friendships or community. Many people have walked away from me because of my struggles,
and that has been heartbreaking.
It is only recently that I have begun asking different questions. What if I struggle because
we live in a broken world, and not because I am demon-possessed, or because I’ve sinned, or
because I lack faith? What if my struggle constantly reminds me of my great need for Jesus?
(Which it does, by the way). What if God is using my struggle to refine my faith? What if my faith
would be a lot weaker if I didn’t have these daily struggles? What if God can use my voice to
speak into the hearts of others who struggle? What if I’m actually closer to Jesus in the struggle,
than I would be if I was free from mental illness?
I don’t know the answers to these questions, but I didn’t write this article to answer
questions. I wrote it to ask, to ponder, and to invite you, the Church, to ponder with me.
What if we simply walked with people who suffer, without trying to explain it? What if we
were present, instead of trying to fix it? What if we accepted suffering as an expected part of life,
instead of trying to stop it?
Does that mean we should never pray or hope for healing? Of course not. We absolutely
should because God is the God of healing and hope. But if healing doesn’t come, can we, as the
Church, surround each other in love and in the presence of Jesus, instead of trying to fix or
explain it? We don’t always know the will of God, but we do know that He is good. Suffering is a
part of life. Nowhere in Scripture does it teach we will live a life free from suffering. Actually, if
anything, we are promised the opposite. You only have to flip through a few pages of the Bible to
see suffering was a regular occurrence for many.
I recently watched a Grey’s Anatomy episode where one of the main characters was
struggling with her faith. As she was treating a dying, Jewish Rabbi, she shared her own struggles,
lamenting that life was not fair. The Rabbi so beautifully responded with:
Fair? Was it fair when Isaac went blind and then his child betrayed him? And where
was the fairness when Sara had to wait 99 years before she had a child, and God
said, “Sacrifice him”? And Moses couldn’t even get past the bouncer to the Promised
Land. And like I said, I’m not up on the sequel, but from what I hear, Jesus got a raw
deal. Nobody in the Bible lived a life free of suffering or injustice, or it wouldn’t have
been a best seller. And if they lived lives like that, why should ours be different?