I have, from a small child often wondered at the meaning of suffering. I have wondered why in the OT there was so much violence. I wanted peace - I wanted to sleep comfortably, securely, resting in the image I had of God as a God of all comfort, peace and rest (and indeed he is... but that is only half of the story).
As an adult I have come across people... and even little children who have/are suffering. I have seen in my many waits in the hospital, children whose precious, well-formed little faces carry some partial deformity - a small, georgeous chocolate coloured toddler with fuzzy hair growing from her otherwise perfect chubby cheek... a child whose face was so deformed he wore a hat to distract from his somewhat grotesque features... Whilst waiting at the traffic lights one day I glanced across my shoulder to notice the woman in the car beside me with skin on her arm and half of her face - obviously scarred from severe burns. I had to keep myself from wanting to be sure I saw what I thought I did - marred, wrinkled and scarred skin... not pleasant... I have been with a Mum who was deeply embarassed about her severely autistic son's shrill cries and screams, triggered by nothing apparent. His cries seemed to call out for others to stare as the quiet, sweet woman (I knew her from Owen's school) gathered her things together and exited the swimming pool, seeking to take refuge from the onlookers. I have been in recovery room after minor surgery with Owen to hear the woeful cries of children, sometimes cries of terror as they recover from general anesthetic... I have seen my own child, though only for a short time with tubes all over his red, irritated body, braces straped to his chubby arms to keep him from scratching himself for the intesity of the itch, and a huge piece of tape covering the wound from his chest where his small, heart had been under the surgeons knife.
Sometimes I grieve. I do not question God's goodness - I just grieve. I admit to an incomplete understanding - just feel the pain. Sometimes so intensely it impacts me for days, returns the following week or even months, years later. Not from our personal suffering - indeed we have not really suffered at all. Just the whole overwhelming thing of worldwide suffering... the poor, the persecuted, the physically or mentally impaired, the teenage girl amongst her attractive, self-consious peers who herself bears deformity that causes many to be so embarassed they want to look away. Families whose sons are kindnapped in the night and forced to join military groups which later ask the boy to take the gun to their own beloved parents or their own life will be taken... We are talking about young boys. Pain... gut pain... but a God who cares?!
I have been thoroughly challenged and encouraged through reading a book my beloved picked up: Polishing God's Monuments - Pillars of Hope for Punishing Times by Jim Andrews. I have found it (still have about a quarter of book to go) a fantastic book about suffering - God and His Character and how we as Christians are to bear up under suffering and pain. I am just loving it. From a Father of a daughter (and later her husband) who endure long, drawn-out pain and isolation - he experienced the depths of despair, frustration, anger, etc. etc. The book gives inside, detailed accounts of his daughters accident, illness and his own spiritual battle to rest in God. It has been one of those hard-to-put-down type of books.
The title, puzzling to me initially becomes clear as he explains...
What God did back then (a moment of God - getting through to him after anger about daughter's illness) still astounds me. That is why I regularly memorialize God's monuments of faithfulness. I store up in the "seven plentiful years" the great acts of God in my life, to feed my soul during those inevitable "seven lean years".
As you read about Juli and Paul's sufferings and what our family has endured, be assured that this habit of polishing monuments has played a large role in sustaining us. On many occasions when we were just about to lose our grip, this monument-polishing discipline was the difference between spiritual stability and utter calamity. For us it has been polish or perish.
..will tell you no more - because I don't like to give away what the book can say/explain in a much better way than I can!
Highly recommended.
Deals with pain and suffering head-on.
Very specific - helps you to better understand/ how to help those who suffer
Takes you back to God/His Word and His Character
A goodie!
