I was discussing the word “disability” with a friend of mine and realized how easy it is for that word to sound like “broken”. I asked him “Does God break people on purpose?” While our conversation veered away to other topics, the question has stuck with me. Does God break people on purpose?
It’s a heavy question, one that seems better suited to far more experienced hands than mine. But how will we learn if we always look to someone else for the answers? Sometimes we need to face the hard questions on our own.
About a year and a half ago a friend of mine had a perfectly normal first pregnancy followed by a perfectly normal birth. She held her beautiful baby girl, Kennedy, and started making phone calls to tell everyone that she was here. Everything was perfect and then everything went horribly wrong. Kennedy lived for 45 minutes. There are probably medical reasons why but none of them are good enough. God could have spared Kennedy and He didn’t.
Does God break people on purpose?
Whether you think of it as God causing suffering or God allowing suffering to happen, the fact remains that we live in a broken world and terrible, awful things happen to the people God loves. One of the hardest things to deal with in times of tragedy is balancing the idea of a God who loves us so much He sacrificed His Son to save us, with the reality that not everyone gets healed on earth.
I know all of the correct answers “He uses our suffering for His glory”, “it’s so that others will come to know God”, “God has a bigger plan” or the truly horrific “they’re better off in Heaven”. None of these answers are enough. I think that God does work in our suffering, and He does use our suffering, but I don’t think that’s WHY we suffer.We forget that the world is not the way it was supposed to be. When sin entered the world in the garden of Eden everything was broken, and that includes us as well. I don’t think that suffering is tool created by God to do great things. I think it is an extension of sin, another branch of the evil that entered the world. God doesn’t break people because he can use that. People are broken because the days are evil and in the midst of the suffering that was not God’s original plan, He does work.
There are much grander minds than mine to delve into God’s motivations and the state of the world. I have to stick to what I know. I know God loves me. He loves me in ways too great for me to understand. I know He loves me because He said so and because He went so far out of His way to save me. He reaches down into every detail of my life.
God doesn’t need my suffering to make Himself great – he is already the greatest of them all, Lord of Lords and King of Kings. He doesn’t need to borrow glitter from me. He works in my suffering, He is with me when I suffer, but I do not believe He breaks people because it’s great marketing for Heaven. Where is the mercy in that?
My niece Corrina is deaf. God could have fixed that, He chose not too. He did provide surgeons and the amazing science of cochlear implants to give Corrina the chance to learn to hear and speak and sing. I am incredibly grateful for that, but Corrina is still deaf. Every time she takes her processors off – for bed, in the bath, at the park where the static from the slides is too much for the delicate equipment – she is plunged back into her silent world. She will always be deaf, always be different.
Did God break Corrina? I don’t think so. I believe that God knitted her together. I believe that He knew, long before we did that she would be born this way and He gifted her with the tenacious spirit needed to endure the therapy. He gifted her parents with the strength and patience to walk with her. It’s tempting to compare suffering, to say that one road is harder to walk than another. That’s probably true, but no road of suffering is easy. Mercifully, miraculously, God does walk each and every road with us.
Not at His hand, but in His arms
Some are healed, some are saved, some are lost and others are irretrievably broken. I don’t think we break at the hands of God; I think we break in the arms of God. He is with us in our suffering, He counts our tears. He gives us hope and some days He is the only way we can keep breathing.
British poet John Milton wrote a sonnet I have always loved called “On His Blindness”. Towards the end he poem he writes:
God doth not need
Either man’s work or his own gifts: who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed
And post o’er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait.
God does not need to break me to make Himself better known or more glorious. As the poet wrote “his state is kingly”. Suffering is not a marketing plan or a cruel joke. Suffering came in to the world on the back of sin. Humans are fragile; we break. But thank God Himself that He is there to put us back together. Whether it’s in this life, or the next.
