God In The Dark

Read: Lamentations 3:31-33

Though he brings grief, he also shows compassion because of the greatness of his unfailing love.

Lamentations 3:32

GRIEF CAN BE CATHARTIC, which is why the Bible includes many laments that are not quickly resolved but instead allows those losses to be deeply felt. Our pains cannot be glossed over; they are very legitimate and real. It is good to know the weight of them.

It is not good, however, to let our pain or the world’s fallenness grow bitter roots into our souls. Our minds easily lose perspective and exaggerate our grief, forgetting the compassion God gives in the midst of it. No one is abandoned by the Lord forever (verse 31), but most people who have rejected him have done so because of a gut feeling that he turned his back on them. Behind many seemingly intellectual accusations—claims that he has not given us enough evidence or that he is an absentee landlord—is the pain of an unanswered prayer, a disappointed hope, or a miracle that didn’t happen. The human heart longs for his compassion to be made real in the midst of a trial. When it isn’t—when God seems distant—arguments against him begin to take root.

Those arguments are made in the middle of the story, when things look grim and the resolution seems unimaginable. But that’s the kind of story God is writing. No one is moved by a mild resolution to a mild problem. We applaud a victory in the face of impossible odds. Those moments of crisis are a mark of all good fiction, and they are also a mark of God’s best stories. An accusation about God’s disappointing absence is the kind of thing a heartbroken disciple might say on the Saturday after the Cross. But the end of the story—in fiction, in God’s redemption plan, in our own lives—is coming, and it changes everything.

In the meantime, God shows compassion. We have to know that. Our laments in this life do not echo off the ceiling; they resonate in his heart, and they draw his attention. He knows what the inside of a tomb looks like. He also knows the story doesn’t end there. Yes, our realization of our own brokenness and the world’s can be traumatic; so is the Cross, when we come to grips with it. But in the midst of it all, God puts his arms around us, whispers promises about how amazing the end of the story will be, and encourages us to temper our grief with confident hope. In the world’s darkest moments and our own, he is there to save.

PRAYER

Lord, may my sense of sadness never overshadow your offerings of compassion and hope. You encourage me in the most difficult times. The ends of your stories are always good. Thank you for that truth. Amen.

REFLECTION

If you were one of Jesus’ followers during the Crucifixion, what thoughts would you have had about God and his plan? In what ways do you tend to judge God “in the middle of the story” in your life?

Further reading: Romans 8:28-32

He comes the broken heart to bind,

The bleeding soul to cure;

And with the treasures of his grace

To enrich the humble poor.

“HARK, THE GLAD SOUND! THE SAVIOR COMES,” PHILIP DODDRIDGE