God Knows Exactly What Suffering He’s Called Each of Us to Endure
Sufferers commonly ask, “Why me? Why not someone else? Why haven’t my friends lost a child or their husband? Why can they walk and ride bikes while I’m in a wheelchair? Why have you treated me differently, God?”
The resurrected Jesus told Peter that one day he’d be taken “where you do not want to go” (John 21:18). Verse 19 reads, “Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then He said to him, ‘Follow me!’”
On hearing this, Peter immediately looked at John and asked, “Lord, what about him?” Instinctively he wanted to compare God’s difficult calling on his life with His plans for John. Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me” (John 21:21–22).
Now, Jesus did notwant John to remain alive until His return. He wanted Peter to get His point: *John’s time and manner of death are none of your business.*He was saying, “Regardless of when and how my other disciples will suffer and die, you are to trust and follow me in my plan for you, including your death.”
*Comparison is poison.*We shouldn’t resent but rejoice for those who don’t have our diseases or losses. We should thank God He knows exactly what suffering and death He’s called each of us to endure. Early tradition says that when Peter was about to be crucified, he asked to be turned upside down, judging himself unworthy to die upright like his Lord.
As a young Christian, I loved the writings of Joseph Bayly. Joe and his wife lost three of their children—one at eighteen days, after surgery; another at five years, from leukemia; and a third at eighteen years, in a sledding accident complicated by hemophilia. Joe spoke honestly and from his heart. He grieved for his children and stood strong for his Lord.
In 1969, the year I came to Christ, Joe wrote a little book called Psalms of My Life. It contained a poem that a few years later I typed and placed on the wall by my desk in our first apartment. Fifty years later, it still touches me. It’s called “A Psalm While Packing Books.”
This cardboard box Lord see it says Bursting limit 100 lbs. per square inch. The box maker knew how much strain the box would take what weight would crush it. You are wiser than the box maker maker of my spirit my mind my body. Does the box know when pressure increases close to the limit? No It knows nothing. But I know when my breaking point Is near. And so I pray Maker of my soul Determiner of the pressure within upon me Stop it lest I be broken Or else change the pressure rating of this fragile container of your grace
so that I may bear more.
As Joe reminds us, God knows how much we can bear; He knows how to relieve suffering and how to strengthen us to endure it.
For more related to the subject of suffering and God’s purposes, see Randy’s book If God Is Good, as well as the devotional 90 Days of God’s Goodness and book The Goodness of God.
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