Recently, I have really had a long bout with suffering -- not personally, but philosophically. A topic that has consumed much of my thinking is suffering -- how do we suffer and why. One recent story I heard about suffering was told by Ravi Zacharias in a talk I subsequently read through his website. It dealt with the suffering of a woman who faced great suffering -- through violation of her self and the eventual death of her child. A deeply moving story that served to really darken my morning cutting grass and listening.
Part of what really bothered me about the talk was just how in our society, someone can face such suffering and seem so alone. I really don't think it is physical proximity of others that can change loneliness -- instead it is our own suffering and reactions to our suffering that define loneliness. Let me develop these thoughts a little more and see if it becomes clear.
I recently blogged about the will of God and one illustration I discussed was Christ in the center of the will of God. At the moment that Christ was crying out in Matthew 27:46 -- in a moment of loneliness from the Father -- he was recalling the words of the psalmist in Psalm 22.
In Psalm 22 we read when the psalmist wrote, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" In this lament of the psalmist we sense his loneliness. However, we cannot let his loneliness convey loss of faith. The psalmist is clear in one thing -- faith in God in hearing him cry out!
Follow me to the story of Job. How many times have we heard the story recounted where Job's wife says in 2:9, "...curse God and die". To a woman who had suffered with Job in the loss of their children -- we can still only have faith in one thing -- she had faith in God! Where is that found? Why would she even offer that cursing God would result in death if she did not believe God existed? Surely only a living God could respond to a cursing. The grief and suffering of Job and his wife did not remove their faith, only demonstrated it.
So, how does our reaction to suffering define our loneliness? Well, Job was suffering, yet we know from his testimony and that of his wife that they knew and loved God. Likewise we know the love of the Father by the Son. In their suffering, they called out to the one most in proximity to them that could enter into that suffering with them.
As each of us suffers -- it is to whom we call out that defines our sense of loneliness. To someone without a knowledge of the love of God, they have no one to share in the suffering with. That seems to embody loneliness. It is through our withholding ourselves from the only relationship which most completely fulfills our purpose that we can truly experience loneliness.
Do I trust in God -- or his provision for me? Is it the times that God has provided that I can trust in him? Or, is it when I no longer have his provision, only his love that I can truly cast off loneliness and revel in the relationship of the deepest spiritual calling of my soul?
