The Agony of Defeat

In today’s reading the elders of Israel ask, “Why has the LORD permitted us to be defeated today by the Philistines? (1 Samuel 4:3) They gather up the ark of the LORD of hosts, who is enthroned upon the cherubim, and take it into battle with them thinking it will save them from their enemies and even that doesn’t help.  Having faith in God and keeping him near to us doesn’t prevent us from being defeated. It doesn’t prevent us from deep loss, sickness or abuse. Of course, in the end, He will prevail and the faithful will rejoice with him in heaven. But we live in a broken world and throughout our lives we will suffer. We choose whether we want our suffering to lead us into despair; walk around saying, Woe is me; or we can choose to trust in God. We believe that he is holding us in the palm of his hand. Not a moment goes by that God is not thinking about us, if he did, we would no longer exist. “For in him we live and breathe and have our being.” (Acts 17:28)

Some times at work death prevails over physical healing. Just like the Israelites, our parents take God into battle with them as they fight for their child’s life from their cancer. One family started a website, 1 million prayers for Anna, and it reached that goal fairly quickly. Over a million people offered up prayers for their daughter, most of them strangers, and yet she died. The unfathomable happened; her parents had to bury their child. Yet somehow these families survive. Sometimes it takes a while but they usually find peace in the Lord and the strength to move forward.

It is commonplace now for people to walk away from their marriage when things get tough. They never get the chance to see the fruits that come from persevering through tough times. They never experience the deep love that comes from forgiving one another and moving forward together. We need to invite the Lord into our suffering. He transformed the cross from a means of torture to one of salvation and can do the same with our suffering. We experience his love and mercy in a way that is only possible in the midst of our pain.