Not a Sermon - Just a Thought, March 9, 2007
In the waiting rooms of life there is little to do but wait. And that’s frustrating, especially when the waiting is full of suffering. Like the thorns that grow on beautiful rose, the human existence includes suffering, and when the suffering won’t end things can get pretty tough.
What is God up to in your life when the suffering is unbearable and no relief is in sight? Is God even there at all? When life is at its hardest, when doubt is at its greatest, and when the situation is at its bleakest, only waiting through it will get you through it.
In the life of a Christian, our waiting can be characterized by God’s strength shining through our weakness. My friend Jeanie Miley says that when things are at their most difficult and suffering is at its peak, that’s exactly when we should “sit strong.” I recommend her book Sitting Strong: Wrestling with the Ornery God - The Book of Job for Contemporary Pilgrims, to people caught in the waiting room of life. In it she writes:
Indeed, sitting strong was, for me, about letting myself be weak and tired and scared. It was about allowing myself to feel all the feelings I’d not allowed myself to feel in my busy life. Sitting strong was holding that intention of being with God, even in my suffering and especially with my suffering, allowing the Divine Therapist to comfort and console me.
The Apostle Paul knew something of the release into weakness of which Jeanie writes. In 2 Corinthians 12.7-10, he asked God three times to remove a mysterious “thorn in the flesh.” Three times God said no and left Paul to wait in his suffering. In effect, God said to Paul, my grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness.” Jeanie and Paul encourage us when we endure hardship and suffering that we can actually find strength in the waiting and strength in our weakness.
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