How can a good, loving God who is in control allow such deep pain and suffering? This can be one of our deepest heartfelt questions. And we can bring it to Him and wrestle with Him for answers. As we wrestle to rest in His presence, we find other questions and distractions that can keep us from The Answer. Our desperate desiring can lead us on if we are willing…

In this world we have pain and suffering. We have suffered as victims. We have suffered as rescuers in vain attempts to save ourselves and others. And we have suffered even deeper pain in our lives as perpetrators who attempt to self-protect, but in the end only harm ourselves and others. These impossible burdens separate us from Him. And yet, He has provided a way for us to remove these burdens and fully restore us to Himself…

Unfortunately, we have convoluted our perceptions and presuppositions to the point that we cannot comprehend the infinite nuances of God. Yes – He is completely good and loving…And He is also completely holy and just. In His infinite fullness, He simply cannot allow our rebellious choices and chosen independence from Him to go unanswered or unpunished. That choice of independence has led to our spiritual deaths and our separation from Him. As creatures made in His image – this death and separation produces our deepest pain, deepest longing, and deepest need. Deep calls to deep.

The infinitely wise triune God created us and gave us a free will, allowed our choice of independence from Him whereby pain, suffering, death, and separation entered our world…AND yet, He lovingly provided all we need to undo this ultimate tragedy and return us to Himself.

In His love and through the plan of God the Father, God the Son, Jesus, entered this world as a human. He willingly lived a perfect life, suffered pain as we do, died a criminal’s death, took upon Himself all of our sin and separation from God, paid the debt we could not pay, achieved the holiness we could not perform, and finally rose again from that death and separation to prove that His life and ultimate sacrifice was sufficient for our deepest need – full forgiveness of every burden of sin and full reconciliation and intimacy with Himself. He offers all of Himself to us as a gift to freely receive, sufficient for all we need. 

We receive this gift of Himself by faith. We trust Him to bring our pain, suffering, sin, separation, lack of holiness, all that has been perpetrated against us, and all that we have perpetrated ourselves – and we willingly leave it all at His feet. We trust Him to receive from Him everything – His righteousness, forgiveness, reconciliation, restoration, and eternal life. This is redemption – the great exchange. 

The Father and Son then give to us His Holy Spirit to live in us as our Helper, Counselor, Comforter, Keeper, and Friend. This is almost too much to comprehend. So we enter by faith, we surrender, we receive, and we begin to trust His process…He will make it clear, one moment at a time. 

We enter into an intimate love relationship of eternal life with the triune God of the universe. And like any other relationship, it is a journey together. When we sit in and with Him in all that He has given us, an intimate love begins to grow in our deepest being that infiltrates our whole person. This love begins to consume us. And this love relationship with the God of the universe slowly begins to heal and transform us. We find that we are not the same.

I use the word ‘we’ because this gift is offered to all. And yet it is a gift that must be received by faith individually by our own free will. The same free will that put us in is the same free will that leads us out. It cannot be coerced, manipulated, or forced. It must be chosen. 

Some have never entered into this space. Some have entered this space before and are disillusioned by where they are on their journeys. Some have entered this space before and desire to go deeper.

If we choose to move forward, we enter in the present, from where we are, as we are. We bring our pain and suffering with us. And it is through His pain and suffering that we can find the Answer to our own. We enter into the fellowship of His sufferings. And through His willing suffering, we can be rescued. By His stripes, we are healed. 

By God’s infinite wisdom in this life, we are on a journey of the ‘already’ and the ‘not yet’. In one sense in our spirit we have already obtained everything, and in another sense in our human flesh, we are in a process of progressively receiving it. The journey requires trust and dependence on Him – it is not easy, without struggle, or pain-free. It is a relationship that grows and deepens as we walk with Him through this life. Until one day when we leave this world, we will see Him face to face, and our journey will be complete. The relationship between the Bridegroom and His Bride will be fully consummated and the pain and suffering will be no more. The Beauty Joy Vision will become a complete reality for eternity.