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I would like to take you on something of a journey that often feels lonely, but you do not have to walk it alone<\/strong>. I am talking about facing significant suffering<\/a> or grief<\/a>. This is a journey that we will all<\/em> have to face at some point in our lives. As Tim Keller explains in his outstanding book Walking With God Through Pain and Suffering<\/a><\/em> (see also the free introduction)<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\u201cNo matter what precautions we take, no matter how well we have put together a good life, no matter how hard we have worked to be healthy, wealthy, comfortable with friends and family, and successful with our career \u2014 something will inevitably ruin it.\u201d \u00a0(Tim Keller)<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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I would like to share with you a kind of long form review of Keller\u2019s book<\/strong> which I have benefited from immensely over the last few months. I will share some quotes, and summarise some of the critical points that I have found to be personally helpful in my own journey walking with Blood Cancer<\/a> for two and a half years so far.<\/p>\n
\nHelp When Life Hurts<\/p>\n
This article is part of a growing collection, drawing from Adrian Warnock\u2019s medical and psychological expertise, lived experience, and Christian faith.<\/p>\n
Click the type of pain you or a loved one are experiencing right now<\/p>\n
General suffering & disappointment<\/a>
\nFinancial difficulties<\/a>
\nFeeling disqualified<\/a>
\nChronic illness & disability<\/a>
\nDivorce & family pain<\/a>
\nDepression & mental health<\/a>
\nBereavement & end-of-life<\/a><\/p>\nSee the full list of over 40 articles
\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\nIt took me a very long time to finish reading this book partly because I was at times not well enough to concentrate even for a few minutes on reading, but I am very glad I did. I wish I had read Keller\u2019s book before I so desperately needed its core message<\/strong>. \u00a0If, like the pre-sickness Adrian, you have not really faced major troubles in your life, arguably preparing yourself for suffering\u2019s inevitable arrival is one of the most important things you ever can do.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Sometimes with a journey it\u2019s good to understand your final destination so we know where we are going. \u00a0That is what I want to do today.<\/p>\n
Keller\u2019s book Walking With God Through Pain and Suffering<\/a><\/em> concludes with a series of chapters considering some practical steps and tools that can help the suffering individual. \u00a0His final chapter is really perhaps the most important, and offers the number one medicine for us when we are seriously struggling: HOPE<\/strong><\/p>\n
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There are clear reasons why Keller builds slowly to this crucial point of hope, and by starting at the conclusion I perhaps risk sounding twee and shallow to some of you who are in the early stages of huge grief and pain<\/strong>. Please understand what I outline below is a destination, not necessarily a starting point. \u00a0And I will share in subsequent posts some of what Keller says to build to this point.<\/p>\n
For the person who has never suffered what I am about to say may sound obvious and simplistic. \u00a0To someone in the middle of the worst trial of their life, it may sound unattainable as feeling perplexed is in real danger of descending into despair.\u00a0<\/strong>To someone who is has battled through the disappointment, anger, fear, uncertainty, depression, sense of loss, and utter aloneness that can come with significant suffering and somehow still clung on to Jesus, this word \u2018hope\u2019 may be the most precious verb in the\u00a0dictionary.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Human beings cannot live without hope.<\/strong>\u00a0 Hope is like fuel to a weary and broken soul. Hope is the joyful expectation of a positive future. <\/strong>Suffering often brings with it fear about what will come next. A relentless series of blows often shake us to our very foundation<\/a>.\u00a0When the future looks truly bleak the present is simply unbearable.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Hope doesn\u2019t usually disappear overnight, but can slowly ebb away till there is nothing left<\/p>\n
The opposite of hope is fear, uncertainty and ultimately despair.<\/strong>\u00a0 Ultimately hopelessness can drive some even to suicide<\/a>.<\/p>\n
One of the most cruel things about significant suffering it can seem as if it is\u00a0designed to ROB us of hope\u00a0altogether.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Recently I have read something of the story of two different significant and well known Christian ministry leaders who have totally lost their own hope, and hence their faith in the face of significant suffering. What I read was sobering, and yet totally understandable.\u00a0But that outcome need not be the case, as we hear from the Apostle Paul:<\/p>\n
\nWe have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. \u00a0<\/b>We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair<\/strong>; \u00a0<\/b>persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; \u00a0<\/b>always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. . . For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, \u00a0<\/b>as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen<\/strong>. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:7-18, ESV)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
There are many others with a testimony that after months, years, or even decades of struggling with a hope that seems at times to fade to almost nothing,\u00a0God himself breathed on their heart like a\u00a0smouldering candle wick, and caused HOPE to burn more brightly than ever before.<\/strong><\/p>\n
When we think about hope, there are two forms. \u00a0The first is hope for the here and now, by which I mean the rest of our lives. \u00a0There is also hope for eternity. Often Christians believe that they are hoping in God for eternity, and yet often the real focus of our hope is on our comfortable life right now continuing<\/strong>. When suffering seems to make our immediate and even perhaps long-term future seem uncertain, then all hope can evaporate.<\/p>\n
Tim Keller explains this point:<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is nothing more practical for sufferers than to have hope. The erosion or loss of hope is what makes suffering unbearable. And here at the end of the Bible is the ultimate hope\u2014a material world in which all suffering is gone\u2014\u201cevery tear wiped from our eyes.\u201d This is a life-transforming, living hope.\u201d<\/p>\n
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- Tim Keller,\u00a0 Walking With God Through Pain and Suffering<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n
But when people try to say that your earthly future will be just fine in the short term when the doctor has told you it isn\u2019t, it can feel incredibly frustrating.<\/p>\n
Building a false hope based on a promise that someone is \u201csure\u201d everything will work out for you in the immediate future can actually be counter-productive.<\/p>\n
Real hope faces an uncertain future knowing JESUS is walking in that future with you<\/strong>, and so yes you can have hope that He will work things around for your good without necessarily your problem disappearing.<\/strong>\u00a0 (see Romans 8:28)<\/p>\n
When our hope in our earthly future is taking a beating we must learn to fix our eyes on our eternal hope<\/strong>, and then let that hope filter into a belief that the God who has promised us a glorious eternal future has not finished with us yet even in this life. \u00a0God does want us to look optimistically at our future, even if our situation means that must be tinted with the reality of the genuine difficulties we face.<\/p>\n
When things look bleak for your current life, the real question is are you hoping in God only for this life or do you have a hope that goes beyond the grave<\/a>?<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\u201cIf our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world\u201d (1 Cor 15:19, NLT)<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Tim Keller contrasts two possible views of the future. When faced with significant suffering many people, maybe even everyone, will find times when they even begin to question if this suffering world is all there is. But ultimately if you stop believing in God, it doesn\u2019t take away the pain, it just takes away the hope. <\/strong>I used this quote in my Songs of Praise interview in 2023<\/p>\n
Adrian on BBC\u2019s Songs of Praise \u2013 Finding God in Turmoil<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n