Coming To Grips With Suffering...Continued from page 2

When I was studying for the ministry, I had the opportunity to spend the summer in Nairobi, Kenya. One evening as I was staying with the missionary, someone came to the door. It was a deacon from one of the churches. He was very frantic. His five-year-old daughter had been injured. She had been playing around the fire where supper was being prepared. She slipped and fell. Her arm landed in a pot of boiling water, which scalded her.

The child was taken to Children's Hospital in Nairobi. The doctors were able to save her arm. However, the deacon now had a medical bill that amounted to $1,500. To you and I that is a small amount, but this deacon only made $30 a month. As a young man, I could only think "How was this guy going to pay off this debt?" He must be devastated. To my shock, his response humbled me. He praised the Lord for saving his daughter's arm. In their culture, children who lose their arms are reduced to begging or possibly prostitution. This deacon looks beyond the debt to the gracious God who saved his daughter's arm. He found God in the midst of his suffering.

You see suffering brings us to the place of seeking God like we have never sought him before. In fact if our lives were perfect, the chances are that we would not seek Him with the same intensity. You see when I think back to the time when my father was murdered, what sustained me through those times was not keeping a "stiff upper lip," but rather those times alone with God.

Each of us is going to have to come to grips with the reality of suffering. The question in your mind is what does this mean to me. Some of you right are in midst of difficulty. Some of you are still experiencing the pain from something that occurred in your life. The tendency is to draw away from God. You begin to feel that God has abandoned you. I know the feeling, I been there. You have to begin to come to grips with what is happening or what has happened in your life. Three things can help us deal with the suffering in our lives.

1. LET GO OF YOUR ANGER When we experience suffering, we response in one of two ways. We either turn to God or we turn from Him. Most of us respond in anger and turn from him. If that is where you are, you need to come to place of letting go of your anger. You need to turn back to the gracious God.

2. BE HONEST WITH GOD Let Him know how you are feeling. Cry out to him. Don't hold it in. Often times we will share with others and come away with the feeling that they truly don't understand what we are going through. But God does. Talk to Him. Vent to Him. Cry out to Him. Be honest.

3. SEEK GOD's GRACE Only His grace will allow you to endure the pain. Seek His grace in the midst of your suffering.

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George R Cannon, Jr. is Pastor of Curwensville Christian Church in Curwensville, PA.