Bearing Up

From time to time, I hear the comment, "Well, we all know God will not give us more than we can bear."  Usually, someone is responding to a painful personal struggle, a series of overwhelming circumstances of trouble, or someone else's trials and difficulties for which the answer is "God doesn't give us more than we can bear."

In support of that understanding of God, suffering, and God's role in suffering folks will quote 1 Corinthians 10:13:  No testing (temptation) has overtaken you that is not common to everyone.  God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.  (New Revised Standard Version)

I don't think the passage from 1 Corinthians and the statement that" God doesn't give us more than we can handle" are connected.  In the Corinthians passage, the emphasis is on God being faithful to provide what we need to face, endure and work our way through the times of difficulty, even times of testing and temptation we will all face.  Christians and people of faith are not exempt from these times.  We are not shielded from suffering, but we have help in the midst of the sufferings to get through them.  God is faithful to offer ways through to everyone.  I call that offer "grace with us".

The statement, "God doesn't give us more than we can bear" is and always will be a way we try to explain suffering that comes to us.  I think it is a trite explanation that finally makes God the author and giver of the suffering rather than the One who walks with us and leads us through the suffering. 

There are too many biblical examples of God that contradict the  perspective of the statement.  Take for example, The Good Shepherd of Psalm 23 and John 10.  Take Luke 15 with the parables of lost coins, lost sheep and the lost sons and consider the shepherd who goes out seeking and the father who goes out to seek and welcome wayward sons.

If we as parents refrain from inflicting pain upon our children, how much more will the Loving Father refrain from inflicting pain upon his children up to what they can bear.

Granted there is suffering that breaks our hearts and our lives...and breaks the very heart of God.

Having written all this,  I know there are folks who will hold out for a God who dumps stuff on human beings
I choose to trust that God is one who dares to suffer with us and for us and along side us in order to guide us through.

The Guest House

The following poem was shared with a group on a recent spiritual renewal retreat. May it also deepen and sharpen your journey as it is doing so to my own.

                                      The Guest House
                                       by Jelalluddin Rumi

                          This being human is a guest house.
                          Every morning a new arrival.

                          A joy, a depression, a meanness,
                          some momentary awareness comes
                          as an unexpected visitor.

                           Welcome and entertain them all!
                           Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
                           who violently sweep your house
                           empty of its furniture,
                           still, treat each guest honorably.
                           He may be clearing you out
                           for some new delight.

                          The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
                          meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

                          Be grateful for whatever comes,
                          because each has been sent
                          as a guide from beyond.
                                    (translation by Coleman Barks)


    

Finding Our Way

I am planning my travel to Lake Junaluska for a few days of spiritual retreat. I am aware that Interstate 40 is shut down between Knoxville, Tennessee and Junaluska due to significant rock slide damage and needed repairs. So I am in the process of consulting maps and travel alternatives for my journey.
As I go about this planning, I am aware of how this shift is much like how we plan our faith journeys and our life as a people of God, the Church. So much in our world and church life seems to be shifting. People who watch the movement of religious life in culture seem to be telling us that the institutional church is going through a time of transition…what has been is clear but what lies ahead is murky as best.
In the murky water of the present and future, I am convinced of this: We have been satisfied as people of God to confine Christian Faith to a set of beliefs. Ask someone, “Are you a Christian?” See what kind of answer you get. I bet they tell you “what” they believe.

While what we believe is important, belief by itself does not make Christian faith.
Faith has become a matter of what a person believes or doesn’t believe. And there we have missed what Jesus is all about. The bottom line is what we do based on what we believe.
It is time we shift our focus to putting our faith into action.
John Wesley stressed “responsible grace.” He was concerned with how our experience of God’s love and care gets translated into love and care for others. For Methodist folks, faith is best understood as a “Way of Life”.
If there is a “map” for being a Christian it is found in how we live out God’s love for us in Jesus Christ with folks we live among and meet day by day….grace able to respond to the life around us.
It’s worth pondering. Blessings on the journey!

Finding Our Way