How Long?

the theme and question asked in ian's video/song he posted last has been on his heart this week...i feel the same way as i struggle with God's sovereignty and trying not to complain about more trials and suffering poured into our laps right now....then i found this.

a quote from a preface of a book i MUST read stat.....found about it here, from a friend....i copied his blog posts (hope that's ok) and put them here to share..and i am going to buy this book tomorrow for sure.....really struggling and am hungry for TRUTH.

How Long, O Lord?
- D.A. Carson


"Primarily, this is a book of preventative medicine. One of the major causes of devastating grief and confusion among Christians is that our expectations are false. We do not give the subject of evil and suffering the thought it deserves until we ourselves are confronted with tragedy. If by that point our beliefs - not well thought out but deeply ingrained - are largely out of step with the God who has disclosed himself in the bible and supremely in Jesus, then the pain from the personal tragedy may be multiplied many times over as we begin to question the very foundations of our faith."



"Some Christians believe that we should be immune to suffering and are very surprised when they experience it’s painful touch. D.A. Carson gives five reasons why he believes this is the case. This diagnostic might be helpful for each of us to consider in the face of past suffering, current suffering or suffering that will certainly grip us all in this short life."

Here is his first reason:

We may get the balance of Scripture wrong. We remember the wonderful triumphs of Joseph, Gideon, and David; we meditate continuously on the miraculous healing of the man born blind, or on the resurrection of Lazarus. We are less inclined to think through the sufferings of Jeremiah, the constant ailments of Timothy, the illness of Trophimus, or the thorn in Paul’s flesh. A righteous man like Naboth perishes under trumped up charges (1 Kings 21). The “good guys” do not always win. We shall have occasion to return to such topics. For now it is enough to note that we may be infected by a pious version of the raw triumphalism that prevails in much of the surrounding culture because we have not taken care to follow the balance of Scripture.
- D.A. Carson, How Long O Lord?, p. 25


Here is his second reason:

We may succumb to the crush of the urgent. We think that if God is going to relieve our sufferings, he ought to do so immediately. Any delay vitiates his promises. We live in a fast-paced world, and we want God to respond with the same efficiency we expect from high-speed computers. We are not inclined to think through the delays in Scripture: Moses’ forty years in the back side of the wilderness, the delay of twenty or more years before Joseph is vindicated, the anguish even of the saints under the alter (Rev. 6:9-10). But God is not constrained by our petty timetables. Committed though he is to his people’s good, he understands that delays are not always bad. Moreover, if we walk with God long enough, we begin to learn the lesson ourselves: we must look back from a longer perspective and start to appreciate that God’s timing is best. We may then marvel at our own impatience. We are too much like children whose every request is stamped with “Now!”
- D.A. Carson, How Long O Lord?, p. 25


Here is his third reason:

Some of us thoroughly misunderstand a number of important texts. For instance, Romans 8:28 reads: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.” If we interpret, “the good of those who love him” in selfish, materialistic ways, we shall entirely miss the point of the passage. In the context, it is the bad things of the world that are befalling God’s people, part of the groaning over the entire universe still given over to death and decay, and climaxing in the persecution of God’s people. What the passage promises us, then, is that in the midst of such misery we may be assured that God is at work, “for the good of those who love him.” That sort of promise has to be taken on faith - faith that is strong because of the proof God has already given us in his love for us, the proof that is nothing less than the gift of his Son. There is nothing in the text that promises us an easy time, or a quick way out of the groanings to which the entire universe gives vent.
- D.A. Carson, How Long O Lord?, p. 26


Here is his fourth reason:

Some of us have absorbed a form of theology with all the answers. We can offer standard answers to every problem that comes along, especially if the problem is afflicting some other person. Our certainty and dogmatism give us such assurance, our systematic theology is so well articulated, that we leave precious little scope for mystery, awe, unknowns. Then, when we ourselves face devastating catastrophe, and we find that the certainties we have propounded with such confidence offer us little relief, our despair is the bleaker: we begin to question the most basic element of our faith. Had we recognized that in addition to great certainties there are great gaps in our comprehension, perhaps we would have been less torn up to find that the mere certainties proved inadequate in our own hour of need.

I becomes important, then, to decide just where the mysteries and the certainties are. Christianity that is nothing but certainties quickly becomes haughty and arrogant, rigid and unbending. Worse, it leave the Christian open to the most excruciating doubt when the vicissitudes of life finally knock out the supporting pillars. The God of such Christianity is just not big enough to be trusted when you are up to your neck in the muck of pain and defeat. Conversely, Christianity that is nothing but mystery leave nothing to proclaim, and make faith indistinguishable from blind credulity. Part of our task in this book then, must be to emphasize some of these things that ought to be firm points of assurance for Christians, and to probe a little around the edges of the deep mysteries.
- D.A. Carson, How Long O Lord?, p. 26,27

(waiting on zach's blog for the fifth reason...ha! or until i can go buy the book myself....)