​37. The Most Beautiful Road We Can Take

Why do people suffer?

No.

Why does God let people suffer.

This.

We are hard-knotted in our own pain. And why shouldn’t we be? We’re made manifest in the breaking of our own hearts and the burning in our own brains. We’re eaten up and devoured and tortured through the past and hold onto it like it’s the only path to our present.

We are Lot’s wife, head over shoulder, overcome by the brininess of our own taste.

So why does God allow this?

“More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance...” (Romans 5:3)

Endurance. It’s a foreign concept to a “we want it now” society. And I should know. I was mayor of that town for quite awhile.

When you hurt, you have two options: overcome or don’t. And the overcoming is the most beautiful road we can take.

When we overcome, we leave that pain on God’s altar. But more importantly, we have a story to tell.

There are so many hurting people out there. What if we could just share with one person that the rape, the assault, the abuse wasn’t the end of their story? That God can redeem the sinful pain of this world and give your heart hope?

What if we stopped looking at our scars as losses, and instead, looked at them as the proof of a body and soul restored?

What if we endured?