Saturday, April 11, 2009

Suffering

What should be our automatic response to suffering? Prayer. (see James 5.13)

But what is our usual response to suffering?

• Complaining
• Anger
• Worry
• Seeking a quick fix
• Repairing grievances


But James suggests that we ought to pursue God. Take your complaints, anger, worry, fixes, grievances, to the one who is in charge!

How often have you said, when you are mistreated by some business, “Let me speak to your superior!” You want to talk to someone higher up to get some suffering to stop. Not a bad idea when you think about it. If a credit card company is not treating you fairly, talk to the boss and often you can make some progress. The person in charge may respond to your complaint. The first contact person can only follow the rules. They are given instructions on how to deal with difficulties and have no authority to bend or circumvent those rules. But a supervisor often does have that right and ability.

So maybe our problem when we suffer is not that we are complaining, but that we are complaining to the wrong person. Maybe we just need to go higher.

When we are suffering, we are to go to the highest court in the land. We are to take our suffering and all it involves, to the throne of God and find grace to help in time of need.