This Sunday, May 25, you will hear a message about suffering.
* Why does God allow awful suffering?
* Why doesn’t He alleviate my suffering?
* Why does He seem so far away?
* What does God actually do when we’re suffering?
You’ll also hear a testimony from one of our members who endured awful childhood abandonment by his parents that left terrible emotional scars on him and his siblings. Through his adult life, God has been working to repair the damage of that suffering, and has given him a ministry to others.
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Your sermon reminds me to keep the faith in bad times as well as in the good. I just started reading a novel called The Shack” by William Young. In it, the main character, MacKenzie, is having a conversation with the Holy Trinity – God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. The part I read today seems very applicable to this topic. I beg your indulgence as I copy excerpts from the book that have been very moving to me today.
“Most birds were created to fly. Being grounded for them is a limitation within their ability to fly, not the other way around…You [MacKenzie], on the other hand, were created to be loved. So for you to live as if you were unloved is a limitation, not the other way around…Living unloved is like clipping a bird’s wings and removing its ability to fly… pain has a way of clipping our wings and keeping us from being able to fly… We [Holy Trinity] want to share with you the love and joy and freedom and light that we already know within ourself. We created you, the human, to be in face-to-face relationship with us, to join our circle of love. As difficult as it will be for you to understand, everything that has taken place is occuring exactly according to this purpose, without violating choice or will…Trust is the fruit of a relationship in which you know you are loved…I [God] am good, and I desire only what is best for you. You can not find that through guilt or condemnation or coercion, only through a relationship of love. And I do love you.”