pain

Last week the five year old daughter of Steven Curtis and Mary Beth Chapman was tragically killed in an accident at their home in Franklin Tennessee. Mary Ann was the youngest of the their six children and their third adopted child from China. As many of you know, the Chapman's have been passionate about adoption and have created an organization that helps defray the tremendous expense of overseas adoption. In many ways this hits our church family close to home, as many of our own families have adopted from China and in other parts of the world and have partnered with the Chapman organization.

This is the kind of tragedy that rips at the heart. Anyone who has heard Steven Curtis Chapman talk about his family and especially his passion for adoption knows how devastating this must be for them. We are praying for the Chapman family during this time of terrible loss and heartbreak.

There are inevitable questions. How could this happen to a family that has given so much? Where is God in this kind of tragedy? Why do bad things happen to such good people?

Of course, there are no words anyone could say that provide complete perspective at a time like this. One never gets over the loss of a child. Some answers we just won't get this side of eternity.

But I do think it is important remind ourselves of a few very important Biblical truths:

1. Just because you are a believer, it does not mean you will not suffer. The Bible teaches that the rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous. The promise of salvation and redemption is not a promise of a pain free life. To the contrary, very often people who serve God with great fervor and passion suffer with what seems like disproportionate intensity. Abraham suffered, Isaac suffered, Jacob suffered, Joseph suffered, Naomi lost everything, Ruth was displaced, Sarah was barren, Hagar was cast out and rejected. The apostles (save John) were all martyred, Paul the apostle begged God to take his "thorn" away, but God taught him that through his weakness he is made strong. You would be hard pressed to find a single champion in the Bible who did not suffer. Additionally, no one suffered like Christ. (Hebrews 11:39-40)

2. Because of the suffering of Christ, we know that God identifies with us in our tragedy. Only in Christianity do you have a God who says "I've been there". (Philippians 2:5-8). In fact, the Bible teaches us that although tragedy in our life breaks the heart of God (remember Jesus weeping for Mary and Martha), God can use the tragedy in our life in way we can't imagine. (Romans 8:28)

3. This life is not all there is. The Bible teaches this life is like a vapor of smoke- it is here and it is gone (James 4:14). It is only through the perspective of eternity and the reality of the risen Lord that we are able to make sense of evil and suffering in this life.

Think of it this way- because of the resurrection of Christ, we are able to say,

"bring it on death, bring it on suffering, the lower you lay me, the higher He'll raise me!"

We have much to learn from His suffering. Because He will have His wounds in a perfect Heaven, it must mean that God will use whatever suffering we have in this life to intensify our joy in the next. Whatever loss we feel in this life, will only multiply the sense of joy and gain in the life to come. (Romans 8:18-21)

My favorite quote from C.S. Lewis:

"I believe our first words in heaven will be,

'Ah haw!'

'Now I understand.'"