Times of Pain and Suffering

I often tell my students that the greatest lessons I’ve learned in life occurred during my darkest times of pain and suffering. C.S. Lewis wrote in his book, The Problem of Pain: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
Author Elmer Towns visited Mount Rushmore National Monument in South Dakota for the first time at night, only to discover that, because of a thunderstorm in the area, all the light that usually illuminated the faces of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt had vanished, making it impossible to see their faces clearly. “The spectacular carvings were veiled in darkness," he wrote. “But what I thought was a barrier became a blessing. Flashes of lightning accompanied the thunderstorm, and with each flash I got a quick glance at the great sculptures. The more I watched, the more I realized that I was appreciating their magnificence and grandeur even more than I would have if the storm had not forced me to view them more intensely.”
In the same way, we often struggle to understand life, God, even ourselves - especially during the dark and stormy times. Usually we know God is there, but sometimes we cannot see Him clearly. Then comes some flash of light: an incredible moment when we appreciate the beauty of creation - perhaps a spectacular sunset, or a renewed admiration for autumn’s color; maybe it is a prick of our conscience when we fail to do something we know we should do; or it could be a reminder of some Scripture like Psalm 23, “I will fear no evil, for You are with me.”
Many Scriptures remind us “if God is with us, who can be against us,” and Jesus himself promised, “I am with you always.” So, look for Him, no matter what you’re going through during this season of your life. If you look carefully, I know you will see flashes of His majesty and grace.

In the Meantime

A former professor of mine at Duke, the late Dr. Carlyle Marney, once said this powerful statement in class: “most of life is lived in the meantime, and unless one learns to live life in the meantime, one is less than half alive!” What did Marney mean by that? Well, I think he meant to remind us that even though much of life is lived doing things like standing in line at Wal Mart, or sitting at traffic signals, or waiting for your number to be called at the DMV, life is still going on even then. Sometimes we are tempted to think that life is only really lived on the weekends. But if we wait to live only then, we’re missing five-sevenths of our time here on earth! Occasionally, I hear people saying things like, “I can’t wait for my next vacation!” I understand the feeling, but if you wait for vacations to be fully alive, that only gives you 2 or 3 out of 52 weeks a year to live!
What’s my point? Live every day! Live every moment of every day! Don’t wait for your graduation to live; don’t wait to land your ideal job; don’t wait until you’re married or until the kids are all grown, or until you retire. Live life every second, even the “in the meantime” moments! The Psalmist once wrote “teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12) I’ve calculated that even if I live to be 90 years old, I will have only 32,850 days here on earth, plus a few extra ones added in for the leap years. That doesn’t seem very long, and now I am realizing that every day is a precious gift. Again the Psalmist wrote, “this is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it!” (Psalm 118:24) Live your life, even “in the meantime!”