When We Hurt

"Where is God when we hurt?"

Our world reeks of disease, sickness, viruses, germs. Life isn't lived under a disease-free dome. We catch colds from one another; our bodies are disease prone because of genetics; toxins poison our air, food, and water.

Sooner or later, in one way or another, we get sick--sometimes mildly sick, seriously sick, or terminally sick. When we're sick we hurt.

So, where is God when we hurt? Has he left town? Is he unconcerned? Do more important matters summon his attention?

Jesus cared about sick people. He healed hundreds---individually, sometimes every sick person in a village. Compassion, not success or notoriety, motivated him. Jesus healed because he cared.

Does Jesus still care when we hurt? Paul wrote, "Love never dies." If that's true, then Jesus still cares for sick and hurting persons.

Then why doesn't God heal our hurts? Anemic faith? Maybe. We're in the school of suffering? Maybe. God deleted supernatural healing from his menu? Maybe. Not everyone, even with strong faith, is healed? Maybe.

Paul was no stranger to pain: "I was given the gift of a handicap." He hurt. His pain limited his activity and worked on his emotions: "Satan's angel did his best to get me down." Discouragement camped around his soul.

Paul "begged God to remove it." He did what we do. What sane person enjoys pain? And God answered Paul's persistent begging: "then he told me, 'My grace is enough; it's all your need. My strength comes unto its own in your weakness" (2 Cor. 12).

That's it?

That's it!

Healing withheld. God offered his child a dose of strong-grace instead. And to chase away the demon of despair, Paul was expected to gab God's enabling-grace--strong enough to help him take the next step.

When getting rid of our pain is all we think about we're in danger of missing Christ's strength moving in on our weakness. Only when we let Jesus take over can we duplicate Paul's experience--"the weaker I get, the stronger I become."

First Love

Is it possible? "He loved us first" (I Jn).

Papa-God loved us first. Incredible, yet true. Spiritual beggars. Morally bankrupt. Soiled souls. Yet ... Papa loved us first. No strings attached. No prior 'oughts' or 'have-to's.' Love gushed from His heart to us.

Why?

What can we add to God? What advantage can we offer the One who is already complete and self-existent? We have nothing to offer to enhance him.

Why? We do not know, and we may never know. He loves us because he loves us. We know Papa loves us and that is enough for us here.

And Papa never stops loving us even if we never love him. His love endures forever and has no limits of time or space or quantity or quality. His love is like a bottomless, shoreless ocean into which we are invited to swim.

Love leaves us speechless. At best, we bow in joyful silence and embrace the One who has already embraced us.

"Greater love has no man than this," Jesus said, "that he lay down his life for his friends." Beaten beyond recognition, spiked to a cross, he cried out, "Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing." Love sacrificed himself even when we betrayed him, beat him, and spat in his face.

"God loved the world so much that he gave his Son." He still does.

Love can't rest. It's compelled to give. It gives no matter what the cost. Papa's loved us first. Why? That he might call us his beloved.

We want credit for the good things we do. It's reasonable. It's fiscally responsible, especially if it's tax deductible. We want out pat on the back.

Jesus sees alms giving differently. "Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don't make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won't be applauding. When you do something for someone else, don't call attention to yourself. ...when you help someone out, don't think about how it looks. Just do it--quietly and unobtrusively" (Matthew 6:1-4, Message).

If you promise to help someone, don't talk about it, don't wait for an invitation, do it. Mow their lawn, take a meal, deposit money in their account. Do it. Let God be your witness.

That's exactly the way God works in your life. He never calls attention to Himself. He rescues you from sin, from judgment, from danger. And He does it all the time. But He does it quietly, behind the scenes.

We're the actors. We play out our good deeds as if on a stage. We want our name on the plaque or on the donor list. We're compassionate and generous as long as we can play the crowd. We do something good only to pause for our applause.

Getting credit for doing good things is the way of our world, but it's not the way of God's world. Self-appreciation and applause ranks high on our list but it doesn't make God's list. Why? Because God's kingdom is not about us; it's about Him.

God-centered people help those in need without fanfare or elaboration. They never make generosity a big deal. God-centered people give without excepting or negotiating praise, appreciation, or an ovation. The quality of your generosity reflects the quality of your life.

Treat the Patient...

"Treat the patient, not the disease." Such goes the ancient precept. Perhaps once observed, but now ignored. We explain our shift of emphasis with statements like this: "It's more economical to treat the disease and not the patient." "We're trained to diagnosis the disease, not the patient." "If the disease is healed, then the patient is healed."

Most illnesses do not strike like lightening. The ground is prepared for years, through bad habits, stress, emotional and moral problems, and maybe most significantly -- the 'secret tragedies' in every heart. "Man does not die," a doctor remarked, "He kills himself."

Every act of physical, psychological, or moral disobedience of God's purpose for our life has its inevitable consequences. It's the call of the church not to merely treat the illness (sin) but to treat the patient (what caused the sin).

But we don't have time or, more honestly, we don't want to take the time. It's easier to write a prescription -- 'be saved' and 'join the church' and 'come to the meetings' and 'give your time and money'-- then to help people resolve the 'secret tragedies' that keep them sick.

Jesus took a different approach. He understood the disease. But he also treated the patient. His aim was to bring us into relationship with His Father and thereby to bring us into complete wholeness--inside and outside.

Jesus isn't interested in just curing one part of us, He wants to cure all of us--spirit, soul, and body. We discover His wholeness when we bring ourselves under His sovereignty.

"May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together -- spirit, soul, and body -- and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ" (1 Thess. 5:23).