How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord, for ever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? How long should I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?
If there is a universal prayer, one offered by people of all faiths and times, it is probably this one. There are times in life when we feel broken; the weight of sorrow, pain, and grief beyond what we feel we can endure and it seems as if the heavens have closed and no one is listening. And so our prayer rises up with questions, "How long? Why? Where art thou?"
The answer of course is that He is always there, always aware of our suffering. In fact, He suffers with us, feeling our pain.
The real meaning of our prayer is more like this: "Lord, take away my pain, my suffering. I do not want this." We cry out for deliverance. Unfortunately we want deliverance from the very situations that are the "refiners fires" that mortality was guaranteed to bring.
The real meaning of our prayer is more like this: "Lord, take away my pain, my suffering. I do not want this." We cry out for deliverance. Unfortunately we want deliverance from the very situations that are the "refiners fires" that mortality was guaranteed to bring.
In the book, The God Who Weeps, the authors point out:
"In the garden story, good and evil are found on the same tree, not in separate orchards. Good and evil give meaning and definition to each other. If God, like us, is susceptible to immense pain, He is, like us, the greater in His capacity for happiness. The presence of pain serves the larger purposes of God's master plan, which is to maximize the human capacity for joy, or in other words "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man".
He can no more foster these ends in the absence of suffering and evil then one could find the traction to run or the breath to sing in the vacuum of space. God does not instigate pain or suffering, but He can weave it into His purposes. God's power rest not on totalizing omnipotence, but on His ability to alchemize suffering, tragedy, and loss into wisdom, understanding and joy."
He can no more foster these ends in the absence of suffering and evil then one could find the traction to run or the breath to sing in the vacuum of space. God does not instigate pain or suffering, but He can weave it into His purposes. God's power rest not on totalizing omnipotence, but on His ability to alchemize suffering, tragedy, and loss into wisdom, understanding and joy."
Grief is such a large part of life. There are studies that talk about the stages of grief: unbelief, anger, acceptance, understanding. There are so many things that can happen to us that cause us to grieve. It is not just the loss of a loved one. It can be the loss of a job, the loss of health, of dreams, of a friendship. Our response to all loss of any kind is grief and grieving itself takes time. The Lord cannot wave a magic wand that fast forwards this process.
Some of life's challenges are temporary; we endure for a season. We lose a job but eventually find a new one. The time of unemployment is painful but as soon in the past and we move on.
Other situations are permanent. If maybe the loss of eyesight in an accident, a chronic disease, death, divorced, etc. Somehow humans have the ability to adjust, to feel the pain and come through these times. Like Job who lost everything we may at last let go of our anger at God. "Therefore have I uttered that I understand not..." It is after we have completed our grieving that life begins again. "So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning."
A second comment about those words "How long?" is that very often they are a stepping stone to meaningful prayer. In our times of ease we often succumb to a ritual of prayer with little meaning. But when life gets hard and we cry out for the Lord's help, we begin to really express our heart. We talk to Him about the reality of our life and acknowledge our own weaknesses and our need of Him. If we are sincere this can be a life-changing time that leads to a future of meaningful prayer, a deeper communion with deity, a testimony of the divine presence in our lives.
We don't always get answers to our prayers. We won't know why some things happen, why tragedy comes to one and not to another. Much of life will always seem unfair. Life's greatest tragedies like the Holocaust, can only be described as horrific and beyond comprehension. For many things, our only means of dealing with them lies in a testimony of the Gospel plan. God lives and loves us. Our life on Earth has a purpose - to refine us and prepare us for greater blessings in the eternities. Jesus is our Savior who conquered sin and death and will bring both healing and ultimate rescue from our mortal woes. We will live forever and be able to use our mortal experiences to become like Him. Our destiny is a glorious reunions with God, to share in all that He has - worlds without end.
When we truly believe in this, we can then say with the psalmist "But I have trusted in thy mercy, my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation."
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