Earthquakes happen

Here's Paul's woe is me list:
"I've worked much harder, been jailed more often, beaten up more times than I can count, and at death's door time after time. I've been flogged five times with the Jews' thirty-nine lashes, beaten by Roman rods three times, pummeled with rocks once. I've been shipwrecked three times, and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day. In hard traveling year in and year out, I've had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes. I've been at risk in the city, at risk in the country, endangered by desert sun and sea storm, and betrayed by those I thought were my brothers. I've known drudgery and hard labor, many a long and lonely night without sleep, many a missed meal, blasted by the cold, naked to the weather."

That's a resume of suffering I can't match, nor would want to.

Jeremiah was at it, however, earlier than Paul. He wrote in Lamentations: "I'm the man who has seen trouble,
trouble coming from the lash of God's anger.
He took me by the hand and walked me
into pitch-black darkness.
Yes, he's given me the back of his hand
over and over and over again.
He turned me into a scarecrow
of skin and bones, then broke the bones.
He hemmed me in, ganged up on me,
poured on the trouble and hard times.
He locked me up in deep darkness,
like a corpse nailed inside a coffin."
He shot me in the stomach
with arrows from his quiver.
Everyone took me for a joke,
made me the butt of their mocking ballads.
He forced rotten, stinking food down my throat,
bloated me with vile drinks.
He ground my face into the gravel.
He pounded me into the mud.
I gave up on life altogether.
I've forgotten what the good life is like.
I said to myself, "This is it. I'm finished.
God is a lost cause."

Wow. Makes my pitty-party seem so little it should be ignored.

For a contemporary outlook, though, I turn to Indonesia. First, a volcano erupts, then a tsunami pours in, then an earthquake is triggered. All in a little area of islands near Cambodia. People are dying, and people are suffering and the questions pour in.

So, the question today is how do we handle suffering when it falls on us so vividly and makes the next day so difficult to wish for? The answer is not that all our circumstances will be changed so that we have wonderful days and glorious nights from the minute we believe in Christ as our savior. That simply is a lie. The answer is we pray for peace and accept that as the answer.

The Bible tells us this: Jesus said to his disciples on the last night he would spent with them, "Do not be worried and upset. Believe in God and believe also in me. There are many rooms in my Father's house and I am going to prepare a place for you. I would not tell you this if it were not so."

The circumstances do not change necessarily. We do.
Earthquakes (financial problems), tsunamis (marriage breakups, death of loved ones), and volcanos (separation of child and parent, decisions and choices made that are life-changing) happen. Jesus doesn't change that. But I believe the choice of trusting in God means we can make it through those elements in a peaceful manner that no one outside of the Lord can possibly understand. God calls it a peace that surpasses understanding. Watching a Christian go through earthly hell with a smile causes much surprise by those who do not know Jesus.

Peace, be still. Be still and know. These are the commandments that cement our joy, even when happiness can't be found. We are a surprising bunch, we Christians.