Pain. Suffering. And a loving God?

Last week a stranger (family member of a friend) asked me the following question via text: As a result of [being around Christians lately], how does anyone 'Praise Jesus' even when [people] are on the verge of death? How do you believe in God when [their] life could be taken so young? How do you explain what [they] are going through?

Questions about God and suffering aren't new to me. I asked very similar questions after Jeremy died.

So instead of providing deep spiritual answers, I shared about my experience and why I continue to believe in a God that doesn't always heal or supernaturally save. Although at times it's taken super-human perspective, I have settled on this truth:

God prioritizes spiritual wholeness over physical wholeness.

For those of us suffering pain or brokenness in our bodies, or grieving a life lost, that answer sucks. It doesn't justify our pain. It doesn't make us want God any more. It doesn't offer us relief. At times it just seems cruel. While I don't live with chronic pain, I love many people who do. And one of those people is my cousin Olivia. She chooses to trust in God's ultimate goodness and sovereignty while living in chronic pain. It's inspiring. While her story is hers to share, know it wasn't easy for her. And it's not easy for us in the midst of suffering to understand why God allows it.

But here's another uncomfortable squirm-in-your-seat thought:

Pain, whether emotional or physical, can reveal God more effectively than just about anything else.

Every time I think about this, which I have a lot lately, I remember the story of Immaculee Ilibagiza. For 91 days she survived the Rwandan genocide by hiding in a 3x4 bathroom with 7 other women. Despite fearing for her life and dwindling down to 65 pounds, she experienced God. She writes in her book Left to Tell that after being saved, she actually missed that bathroom because she became so intimately aware of God when she had nothing else. Amazing.

Life isn't easy. There is pain and suffering and loss. Many times God doesn't spare us from it. So we have a choice to make.

We can resent God or we can trust that His priority of our spiritual wholeness is truly in our best interest. Either way there's pain. But only one Way offers redemption.