Tethered to Someone strong
On Wednesday in our Fellowship Groups many of us were discussing what it means to be content in the middle of suffering and hardship. Of course, it is all very well to talk about it when things are going just fine. It seems another thing altogether when people are in the middle of life-changing, heart-breaking pain and sadness. Yet we know, as Christians, that the Bible is the only place anyone will find the comfort, and the hope, that we are gasping for. As someone who has not yet faced the kind of difficulties that many of you have and might now be facing, I often feel helpless and don’t know what to say. I know that initially a listening ear and a hug is what is needed, but as believers in a powerful and loving God we must also, at some point, speak of the hope we have in the gospel. David and Nancy Guthrie, who lost two children in succession to a fatal syndrome, both at a very young age, learned what it means to hope when all seems hopeless. Nancy wrote this in the preface to her book, Be Still, My Soul:
‘Holding onto hope, for us, has not been a vague, sentimental experience. It has been an ongoing choice to believe God’s Word. We have sought to understand and embrace God’s perspective on suffering and bring him glory through it (John 9:3). We’ve grabbed hold of his promise that there is purpose and meaning in our suffering because we are his (Rom. 8:28). We’ve grabbed hold of the sovereignty of God, believing that he “meant it for good” (Gen. 50:20). We have rested in his presence and provision of joy and strength and faith and perseverance – everything we have needed (2 Cor. 12:9)… We have found that in the darkest of times, he has been with us comforting us (Ps. 23:4)… Occasionally someone has said to me, “You must be a very strong person.” But I know the truth – that I am not strong. However, I am tethered to Someone who is strong.’
Whatever you face today, you are tethered to Someone strong.