1997 is now here. It brings ambitious attempts to kick bad habits ... live a healthier life.
This year, instead of trying to reach many difference and difficult goals, resolve to achieve
just one ... put more happiness in your life. If you do, you life and immune system will
improve, resulting in a healthier and more prosperous year.
Dr. Bernie Siegel, formerly a surgeon on the staff of Yale University School of Medicine
and presently a noted lecturer on healing, and the founder of "Exceptional Cancer
Patients," shares some simple ways to put more happiness in your life. [From Bottom Line
Jan 15, 1996]
1. Change your attitude about your job or the people with whom you live and work.
2. Make time for activities you enjoy. Studies have shown that when people work on
projects or hobbies that they enjoy, their blood chemistry is altered almost immediately
in a positive way. When your blood chemistry is altered in this way, it increases your
body's resistance to infections and life-threatening diseases. In other words, engage in
activities that make you lose track of time.
3. Change the way you think about failure. Let "F" stand for feedback. We can learn
from every unhappy event in life. [A Chinese Proverb goes like this, "A diamond cannot
be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials."]
4. Treat yourself as you would treat a beloved pet. Some folk do not forgive themselves
for making mistakes and do not give themselves permission to enjoy life. You would not
allow your pet to smoke or drink alcohol.
You would see to it that your pet got exercise, good food, occasional treats, and you
would give it lots of hugs and express your love. Even so, love yourself enough to enjoy
the beautiful things in life without feeling guilty.
5. Make a difference. Individuals who help others several times a week often live longer,
healthier lives.
I think it was the American Journal program, last week, that shared the story of a
Neurosurgeon who was diagnosed with terminal cancer. His life expectancy was six
months. He was in constant pain and night time was especially rough for him. He had
saved many lives by his skills in brain surgery, and when the specialist said, "six months"
He and his wife determined that he should continue on in surgery, helping others, as long
as possible. His wife later told how he would spend many hours a day in surgery. She
told that while concentrating on his patient's needs his own pain would go unnoticed and
he would come home at night in better condition that when he went to work in the
morning. The interesting part of the story is that this has been going on now for more
than five years.
6. Develop a childlike sense of humor. If you despise your job and hate going back to
work on Monday ... or if you are scheduled for a medical treatment you dread, your body
will start releasing stress-provoking chemicals before you get to the office or the hospital.
You can neutralize this reaction by reading an amusing book, listening to a funny tape
or just looking for the humor in life.
Jesus was walking along the roadside one day when He passed a man who had been
blind from his birth. The disciples of Christ raised the question that has bothered each
of us; the problem that is as old as suffering and sin -- "Why do we suffer?" They said,
"Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
Like most everybody in their time, they believed that suffering and misfortunes were the
result of sin and punishment upon sin, Jesus answered, "Neither hath this man sinned,
nor his parent". [Jn. 9:2,3]
Walk through the wards of a children's hospital or stand by the bedside of a cancer
patient. Visit a leper colony or a famine-stricken area of Africa. Sleep on the street with
millions in India or follow a young man to the battlefield. Then it is that the question
"Why?" cannot but haunt us, and when our turn to suffer comes we question, "Why Me,
Lord?"
For centuries people have struggled with one of two convictions? First, if God is
all-powerful, then He must not be all-good if He permits sin to exist. Some even suggest
He wants sin to exist for some reason unknown to us.
Many people will not accept such and idea and take the second conviction? First, if God
is all good, then He must not be all-powerful. If He were all-powerful, wouldn't He have
created a universe that never would have experienced evil and sin?
These are hard questions. Probably no completely satisfying answer will be available until
God makes things more plain to us in His kingdom. However, the Bible does give us
some insights that help to explain these concerns and the causes for sin and suffering.
We can believe that God is all-powerful and all-good. For Paul said, [2 Cor. 4:15-18
NRSV] "Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more
people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. [16] So we do not lose heart.
Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by
day.
[17] For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory
beyond all measure, [18] because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot
be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal."
Let us now discuss the main causes of human suffering, and then come back to the
ultimate question as to why the innocent suffer.
1. Some suffering is the result of people ignoring natural or moral laws.
(Gal. 6:7) "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Whether one jumps off
a cliff and gets hurt, eats the wrong kinds of food and gets sick, skips his personal
devotions and slowly becomes indifferent, he violates the laws of God; when we violate
them, they break us. We need to accept the results of our decisions and profit from our
mistakes.
2. Suffering can be the result of accidents or physical calamities.
Be assured that the recent earthquakes, devastating floods and like disaster, are not
punishment for any individual's sins.
When Jesus was told about some Galileans whom Pilate had killed, He said, "Do you
think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they
suffered this? I tell you, No." (Luke 13:2)
Jesus went on to say that the 18 persons on whom the tower of Siloam fell, killing them
all, were not any worse than those swelling in Jerusalem.
Jesus repudiated the thought that calamity comes as a result of an individual's sin.
These disasters are not "acts of God", (a term used by your insurance company) but
works of Satan as the destroyer.
3. Suffering exists because of man's selfishness.
There is an on-going battle between the haves and the have-nots. Prejudice is rampant.
Politics, labor unions, business, and people reveal strained human relationships. It is
commonplace for men to deliberately inflict suffering on their fellow men.
4. Some suffering is the result of being a Christian.
The apostle Paul said, "All that will live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution". (2
Tim. 3:12) But if you are enduring suffering because of your dedication to Christ or His
truth, "Rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven". (Mt. 5:12) For
"If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him". (2 Tim. 2:12) "There is nothing the body
suffers that the soul may not profit by." [by Geo Meredith]
Let's get back to the general question as to why we suffer. Doesn't the Bible say that
God sends affliction? What about the text in Job 1:21 where Job said, "Naked came I out
of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD
hath taken away; blessed by the name of the LORD." Here Job is not giving a statement
of doctrine, but is confessing his faithfulness to God no matter what happens.
