Some people assume that they are entitled to prosperity, good health, and happiness during their lives, and they are offended if they fail to attain these worldly ends. The apostle Paul admonished us to think spiritually about the meaning and purpose of life, particularly in light of omnipresent suffering… He wrote that our “momentary affliction” (θλῖψις) – that is, the cares and troubles of this life – work within us to attain an “everlasting glory beyond all comparison,” and therefore we should focus not on present circumstances but on the deeper purpose, promise, and providence of God (2 Cor. 4:17-18). The visible fades away, the spiritual endures; our mortification leads to everlasting life, and that which is hidden will be manifest…
But how do we learn to see what is invisible more vividly than that what we see with our eyes? Are we to deny or minimize all the suffering and pain we see and experience in this life, perhaps by regarding it as an illusion of some sort? Not at all. The problem of suffering is a real symptom of the deeper problem of death and decay. Everything is passing away; all is dust in the wind – “havel havelim” (i.e., vanity of vanities). Life in this world is “being unto death,” a journey through the shadows of loss to inherit eternity. We are strangers here; nothing abides; there is no lasting prospect (1 Chron. 29:15). Instead of discounting suffering we acknowledge its pervasiveness: we realize that death is a real problem — indeed it is the central problem of life — and therefore we see through vanity, transience, loss and even grief to reach for divine healing, comfort, permanence, and eternal life. We are outsiders to this world; we are away from our true home, crying out for what we need most of all, namely the loving presence of our LORD.
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We must learn to find our sense of belonging and place within the heart of God. Striving to find our happiness in this life can entice us to lose ourselves in “olam ha’sheker” (עוֹלם השׁקר) — the world of falsehood with its superficial satisfactions. Indeed, if we impatiently attempt to assuage our pain we may suffer further loss and our despair may grow deeper still, since our hunger for healing is an inner cry for healing love that only God can truly provide. Each soul is created with a radical sense of “aloneness,” since – despite our closest relationships with other people – each of us comes into this world alone and will die alone… This sense of aloneness is a built in “hunger” for connection with God’s presence. On the other hand, when we look to other things to meet our need for God, we invariably fall into the chaos and destruction of idolatry. To be healed from such counterfeit comfort we must “go through the wound” of our inner emptiness to find the divine consolation, and from there we will be given the heart to give of ourselves freely and without ambiguity.
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