Pain, Perspective, and Purpose - A Blessed Outlook

There we were, sitting and drinking coffee, my wife sitting with her leg in a thick overstuffed cast to recover from her foot surgery earlier that same day, and my wife's innocent words struck me. We had been watching some TV as the evening wound down, and she winced a little in pain. I spoke up quickly, "Are you sure you're okay?" I started to get up and offer to get her something.

She motioned that it was ok for me to sit back down.

"I'm fine, I'll be okay."

She could tell I was worried, as I wore my normal furrowed brow.

"It's okay, Honey. I'm not sad. I'm just glad to be here. Knowing the doctor fixed the injury the best he could...it gives me peace just having a plan, and still being here. I am still here. I still have you, and Jay. I could have died, or been paralyzed. But here I am, just blessed to be alive."

Here I was, the one in seminary, but my wife, and her matter of fact, sweet and positively happy self was the one with the best outlook on her suffering. I was distracted by her pain. She focused on her Blessings.

Perspective.

My wife's proper perspective on her current situation made me pause. I reflected back on a list of recent topics in my theology class for seminary. Somewhere in there was a theme of the common atheist question, 'If God was a good God, why would He allow pain and suffering in this world?'

I immediately thought of how this new journey of pain and suffering would be part of my wife's story now. And she could tell everyone how despite her new pain and suffering, she is just blessed to be here. And story really does give someone perspective. It seems the more of the story one knows, the better perspective they have.

I was reminded of a time when my wife finished reading my first book. We were driving up to the mountains, and she was close to the end of the story. Suddenly, she snapped the book shut and tossed it into the floor board. (Spoiler alert coming, for those who never read Misguided).

"I can't believe you killed Beth!"

I blinked and looked at her and shrugged, but kept driving.

"Honey, don't you see? I had to. Beth was the one thing that bonded John Knox and Malik together in the story. I had to leave a good reason for Knox and Malik to have to come back together for the next book."

She raised her eyebrows.

"There's going to be another book?"

"That's right," I replied. "And in book two, John Knox is going to lead Malik to Christ."

She pouted her lips and said, "Oh."

She picked the book back up, and finished the rest of the story as we made our way up the mountain. When we arrived to our destination, she closed the book.

"It makes sense to me now. Good ending. I don't like that you killed Beth in the story, but I see purpose in it now, especially since you're writing another book."

Suddenly, because my wife already knew more of the story to come, she had a new perspective - and a more positive outlook on the first book.

Now go back to the common question. If God is a good God, why would He allow pain and suffering in this world? In other words, what could be the purpose, or reason, for such things like pain, suffering, or death?

There is a story here, that goes back millenia, and we could get into the story of the fall of man, and sin entering the world, and all of that theological history. But the perspective I now have, that I did not have until I wrote a whole book, is that the author is the one who knows the whole story, better than anyone.

But I'm just a man...a mortal man who happened to write a book.

What about God? The God of the universe, who created everything? He is The Author, OF EVERYTHING. Talk about knowing the whole story, right?

Follow me here, for a moment.

My son was a twin, but we lost his twin brother seven months into pregnancy, which inspired me to write. My inspiration to write led to writing Christian fiction, and writing books, and learning how to research history. Later on I entered law enforcement, partly in hopes to inspire my son to wear the uniform he wants one day. That law enforcement career brings about unforeseen hip pain, which causes me to ponder a way into ministry. Not only does this influence my service to the church, but I enroll in seminary. Ten years or more of writing and self-publishing books prepared me for writing long papers on church history and theology. Now I write this today, because I serve as a community chaplain, that first started because of pain and suffering from long ago. But who knew all of that would happen, from pain of losing a little one?

God, that's who.

He has the whole story. Like I had more of the story than my wife did, He can see all of history...HIS story. I've written similar pieces to this post before. But this blog post happened because I was so taken by the sincerity and genuine peace and happiness in my wife's words - despite her pain.

No, it's not the go-to verse anyone needs to hear at the time of death of a loved one. But "we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28, NIV). If you stop and think, really think about this when you are not dealing with pain in the moment, perhaps when the moment does come, you are prepared by having a different perspective...The Author's perspective. Perhaps then you can see purpose to it all. Perhaps you can be inspired to get to know the whole story - Old and New Testament.

Perhaps then, you can have a better outlook. You can focus on the blessings, all the blessings - because you will know more of the story.

In Christ,

JEF