“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven . . . a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4).”

Tornados, cancer, financial meltdown and ensuing anger give reasons to grieve. Yet, for the most part, suffering brings people together. Even when the media reports of strained political tensions, acts of compassion going on behind the scenes. We cope with suffering and look for the light at end of the tunnel.

As far as purpose goes, the post-modernism “whatever” mind-set avoids the deeper significance of suffering. Naturalism takes the day: “All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the Earth? (Eccl. 3:20-21).” Leave eternity up to uncertainty and the best you hope for is a good job, some money and constant entertainment.

The reason why secularism can’t offer a sufficient response to suffering is because it is committed to leaving God and eternity out of the equation. Something terrible happens and in the mind-set of the kindness and support, today’s whatever mind-set says, “It doesn’t make sense to turn to God because no one can be sure of those kinds of things.” Why are we so committed to uncertainty?

The answer is both shocking and comforting. The hard reality is we were given a beautiful world to inhabit; and our rebellion brought sadness and misery to it. Our Creator obligates us to bear His image; and we by nature, are unable to obey. God’s response is material with spiritual implications. Wild weather, sickness and corruption should remind us of our sin. God uses these reminders to lead us to Him. Yet, we refuse because we don’t want to be obligated to Him. We only want His benefits.

Honest grief leads to comfort. If we see suffering as a result of global sin, then we’ve come a long way in our thinking. Please understand, I am not saying a tornado that killed a 60-year-old woman was the result of a specific sin on her part. It is not right to tell someone with cancer, “Hey buddy, you sinned and now you got cancer.” It is to say, “No one is good. Our sin leads us to misery. But God turns misery into joy.”

It’s difficult for us to see holiness in God’s just anger towards sin. Yet, it is the right response to evil. The suffering we see today is only a glimpse of what His enemies will endure for eternity. Yet the comfort and healing is also a foretaste of what He offers to those who trust in Him. “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing Your praise and not be silent (Psalm 30:11-12a).”

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted (Matthew 5:4).” The Lord Jesus Christ confidently said those words because He was going to absorb and satisfy God’s just anger on the cross for the world. The only way the death of Jesus suffices is if He indeed is God. We have His word and the resurrection to rejoice and say, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).”

If we only would take time to think and mourn over our sin, then we’d see the purpose of it all. Then we’d see laughing and dancing a part of a forever-life with God.

Godly Heritage Quote of the Week
“For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.”
—The Apostle Paul, 2nd Letter to the Corinthians, 7:10.