That’s what I’m expressing gratitude for this #ThankfulThursday: God’s sustaining grace in the midst of devastating loss. For the last couple of weeks I’ve been reading through the book of Job in my daily quiet time with the Lord. This book of wisdom explores the reality of human suffering, at a very personal level. The first one and a half chapters describe Job’s devastating losses, one right after another (Job 1:13-19), the greatest one being the sudden loss of his children.
My wife and I have never experienced such a devastating loss, but we know many loved ones who have — close relatives, church members, neighbors and colleagues.
The most recent heartache came yesterday morning when I woke up and saw Tim Challies’ post, My Son, My Dear Son, Has Gone To Be With the Lord. As I read this brief article, my heart broke for Tim, his wife Aileen, their two other children, and Nick’s fiancée. Here’s what Tim wrote:
In all the years I’ve been writing I have never had to type words more difficult, more devastating than these: Yesterday the Lord called my son to himself—my dear son, my sweet son, my kind son, my godly son, my only son.
Nick was playing a game with his sister and fiancée and many other students when he suddenly collapsed, never regaining consciousness. Students, paramedics, and doctors battled valiantly, but could not save him. He’s with the Lord he loved, the Lord he longed to serve. We have no answers to the what or why questions.
Yesterday Aileen and I cried and cried until we could cry no more, until there were no tears left to cry. Then, later in the evening, we looked each other in the eye and said, “We can do this.” We don’t want to do this, but we can do this—this sorrow, this grief, this devastation—because we know we don’t have to do it in our own strength. We can do it like Christians, like a son and daughter of the Father who knows what it is to lose a Son.
We travelled through the night to get to Louisville so we could be together as a family. And we ask that you remember us in your prayers as we mourn our loss together. We know there will be gruelling days and sleepless nights ahead. But for now, even though our minds are bewildered and our hearts are broken, our hope is fixed and our faith is holding. Our son is home.
As I weep and pray for Tim and Aileen, I salute their faith and extol the God of our salvation. He is the one who grants us the grace to persevere through such suffering. People like John and Celia, Bill and Betty, Gary and Carol, Phil and Nancy, Josh and Courtney, Henry and Cyndy, Irv and Darci, Jim and Martha, and numerous others whom I know personally — whose faith has been sustained, and even strengthened, through such sorrow.
These brothers and sisters in Christ, like the Old Testament saint Job, have come to see that their “relationship with God is ultimately the main issue and that suffering, while extremely important, is secondary. The complex of issues is not theoretical but practical.” Their world, like Job’s world, “is real, not a hypothetical ‘ivory tower’ where these questions can be bandied about among the participants without anyone feeling the hurt.”
(NIV Zondervan Study Bible, p. 901)
No, these precious followers of the Lamb understand the nature of deep suffering and of God’s sustaining grace, which John Piper poetically describes this way:
Not grace to bar what is not bliss,
Nor flight from all distress,
But this, the grace that orders our trouble and pain,
And then in the darkness is there to sustain.
Praise God for his sustaining grace.
Pray for those who are suffering.
Thank God for their steadfast faith.
Take heart in knowing that as the Lord has carried them, so he will carry you.
And, after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him belongs the power forever. Amen. (1 Peter 5:10-11)