Where is God in the Suffering?

Sometimes you just don’t know what you have to give here in Africa. Their lives are so hard and they do everything with joy and humility… I feel like I just can’t compete spiritually with them…. Truly they are closer to God than I have ever been… maybe it’s because they do not have the luxuries to distract them, do not have our Western comfort to make them soft. God is essential to survival. But, they say, “If God wasn’t here, we would’ve died years ago.” This is a statement of faith. Of all people who are justified to ask, “Where is God in the midst of all this suffering?” It is these people. Everyday is hard work; Everyday is survival. (These statements are no longer cliché for me… they are reality… the reality of Ugandans)

The fact is, the ability to ask the question, “how could God allow all this suffering and hardship?” is a question asked by academics up in their spiraling towers, as they analyze from a distance. It is a question asked out of abundance, on behalf of people who have a different question. Their question here is simply, “Where would I be without God.” Oh, that we in our Western mentalities would abandon our analytical high-horses and simplify our faith down to just…. “I believe.” The Bible says to have “faith like a child” and I see now how our adult-minds get in the way.

We erect strongholds of self-reliance and raise the flag of our independence on top.

Again, I ask what do I have to give? Will my education feed their children? Will my words bring their husbands back? Will my presence here make their lives easier? I have been rendered speechless here more times in three weeks then ever in my life. I don’t know what to say. So I ask you… what do you say, to a woman (Lydia), who decided to keep her baby, even after the father left her while she was pregnant, only to have that daughter die from pneumonia at age six. What do you say, to another woman (Margaret) who matter of factly says, her husband slept around for years before finally leaving her with her two daughters. They tell you the story, simply because you asked, but these are not emotional statements, just statements of fact. Literally, every person’s personal story is marked by tragedy and death – fathers, mothers, siblings, coaches, teachers – people taken much to soon. But, you would never know by their countenance. I know, because I ask - and then I know not what to say. All words; seem meaningless.

And in actuality, all my words are meaningless; unless they are accompanied by power; the power in God’s word. I began this journey as the Prophet Jeremiah did, telling God, "I do not know what to speak. But, as God said to Jeremiah in Jer. 1:9, "I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and governments…”

My words of comfort are empty, but when I quote the words of Jesus, that he came “that they may have life, and may have (it) abundantly” (John 10:10), it pierces through all circumstances and thoughts because “the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, both soul and spirit…”(Heb 4:12) He is providing words, where I had no words. The Word of God brings life, where there is death; fullness where there is emptiness; and hope where there is despair.

The answer is - I have nothing to give. Thankfully, we have a Savior, who is willing to give everything.