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| Photo credit: Cindee Snider Re |
"Why do I hurt?"
Who hasn't asked that question? Imagine hearing this on a daily basis? A nurse or a doctor would have to condition their heart to hear that from many different sources of pain from so many different medical circumstances they often deal with.
Dealing with hurt is just what they do. It's their calling, yes, it's where their emotions must travel daily on a case by case need.
Dealing with hurt is just what we do. But why does God allow pain, hurts, heartaches?
I don't know the answer to that except to tell you that in the pain, hurts, and heartaches God teaches us things that wouldn't be learned otherwise.
At least that is my take on this. Paul's perspective was the same. According to the book of Philippians he talked about pain, hurts and weaknesses a lot.
Philippians includes Paul's thoughts and responses to these topics:
...advancing the gospel
...imitating Christ's humility
...no confidence in the flesh
...pressing on towards the goal
...encouragements from the field
He prayed for his "thorn" or weakness to be removed several times, but still in those hard times, those dark days loaded with pain, hurts and heartaches, for his own good, God didn't remove it.
So it goes with us. God allows pain, hurt, and heartache to be a part of our days on earth to show more of His heart. It's in those times that we need Him most that He shows us that He is enough.
And yet discovering this truth....we continue to ask..."why?" Why us, why them, why my spouse, why my child?
Why?
Danielle asked God the same why question day after day. Her little children, HIV positive, have to take medicine as part of their daily routine. Several of them are very young and as they swallow their daily medications they have also swallowed the pain that has gotten them to this place in their lives. Their reality is that they were forgotten, outcast and there was no one to care for them. At young ages, they have so many questions that can't be answered. Then God brought them Danielle, who is the mother for the Children's Cup I Am Not Forgotten Home for Orphans in Swaziland, Africa.
She dared to ask God why her? Why them? Why?
God gave Danielle the reason she needed to give His hope to carry on.
How reassuring for this young mom, who is HIV positive herself, to catch hold of God's vision of being the adoptive mother for 10 young children who have been orphaned and forgotten by their own biological parents. Can you imagine how many "why God" questions she herself must have, plus the "why" questions that her now dependent children must have?
Think about the thoughts that must float through a forgotten child's heart. Now think about it in the silence of life, how those unloving thoughts must have started many sore places, a past they are trying to forget. There has to be some emotional scars that remain.
Why God would allow a child to feel such emotional pain and hardship at such young ages? Where is God in the middle of their forgotten and hurt-filled lives?
God gives Danielle a purpose, and a hope and a love of that only our Savior can give. God hasn't forgotten her nor these hurting children with a pain-filled past. The day Jesus shows her the purpose in dealing with their pain, she is very reassured in her "why God" questions.
"I am their Moses", was what God spoke to her heart. Understanding the purpose of pain and heartache somehow helps us deal with the daily suffering that He has called us to.
It helps. It helps Danielle and gives her the real hope to carry on day after day. And since that day, she told me that knowing that she is leading them to Jesus is what her role is. In a very seemingly forgotten generation, she places love and hope right in the middle of their pain.
She is advancing the gospel
...imitating Christ's humility
...with no confidence in the flesh
...pressing on towards the goal
...giving encouragements from the field
With the help of Children's Cup, Danielle is loving and leading, she is caring, she is overcoming, she is needing God in her own weakness, she is learning Christ in her suffering, leaning on Christ in those why questions loaded with hurt and pain, plus making a difference in young lives in the middle of their suffering. Jesus is enough to all the whys.
Jesus is enough in our pain.
For them, for us, and for today, the "why do I hurt?" questions can rest. Jesus is enough for our pain and we wouldn't know that part of Christ until we experienced the sufferings of today and let Him show us that He is.
To know more about helping the hurting hearts and the work of Children's Cup, please click here.
