Five letters that create a word that only hints at the transformative impact of loss. Loss of a friend, loss of a parent, but perhaps one of the most painful losses of all, the loss of a mate, whom God Himself has prepared for you and whose loss is, to quote C.S. Lewis, "The crushing blow, the loss, which is Satan's corruption of that great gift of loving and being loved."
I believe in the following truth, that God ordains all our steps, and nothing escapes his attention or providence. Which, of course, means that what God brought together, He, as the Creator and Sustainer of all that is in the universe, is the only One that can allow that dissolution. That divide, can come about due to death, or perhaps the worst of all, the culmination of a thousand silent (and not so silent) cuts by all involved.
Let me clarify at this point that even though the focus of this blog is on the loss of a mate, it can, of course, be applied to any life-altering pain that we encounter throughout our lives. And lest you be currently delusional, no one escapes this life without pain. So the sooner we learn the truth about God's love and His ultimate authority over all things, the more likely we will be equipped to handle the adversity we are all destined to experience.
There are some promises I would like God not to keep. "In this world you will have trouble." (John 16:33) is a prime example. Other interpretations of this verse have the word tribulation, distress, suffering, trials, persecution, and dis-ease. When the first listeners read this passage it was the greek word thlípsis. That word is defined as (“compression, tribulation”) or carrying the challenge of coping with the internal pressure of a tribulation, especially when feeling there is “no way of escape” (“hemmed in”).
Or no way out . . .
We have a deep unconscious awareness of what the world should have been like. The design, and the whisper of perfection that is rooted within all of our souls, encounters face-to-face the destruction of God's paradise, the unraveling of order, and the realization that our hope is truly in the world to come.
It’s actually very similar to what is sandwiched to the words on the other side of the verse, ‘In this world you will have trouble.’ The flip side of that verse reads, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
I would like Jesus to have said, ‘But I have a magic wand and I will take all your troubles away.’ Of course, He doesn’t promise that, but He does instruct us to have heart, to have courage and to draw comfort that He has been through every trouble that we will ever experience.
We are not alone in our struggle. It’s an assurance that we can make it through the dark valley. That He, Jesus, has been there too. Fully divine, fully human. That He knows what it is like to be you. You’re not alone.
He knows what pain is like. Suffering is not unusual to Him. Troubles are familiar. In this, we find comfort and companionship. He has overcome them all in the sense that He has been through them all and made it through to the other side. You have a Savior who has experienced all of our temptations, our struggles, our pain, and is there for each of us in our times of trouble.
And that is a promise I can count on.
