Sometimes (okay, most of the time), other people say or write things better than me, so I’ll use their words for some of this blog. But let me start with a few questions: Have you ever prayed and prayed (and prayed and prayed), but there’s no answer from God? Do you ever feel like giving up? Are you ever so overwhelmed with fear, anxiety, or depression that it’s all you can think about?
The answer is “yes” for me, and when I feel that way, a few thoughts from C.S. Lewis come to mind. While struggling profoundly with despair after the death of his wife, he asked the question, “Where is God? He wondered why He seems to welcome us with open arms when we’re happy and have no sense of needing Him, but then Lewis wrote the following:
Go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence. You may as well turn away.
He dug even deeper into the heart of the issue with these words:
Not that I am (I think) in much danger of ceasing to believe in God. The real danger is of coming to believe such dreadful things about Him. The conclusion I dread is not “So there’s no God after all,” but “So this is what God is really like.”
I can relate. But I don’t want to believe things about God that are not true. One way to overcome those doubts is to keep my faith in who He has revealed Himself to be through His Word. It’s also helpful to see things (as best I can) from God’s perspective. It’s like the song, “Don’t You Give Up on Me,” by Brandon Lake:
I see you, child / Though you can’t see me / I heard every last prayer you prayed / Though I answered all the time / You just didn’t hear my reply / And I know it’s not easy / Don’t you give up on me / ‘Cause the darker the night gets / The brighter the light hits / Don’t you give up on me / You ain’t seen what I promised / Child, we’re just getting started. I’ll be your way / When there’s no way out / And I’ll be your strength / When your strength runs out / Don’t lose your hope / Don’t lose your faith / That’s where your fight is.
It’s incredibly difficult, but incredibly powerful, to see things from God’s perspective, and to have that sense of hearing Him speak to us directly. We often sing (or think or pray) to God, “Don’t give up on me,” but in this song, God is telling us not to give up on Him. For anyone who wants to give up—and I’ve been there—God reminds us that He has so much more for us.
Here’s one reason why that matters: When we refuse to give up, no matter how hard things get, we can point people to God and try to help them through the same struggles we’ve faced. As pastor and author Brian Jones writes, “When we manage to keep our lives intact when they should be scattered across the floor in a million pieces, we—and others—realize that something supernatural is holding us together.” I’m a broken person, no question about it. You might feel the same way. But our brokenness gives us compassion to feel the pain of others and drives us to do something about it. We go through difficult times because our wounds give us the power to suffer with another person.
I don’t enjoy hurting, so I would love for all my pain and suffering to disappear. But it doesn’t work that way. The good news is that my pain does not have to be wasted. And neither does yours. I’ve already quoted several people, so let me add a couple more: French philosopher Simone Weil wrote, “The extreme greatness of Christianity lies in the fact that it does not seek a supernatural remedy for suffering, but a supernatural use for it.” The apostle Paul wrote something like that as well:
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. – 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
Troy Burns