“I
consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory
that will be revealed in us.”
Romans 8:18 (NIV2011)
that will be revealed in us.”
Romans 8:18 (NIV2011)
On
Tuesday morning of last week Maura Carroll, wife and Duane for 26 years and
mother of 5, passed away after three years of battling cancer.
Maura was the least deserving of anyone I can think of to experience this
pain, suffering and ultimately death.
I think the same of Duane and his children.
The Carroll family was and still is an absolutely, stellar, God honoring
family. Maura was also one of
CLC’s most powerful “prayer warriors”.
If anyone was sick or in trouble Maura could be counted on to intercede
in prayer and God did indeed bring about healings due in part to Maura’s
prayers. Why then did prayers
on behalf of Maura not “work”?
After
decades of thinking through this question as a Christian I offer the following
response, which I hope helps you not only understand God’s ways as head
knowledge but also as an actual and practical help in times of trouble that you
will face.
1. Christianity teaches that the purpose of this life is training for
the next. This life is like primary
school and when this life is over you will continue to exist.
Primary school will be over, training camp will be completed, the
Introduction to the Book with you written into it will have been written. Then Chapter One of the Never Ending Story, the Great Book, with you as
one of its actors will begin, followed
by chapter after chapter, each chapter being more full, vibrant, joyful, purpose
filled and life giving than the one before.
The “shadowlands” of this
world will have been left behind and life will continue in full daylight.
Death will have been defeated and we will discover how God has taken all
evil, all suffering, all pain and weaved it into a future world in which each of
us will find the life and purpose and relationships for which we were born, for
which each of us has unknowingly always yearned.
And once there we will exclaim, “Amazing, it is this that I’ve sought
after all my life, but I didn’t know it until now”. That will be the experience the Believer at the moment of what we now
call “death”. That was and
is Maura’s experience.
2. This implies that this life is intended as a time to grow up.
All the tests, trials, problems, pain of this world are used by God to
grow each of us past selfishness. Every
time I face a challenge that forces me to transcend myself and care about God
and others more than myself I grow more Christlike.
Every time I choose confidence, faith, perseverance, optimism instead of
complaining, grumbling, criticism and blame in the face of a problem, I
am living out the purpose of this life.
In short, love is always about acting on behalf of the highest and best
for others and that typically means forgetting about myself.
That’s love and that’s the purpose of this life.
As a wife, mother, friend, prayer intercessor and so much more, Maura’s
life was one of growing Christlikeness.
Well done, Maura.
3. Part of God’s purpose for each of us is that we leave a legacy.
Ironically, while the legacy that God wants us to leave is about Himself
as revealed in Jesus Christ, those of us who leave this legacy are best
remembered as individuals. In my
mind Maura’s legacy is all about Christ and Christ’s purposes on earth, but
that legacy is seen in actions and attitudes of her life.
From how her relationship with Duane began to how they together grew a
wonderful family, to how they modeled love of Christ and others, Maura has left
a behind a witness to the Life of God at work in a real person, real family, and
real local Body of Christ.
4. When I put all of the above together I realize that the life that
each of us has been given as pure gift, a life which, in the big picture of
things, lasts no longer than the flicker of candle.
Our lives are not about longevity, rather they are about how we have
responded to what we have been given.
Depending on your perspective God has either created or allowed a world
in which suffering exists, even appears to dominate.
This tells us that even though God gives us joy and pleasures too
innumerable to list, God has not set up a world in which our job is to avoid
suffering rather our task is to embrace it, respond to it as Jesus did and as we
do so we participate with Christ in the healing of this world, even as we
ourselves are healed from our selfishness.
That can be accomplished by most of us regardless of how long one’s
life on earth lasts.
From
this life as preparation for the coming real world, to this life as a time for
growing up, to this life as leaving a legacy of God’s love, to this life not
depending on longevity for it to matter, Maura lived a life that God is very,
very pleased with. Because of
this, the capacity to know God that Maura developed in this life, has already
resulted in a wonderful capacity to experience God now and forever.
Maura is not more alive than any one of us who are still here.
For
more:
follow on Twitter @jefflampl
Are we really to embrace suffering?? Or to fight against it (as Maura did with her cancer). Romans 8:28 says: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." To me this passage says that I am to let Him use my suffering (and my good times) to help me grow in His image and become stronger in His love. It's the victor vs victim mentality. I don't want to be a victim, I want to fight against suffering - mine and others'. I take it to God and ask for strength and inner peace for myself and others so we can work through the bad times with the help of our very loving God.
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