Pillar of Faith: A Different Kind of Apathy

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The world has been bombarded with suffering in the last two years. Beyond the normal trials that afflict individuals, families, and small communities, we have been struggling with near-universal misery.

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Now, how each person has felt and understood such suffering is a different story. Some have been overwhelmed with fear of illness, the unknown, the uncertainty of how bad tomorrow could be. Others have been overwhelmed with frustration, because their lives have been limited and disrupted, and control has been robbed of them.

Honestly, each person has dealt with pain, sadness, confusion, and exhaustion. Some have had respiratory illnesses, others have had to wait for life-giving treatments, others have struggled with loneliness and mental health problems.

This strange time we live in should instill empathy in us, because there is not a single soul alive today, from newborn to centenarians, who has survived this time unscathed. We may not all experience the same suffering, we may not even agree with others about what suffering is, yet now more than ever, we can know that those around us are struggling in one way or another.

However, what are we going to do with suffering like this?

Certainly, pray for relief, both for our sake and for our neighbor’s. It is God’s delight to hear and answer our prayers, to care for His beloved! Psalm 18: 6 recounts David’s prayers when his life was in danger and God’s faithfulness to save him. “In my distress I called upon the LORD; I cried out to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry reached his ears. “In the midst of our suffering, whether we are on our deathbed or simply overwhelmed by the day, a faithful response is to pray to the One who can save. Christ He teaches us to do just that in the Lord’s Prayer: “Deliver us from evil.”

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Along with our prayers, God has given us many gifts to help in the suffering of the world. Santiago says: “If a brother or sister is badly dressed and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them:” Go in peace, be warm and be satisfied “, without giving them the things necessary for the body, what good is that? ?? “(2:16). It is good that we use the gifts we have received to meet the needs of friends and strangers alike. When you are struggling with your physical or mental health, pray, but also see a doctor or therapist. When you’re cold, put on a jacket. When someone is hungry, buy them a meal or send it to someone equipped to do so. In this, we see that God uses his creation to answer our prayers, to ensure that suffering is approached with care.

However, sometimes the suffering persists. No matter how fervent we are in prayer, no matter how persistent we are in problem solving, the problem of pain continues in creation. And it can be very easy to put your hands up and just resign yourself to this season of disgust.

I would like to propose a different kind of apathy.

Yes, the Christian must despise suffering, as it is not part of God’s original design. Yes, we must take it to God to fix it, and we must use our brains, our hands, and all the gifts he has given us to try to resolve the suffering around us. But it shouldn’t matter to us if we’re relieved or if it persists.

Paul Gerhardt wrote:

Why should the cross and the judgment sadden me?
Christ is near
With your joy;
It will never leave me.
Who can steal heaven from me?
That the son of god
For me it won
When was your life given?

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I myself have not mastered that way of thinking. The desire to suffer less still torments me. But this hymn has been a comfort to me (even when I have had dental work done!). It encapsulates Paul’s confidence when he says, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). Whether I suffer or be relieved here, whether I live another day or not, I am Christ’s, bought by Him and loved by Him. As it says elsewhere: “Because I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, neither the present nor the future, nor the powers, neither the height nor the depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord ”(Romans 8: 38-39).

No matter what, you are loved by God. And this frees us to forget our own suffering in order to help the suffering of those around us, just as Christ has already done for you and me.

Amen

Pastor Scott Brayall / Faith Lutheran Church