Suffering and Singing

Guest Blogger: Mike McKinney, Meredith's brother

What is your worst nightmare? Let me ask that another way: what is that imagined scenario that if it were to actually happen... 

you wouldn't even be able to stand. 

A kind of scenario that would impose on your mind what the Apostle Paul said, "we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death" (2 Corinthians 1:8-9). 

Look at those words...

• "utterly burdened": the burden they felt was to the max (as in, there couldn't be a greater one)
• "beyond our strength": their ability to "keep on, keepin' on" ran out (the way that a car cannot keep running when it is out of gas)
• "that we despaired of life itself": the word "that" connects this phrase with the previous two, and shows what being "utterly burdened" and "beyond our strength" did to them: it made them "despair of life itself." That word "despair" literally means to be "utterly without a way." In other words, the burden they felt and their lack of strength made them think, "Where do we even go from here? Should we even continue life? I can't do this any more." 
• "Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death": just to some it all up in a nugget of depression, he said that they believed that God had appointed their death then and there. 

You ever felt that way? You ever been on the edge of that cliff? I have not. Now I know the Scriptures do not say if suffering comes, but when it comes (1 Peter 2:19; 4:12; James 1:2; John 16:33; Romans 8:16-17; and many more, just look them up).

When it comes. 

But check out this crazy thing that Job said thousands of years ago, "Though he slay me, I will hope in him" (Job 13:15). There are two people Job is talking about: himself and God. So lets put God where He is supposed to be in this verse, "Though God slay me, I will hope in God." So Job said that God is the one who absolutely ruined his life, but God is also the very one He hopes in and praises. Whaaaat? How does that even make sense? 

Answer: the greatest gift that God could give you is Himself. But Jesus is God, therefore the greatest gift that God could give you is Christ. So if you have Christ, then even if you lose everything in this world you still have the greatest thing: God. 

Our problem is that we like to take greater delight in lesser pleasures instead of God, which doesn't make any sense because the pleasure found in Christ is greater than any other pleasure. If we are doing this, then what is the most loving--I repeat, loving--thing that God could do to you?

Take from you that thing you are finding pleasure in over Him... and then leave you with only Christ, so that you realize that even in that "scenario" I asked you to image earlier, Christ is more than enough.  

God is more than enough when you despair of life itself. 

Look at the way Paul finishes his thought, "For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead" (2 Corinthians 1:8-9). 

God did this to them. God did it. God did. And Paul is glad, because he knows that God is bringing them to Himself in order to prove that Christ is more than enough even amidst the worst suffering (the kind that makes you want to check out of life). 

But look at the last phrase: "who raises the dead." Why would he say that? I think it is because he knows that things might not end well; they may actually die, but they know that one day God will raise them from the dead into the New Creation.

The remedy for all suffering is the knowledge that God is granting you suffering in order to show you that Christ is more than enough in that suffering. Christ is satisfying enough to cause singing in the midst suffering. 

I have included this song by Shane and Shane which was inspired by Job 13:15. Enjoy. 

"Though You Slay Me" (featuring John Piper) by Shane and Shane

Lyrics:

I come, God, I come
I return to the Lord
The one who’s broken
The one who’s torn me apart
You strike down to bind me up
You say you do it all in love
That I might know you in your suffering

Though you slay me
Yet I will praise you
Though you take from me
I will bless your name
Though you ruin me
Still I will worship
Sing a song to the one who’s all I need

My heart and flesh may fail
The earth below give way
But with my eyes, with my eyes I’ll see the Lord
Lifted high on that day
Behold, the Lamb that was slain
And I’ll know every tear was worth it all

Though you slay me
Yet I will praise you
Though you take from me
I will bless your name
Though you ruin me
Still I will worship
Sing a song to the one who’s all I need

Though tonight I’m crying out
Let this cup pass from me now
You’re still more than I need
You’re enough for me
You’re enough for me

Though you slay me
Yet I will praise you
Though you take from me
I will bless your name
Though you ruin me
Still I will worship
Sing a song to the one who’s all I need
Sing a song to the one who’s all I need

Click here if you want to listen to the entire sermon that was used in the middle of the song.