For those who drink the cup of suffering.
For those who taste the bitterness and yet still drink.
For those whose souls are in torment, who feel torn in pieces and tossed around by circumstances outside of your control.
If your soul cries out in anguish this very day…lean in. Do not take up the sword and try to defend yourself. Do not resist this cup of suffering…for through it, in the radical acceptance of it…if we DRINK, we will taste, experience and know the heart of God. The love of God. The grief of God. The power of God. We will experience the salvation of our souls THROUGH knowing the heart of God. We will know the saving work of our lives is already finished.
We get to know Truth, Beauty, and Goodness through the suffering of life. For it is only through the story of the suffering of God in Christ that we can understand our reconciliation and resulting oneness with God.
Drink this cup. Do not fear death. Do not resist it. Everyone will be salted with fire. This consuming fire is the love of God. Everyone will drink of this cup, one way or another. In it, IN suffering, we find hope.
We encounter the mercy of God in Suffering. When we really believe that God is like Jesus (the Son of suffering), we realize that He will not destroy us or leave us behind for dead. He WILL NOT LET US wander astray forever. He is with us always, but we don’t always believe that. And each and every time we “wander” in our unbelief, He “finds” us.
Has He been there all along? Yes. Did we believe it all along? No. This is the saving we need. We don’t go from a goat to a sheep. We’ve always been sheep. We have been lost, and we have been found. Yet we have always been HIS. We are the lost coin, God’s treasure. We are the lost sheep, His wandering bride who He will redeem every single time. We are His wayward children, allowed to desecrate His name and welcomed home when all our self-sufficiency has run dry. We are the prisoners locked up in the pits of Hell, believing we have ruined every chance of salvation for ourselves…until we see the Messiah descending into our fear & shame, carrying the keys to our shackles. God can go to Hell? I believe so.
Hell is lost-ness. Hell is unbelief. Hell is blinded sight and lies believed. Hell is the perception and belief of disconnection. Hell is the ultimate FEAR of mankind…separation from God. But, fear is a liar. If the truth is that God is Emmanuel, then the very concept of separation from God should give us pause and drive us to prayer. Can I be separated from You, O God? Absolutely not. Even if I run away, You are always waiting ahead. (Psalm 139)
Do we feel as though we experience separation from God? Yes. But is it ever true? No.
To “believe in Jesus Christ” is to believe in Emmanuel, God WITH US. To claim “Jesus is Lord” is to declare your resolute belief in reconciliation and unity with God. We were never separate, really. We have been enemies “in our minds” alone. (Colossians 1:21)
The saving work of the cross happened before the foundations of the world. The story was finished before it ever “began.” Now, we live. Now, I live. I can see in the spirit. I can hear God’s word.
God dwells among us. God watches over us. God draws us to Himself. But God does not control us. God does not coerce or tempt us. He doesn’t need to. God is Good and Goodness is, in and of itself, attractive. We are attracted to Goodness, but DISTracted by Suffering. This distraction is inherently harmful to us and creates adversity in our spiritual journey through life. However, since the universe is in submission to Christ alone, even Suffering is transformed as a tool to eventually prosper us. Where sin abounds, so will suffering; yet through it all, grace abounds MORE.
The adversity that suffering brings to our human life is actually what brings us to the knowledge of the Gospel. And the knowledge of the Gospel is what sanctifies our mind and transforms our life.
My whole life, my mind seems to have been wired to seek God. I ask for His eyes unceasingly. Nearly every breath I breathe is a prayer to hear His voice. It’s how I’m built. This amount of spiritual intuition has felt like curse many times in my life. But these days I see it as a gift. I can see in the spirit. I can hear God’s words. Perhaps this is how prophets down through the ages were built mentally as well. I can never seem to stop seeking God.
The suffering of my life ultimately ended up being the thing that saved me. Pain has driven me to cry out for a savior, and in that seeking, I have found my Savior. Emmanuel. God with me. There is nowhere God is not. Even in Hell, He is there. Had I not suffered, I would have never known.