Suffering

Where God is, there is joy.
We experience it
in the joy of love and hope,
in the joy of a peaceful conscience and of a grateful heart,
in the joy of trustful soul and of glowing hope.
We experience it even when “the plants and trees rejoice and bloom with joyful song” (Is 35:1,2).
Where God is “sorrows and mourning flee” (Is 35:10), for he heals the broken bodies and bruised (wounded) hearts with an overflow of the bright ocean of love. The torches burn brightly when swung back and forth. In the same way, the healing of presence of God brings out the rich qualities of a person under the cold, merciless wing of suffering. Where God is, the redemptive works of his Son Jesus continue.



However, the mighty presence of God in the world does not yet rule out the naughty presence of suffering. As long as we carry around our mortal bodies wounded by sin and until the Lord comes at the end of time, we have to accept suffering willingly and even joyfully. We must permit no distress to break our friendship with God. A boy and girl are playing on the beach building together sand castles, unaware of the approaching sea waves. Eventually the tide comes and sweeps away their castle. You know what they will do. They will have a hearty laugh and proceed holding hands to another spot on the beach to build together castles again. Likewise, we may build castles real and unreal but God may wipe them out. At times, we may feel that the landscape of our lives is turned into a desert. But even then we must hold on to God’s hands and wait patiently for his coming, as “the farmer awaits the precious yield of his soil” (Jas 5:7),”without murmuring or grumbling against one another” (v.9). Patience is not a beggar’s virtue but the passion of the great hearts.