Job, and the Jews of the Old Testament, believed that since God is all-powerful, whatever
happens to us God had to allow because He could prevent it from happening; And they
reasoned that since He allowed it, He must have wanted it to happen.
You can see how God would get blamed for everything. He didn't want Israel to go into
captivity, and He sent prophets to avert the disaster. Yet the text reads as if God sent
the Babylonian destruction to correct the apostasy of His people.
This is not to say that God has no backbone. He was the one who sent fire down on
Sodom and Gomorrah. But God's judgments are almost always in the form of natural
consequences to laws that have been violated. Seldom does God take the initiative to
bring about suffering.
When He does, we know that it is an expression of His love. For we are told, "whom the
Lord loveth, He correcteth," [Prov 3:12] and in Lament. 3:33 we read, "He doth not
willingly afflict or grieve the children of men."
The logical question is. "What's the difference -- if God allows suffering or if He sends it?
Let's us the illustration of a mother trying to teach her child not to touch a hot stove. The
mother could take the hand of the child and place it on the hot stove to show him it
burns, or she could warn the child, who may eventually touch the stove on his own. God
allows us to get burned and hurt sometimes. But like a mother He wants to pick us up
and hold us. He wants to kiss the finger and cry with us. We can refuse to be consoled,
or we can take the opportunity to come close to God and sense the warmth of His
presence.
Like a blight on a plant, sin leaves it scars and residue wherever it exists. We know how
God allowed this earth to become a theater for the universe. It became a stage to reveal
the sinfulness of sin and that God is a God oApril 18, 2006to serve Him. He gave us all the power of
choice to accept or reject His love. "Are we then just guinea pigs, proving to the universe
the dreadful nature of sin?" Oh No! We have the power of choice to show what the love
of God can do in a human heart. Our Heart.
Can we say to God, "It is easy for You to sit on Your throne and let us go through all this
suffering to prove that You are right?" No again! Because God doesn't ask us to endure
anything that He would not endure Himself. God Himself, in Christ, came to this world
to live, suffer, and die like a man. God suffers too. Our suffering, at most, lasts a lifetime.
But God has felt the total of human suffering, from the beginning of sin, from the
bee-sting to the tortures of Hiroshima. Justice demanded that amends be made, and it
was God who gave Himself as the Sacrifice.
Therefore, [Heb 4:15] He is "touched with the feelings of our infirmities." [Isa 53:4] "Surely
He hath Borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." In [Heb. 2:10] it says, "For it became
Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things ... to make the Captain of their
salvation perfect through suffering." and so it can be for us. We can become embittered
by suffering or rejoice for the opportunity to grow in grace. On the one hand we can be
filled with resentment, despair and self-pity, or on the other hand we can climb into the
lap of our Saviour finding it a haven of encouragement, hope and healing.
Suffering makes us perfect in several ways:
1. It gives us a new understanding of the laws of life. A little suffering gives a lot of
incentive to live in harmony with the laws of health.
2. It prioritizes our values. We learn that "a man's life consisteth not in the abundance
of things which he possesseth." How much is a good stomach, kidney, or eye worth?
3. It gives us a fresh view of responsibility to others. 2 Cor. 1:3,4 says, "Blessed be the
God of all comfort; who comforteth us in our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort
them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of
God."
Experience in suffering makes us capable of comforting others, and opens our eyes to
the suffering that sin brings to humanity.
4. It reminds us of the terribleness of sin. To see an innocent baby born handicapped,
and elderly man mugged and robbed, a home burned by arson, and the list is endless,
we develop a hatred for evil.
5. It helps us to appreciate redemption. To the one who suffers, redemption and heaven
are no longer mere theology or abstracts. What would it mean for God to wipe away all
tears if we had never cried; for Him to end all sorrow had we never grieved; to destroy
death had we never lost a loved one; to give us everlasting peace if we never had any
pain?
The devil claimed that God was not a God of love -- that everything He did was not
motivated out of love for His creatures. Satan laughs in glee when people participate in
his original complaint against God, blaming God for all the suffering people must
endured.
Seek to understand why you may be suffering, and then, do all you can do to alleviate
or remove the cause. We should pray that we might be conscious of the presence and
power of God. For it is when we suffer that He is nearest, because that is when we need
Him most.
The fact that you may suffer does not indicate a lack in your Christian experience. It may
be the most faithful Christian against whom the devil works the hardest.
"The fact that we are called upon to endure trial show that the Lord Jesus sees in us
something precious which He desires to develop. If He saw in us nothing whereby He
might glorify His name, He would not spend time in refining us." [The Ministry of Healing
p. 471]
A jewel is a bit of ordinary earth, that has gone through some extraordinary experiences
when the pressure and heat were on.
Let us suffer creatively. Pray that you may be able to see how you can use your
sufferings to glorify God and to help your fellowmen. It was Spurgeon who said, "There
are no crown-wearers in heaven that were not cross-bearers here below."
And in the words of the apostle Paul, (2 Cor. 4:15-18), realize that "our light affliction,
which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of
glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not
seen"; because "The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with
the glory which shall be revealed in us." (Rom. 8:18)
It is the easiest thing in the world to obey God when He commands us to do what we
like, and to trust Him when the path is all sunshine. The real victory of faith is to trust
God in the dark, and through the dark.
We will meet temptations in 1997. We will be tested and maybe even afflicted. "By trials
God is shaping us for higher things." [H.W. Beecher] In our hour of trial let us keep our
eyes on Jesus. "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of
comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
[Martin Luther King, Jr.]
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