If you are suffering, you are not alone. Many years ago the music pastor at my church gave the sermon that has stayed with me more than any other. He was speaking about worship and praise and all of the things that it does, and then he said this: “If you are heart broken today, if you cannot sing, don’t stay home. Come to church and just sit quietly. Let me sing for you.” If that’s where you are today I invite you to talk to one of our email mentors. Let us sing for you. Whether you have a prayer request to share, need someone to listen or are looking for resources to help, whatever your situation we would love to help. You can use this form to contact a mentor. All mentoring emails are confidential and there is never a fee.
“For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.” (Psalm 22:24, NIV)
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Hey Mack, that is an interesting viewpoint. How do you see God being responsible for the terrible things in Job 1-3? When you talk about ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ Christianity how would you describe that? How does that differ from your attitudes?
I have to admit that the troubles that I have faced in my life are pretty minimal compared to others so I have to be careful not to offend those people with a cheery ‘Polly-Anna’ kind of optimism. But when I read about the apostle Paul’s experiences “Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.” (2Corithians 11:24-27) and his attitude toward God’s providence, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:11-13) I am challenged to view my circumstances from the perspective that even though circumstances are terrible, God is in control and has a perfect plan to work all things together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purposes (Romans 8:28)
I think that a guy like you who has been hit hard can help us who have not been challenged with the same struggles on how to know God better. I know that is what Job discovered: his testimony after all that he went through was, “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.” (Job 42:5)
Thank you all for your posts — much food for thought. May have to offer the unconventional viewpoint that God may indeed be responsible for many terrible things (note Job chapters 1-3). Cliches like “free will” and “The devil ‘dood’ it’ give God a lot of ‘protection’ He doesn’t deserve. I won’t ask the ‘blessed’ to take up arms, but some of us have been hit hard (no, not because we’re eating preschool children and putting kittens in ovens) and have no more use for ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ Christianity,
the word reads . in this world you will have trouble , so we do . no one gets out free of pain.. no one. but he has overcame this world and he also tells us he will cover us .. he will walk with us in the valley. i think we sometimes bring on our sickness with a unhealty life style than blame our creator .. he will restore us , in spirit !
mia, you make an interesting point. It’s important to note though that in each of the instances you mention God specifically told the person in question what was about to happen. He made it clear what he was about to do and why. This indicates to me that it is not His normal procedure; it can happen, but unless a person is specifically told so in unambiguous terms, we shouldn’t assume that it is occurring to ourselves or someone else.
What about Nebuchadnezzar? Didn’t God actually decree he would be broken? (become insane and loose everything) It wasn’t just a circumstantial thing. Daniel 4:28 -37. Paul’s conversion? He was made blind.
What about Manessah 2 Chron 33? Wasn’t he broken by God”s will and brought to repentance?
So many instances in the Old Testament where God used other people to turn the Israelites? He decreed them and warned them things would happen.
I don’t agree. I think there’s a difference between submission and total brokenness. We have free will. If God was just planning to take it away – to break us until we turn to him – then he needn’t have bothered. I think God can work in our brokenness, but breaking our will is not necessary. Yes, I cannot just do whatever I want if I want Gods best in my life but I don’t think that it takes a tragedy to get there.
I think that only way God can use us is we have to be Broken. Psm 51 says that the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a contriet heart God will not dispise. It is when we are free of self and selfishness, self-centeredness all the things about us that God dispises (in short Sin) He can’t use us to his honor and Glory. Self has to die so that Christ may Live in us. AND FOR THAT HE MUST BREAK OUR WILL.So that we can says as Jesus sid in the Garden , not my will but thy will be done.
You are right, maryk. God does not inflict that suffering on His people. Finally, an article that makes sense. PTL
this is good very good! so many people said when i gat cancer , that it would be to God’s glory .. got stuck on that .. yes we can and should always glorify the lord .. but he doesnt need these measures .. he is God ! we live in a world where we will have troubles we just do .. it rains on the just and unjust .. ty Mrk