God’s Response to Suffering

I was doing some spring cleaning the other day and came across some old video tapes. You remember: they’re those things we used to put in big boxes called VCRs before DVDs came along. I was going through these videos and found some of my old marching band tapes. Seeing those tapes brought back memories.

It turns out that in my high school, being in the band was actually considered cool. You see, we were this little, tiny school, literally in the middle of a corn field. We weren’t any good at anything . . . except band. Between the years of 1989 and 1991, our little school had the State Champion marching band.

Those three seasons were something special. We soundly beat schools three and four times our size. Our school made the top story on the evening news. Local newspapers called us “giant killers” and “the little band that could” because of our success against much larger schools. We had celebration parades through our tiny town as we came home from Indianapolis, victorious again and again. We were invited to the Statehouse and recognized on the floor of the Senate. We did parades, televised concerts, and special appearances. We were the champions.

Then came the summer of 1992, my senior year. We were going for a fourth, consecutive championship win, which would have been a record. The problem started when our director left to teach at a different school. Our quality slipped. The passion wasn’t there. We got sloppy. And we finished second by a tenth of a point. It’s hard describe how that night felt. From where I am now, it was just a band contest, but back then, I was devastated. I’ve never felt so disappointed.

Disappointment isn’t any fun. It leaves a sick feeling in your stomach, a feeling of betrayal and hopelessness, and a sense of missed opportunity. All the good things we expect to happen, melt away and we are left with what feels like nothing. Sometimes disappointment leads to a loss of confidence: we fear that if we try again, we’ll only lose again. So we fail to try.

Sound familiar?

At one point or another, disappointment touches all of our lives. Some times it’s more serious than others. Those moments can be tragic, life altering moments that produce great suffering. When life hasn’t turned out like we hoped it would, we can come to a place where disappointment rules the day. Do you know someone who is disappointed or suffering today? Is that person you? If so, I’ve got Good News for you today.

Read Romans 5:1-5:

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

“But our hope does not disappoint.” There’s at least one thing in this world that does not disappoint us, ever: our hope. Even when we face situations and disappointments that make my little band contest look like a walk in the park, the hope that comes about through the process of suffering will not ever disappoint us.
Let’s face it, this world is full of disappointments: people in this world will disappoint you. Family will disappoint you. Friends will disappoint you. Jobs will disappoint you. The economy will disappoint you. The government will disappoint you. The Church might even disappoint you. Loved ones, even if all of these disappoint you, please know today that the hope we have in Jesus Christ, made mature through suffering, will never disappoint you.

If this is true, then getting access to this hope becomes pretty important. According to Paul, faith is what gets us “in” on this hope. It is God’s grace, through faith, which justifies us, or makes us right with God. When we are in a right relationship with God, we have a hope that will not disappoint. We have access to this hope because of the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus. When we and our loved ones suffer, we have a hope in the midst of that suffering. If the Father can raise Jesus from the dead, He can raise us, too. The death He died was for us, as was His resurrection. Through faith in Jesus, we are offered a powerful hope that is stronger even than death.

The good news today is that none of those things that disappoint us in life are what justifies us. We are not saved by our jobs, friends, family, or even the Church. We are saved through faith in Jesus Christ. Even though these things might cause disappointment, they cannot touch the true source of our hope: our relationship with Jesus.

It is that relationship which gives us the perseverance, character, and hope in which we can live.

God’s answer to the disappointments and suffering we face in life is himself. God offers His presence in the midst of our suffering. God offers the hope of His resurrection in the darkness of the moment. He transforms our suffering into hope.