves with our human logic and reasoning that no one wants a Christianity that doesn’t deliver us from all this world’s suffering. You see that in the “health, wealth” gospel sects. They promise that if you believe in Jesus and just have enough faith, all your problems will dissipate.

Christianity is not a get out of life without suffering ticket. It is an “even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me…” life. (Psalm 23:4).