What you’ll only see when you’re suffering

The Presence of God reframes everything in suffering when we insist our Lord hear us.

I don’t glorify things I know nothing about. I discovered these truths in loss that gained me what no ‘success’ in life could ever give me. Those who have borne witness to these life-transforming truths also attest.

The abundant life Jesus speaks of
is not a life full of worldly favour and prestige,
but a life that is full of the spiritual blessing
of the knowledge of the Presence of God.

This is a vexing matter for many Christians. They would sorely like to taste this. But without suffering greatly they cannot. There’s the paradox.

It’s only when we lose what we would never let go of,
that we may gain what our hearts have always craved.

Unpack that. It’s only when we’re suffering that we cry out to God alone to be shown a sign. Even in feeling utter forlorn and forsaken we experience the polar opposite. God is right there! Amid the turmoil, whispering perseverance into our dejection, and compelling resilience into our despair. Not within the moment, but within the season, and certainly as we look back upon the season in review.

What we can only see when we’re suffering is the Presence of God in our pain. As we endure what tempts us to reject ourselves. We hear God’s whisper, “Don’t!” We feel God’s care, “Gently!” We see God’s Spirit move, even as we witness things occur in such weird ways it could only be God.

In our suffering suddenly God arrives,
and we discover God is real.

And when we make such a discovery,
suffering is the burden we’re willing to bear,
just in knowing that God is real in our midst.

The transformation we’ve all desired from our beginning only takes place as a compensation for something that costs us just as much: suffering.

But we must seek God in it and insist
that God notice us in our lament.

Photo by Cristian Newman on Unsplash