...We are only ordinary folks who get out of very comfortable beds in the morning, brush our teeth with running water, put on whatever we like to wear, and eat whatever we want for breakfast. Our lives generally don't seem to call for much courage. We are so accustomed to luxury we think of traffic jams as hardship. It ruins our day if the air conditioner quits, or the waiter says they're fresh out of cherry cheesecake. Of course it is only a matter of time before the traffic jam is unsnarled; time and money can fix the air conditioner; we can order a different dessert. We expect to get things fixed -- fast. When we can't, we are at a loss.
Loneliness is much worse than being stuck in a traffic jam or having to do without cheesecake. Perhaps we hardly think of its calling for courage, because we hardly think of it as real suffering, yet it fits the simplest definition I know: having what you don't want or wanting what you don't have. Loneliness we don't want. It comes from wanting what we don't have.
Who can compare sufferings? They are unique as each sufferer is unique. "The heart knows its own bitterness" (Prov. 14:10, NEB). We respond according to our temperaments. Some cast about for solutions, stew, fret, rage, deny the facts. Some sink into an oblivion of self-recrimination or pity. Some chalk it all up to somebody else's fault. Some pray. But all of us may be tempted sometime to conclude that because God doesn't fix it He doesn't love us.
There are many things that God does not fix precisely because He loves us. Instead of extracting us form the problem, He calls us. In our sorrow or loneliness or pain He calls -- "This is a necessary part of the journey. Even if it is the roughest part, it is only a part, and it will not last the whole long way. Remember where I am leading you. Remember what you will find at the end -- a home and a haven and a heaven."
pages 106-107 The Path Of Loneliness Finding Your Way Through The Wilderness To God by Elisabeth Elliot
Loneliness is much worse than being stuck in a traffic jam or having to do without cheesecake. Perhaps we hardly think of its calling for courage, because we hardly think of it as real suffering, yet it fits the simplest definition I know: having what you don't want or wanting what you don't have. Loneliness we don't want. It comes from wanting what we don't have.
Who can compare sufferings? They are unique as each sufferer is unique. "The heart knows its own bitterness" (Prov. 14:10, NEB). We respond according to our temperaments. Some cast about for solutions, stew, fret, rage, deny the facts. Some sink into an oblivion of self-recrimination or pity. Some chalk it all up to somebody else's fault. Some pray. But all of us may be tempted sometime to conclude that because God doesn't fix it He doesn't love us.
There are many things that God does not fix precisely because He loves us. Instead of extracting us form the problem, He calls us. In our sorrow or loneliness or pain He calls -- "This is a necessary part of the journey. Even if it is the roughest part, it is only a part, and it will not last the whole long way. Remember where I am leading you. Remember what you will find at the end -- a home and a haven and a heaven."
pages 106-107 The Path Of Loneliness Finding Your Way Through The Wilderness To God by Elisabeth Elliot
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