The way every morning rolls — these kids, yeah, they too roll out of their beds and ready for the day.
There are always so many things to do before the clock strikes eight.
To-do lists that scrawl down my calendar, errands that pile up like the heaps of laundry I keep putting off, and then? — these headlines that flash across my screen and do my head in, plummet my hope thin.
I pour the beans in, extract the coffee strong. Honestly? — I don’ feel so strong.
I mean — how do you set out to knock off some goals when there are roars of gunfires raining hard down one’s city?
Where’s the joy of sitting down to plan for a retirement ease when children’s cries crowd out your newsfeeds, and they never seem to cease?
It’s hard to turn away from the heartbreaks of the world and not have your own heart broken in twos.
Pain is such a universal theme, and as long as we live in this fallen world —
we too will face our own our fair share of suffering.
As long we remain subjects of a decaying earth —
our bodies witness the inevitability of sickness.
“Just because we don’t see a reason for evil and suffering doesn’t mean there’s not a reason for it”
But whatever the reason for your suffering today — however minuscule or grandiose, however unsolvable or regrettably irreparable,
it only becomes unbearable when you don’t know who stands with you in your fire.
Isn’t it so true? — God never promises a life devoid of suffering.
In fact, He desires to save us so much that He came to the earth to put an end to it.
And right in the midst of a world caught in crossfires, when you feel like all you want to do is crumble and weep along, remember that ours is a God who stands with His people in the fire.
Between the history that spans on one side and eternity that binds another, God Himself sets to complete the Story.
“Suffering can refine us rather than destroy us because God himself walks with us in the fire.”
(Timothy Keller)
The reason why there is still so much suffering today —- is because there is still a story to be written still.
The reason we can hope in the midst of the world’s greatest suffering is because the Story Maker isn’t done with His Story just yet.
The story isn’t over, so our prayers shouldn’t be over.
There is more to the story. And His story of redemption invites you and I.
Because if it’s true —
if His book as old as some 2000 years ago has relevance to our present suffering,
If it’s endured popularity and prevailed in mankind’s grimiest history —
Then perhaps it can point a people back home and mankind back to Himself.
That the weight of our present and the worries of our future can never cloud the certainty of His love through history’s’ past.
Perhaps this is our reason to hope then —
We know how the story will one day end.
We know how the end will play out.
So we take heart. Whatever challenges we may be facing this week — we know that we are never alone.
The God who orchestrated the past is in control of our present and our future.
We will keep our hopes up and our prayers strong, because there is more to our story and it will end well — we will end strong.