Bitter or brokenness?

That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. – 2 Corinthians 12:10

There are a lot of things in life that you just can’t reason out. They don’t make sense. Like, “Why did God take my husband? He was such a good man – and his children needed their daddy.”

Of all the quandaries in life, the issue of suffering is undoubtedly one of the greatest and most difficult to cope with. Yet I am convinced that those who have embraced it are the ones who have the most peace about not being able to reason through some things.

As I write this I’m thinking of the words of a friend who was imprisoned for 20 years in Northern China, the result of persecution during the Cultural Revolution when anyone who was a Christian, a professional or educated was a target of the Red Guards. When he was asked if he hated the ones who took away his freedom, he replied, “The Bible says hatred kills; there is no reason to hate. It is the Christian’s responsibility to love, not to reason or hate. Without the 20 years of suffering, I could not forgive.”

He believed that the Christian’s response to wrongs, including unjust suffering, is to love, neither to reason nor hate. When life makes no sense to you, you are confronted with some hard choices: Do you allow bitterness and blame to slowly creep into your heart, turning it to stone, or do you allow the brokenness and pain to sweep you into the arms of Jesus where you learn that God’s grace is sufficient?

Forget about trying to understand everything. Forget about revenge. Focus on what you know to be true and quietly await God’s deliverance, which is certain to come. Said Paul, “I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).

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Used with permission from Guidelines International Ministries. To learn more about Guidelines and the ministry, send an e-mail to [email protected]. You may also visit www.guidelines.org.