Page 49 - Living Light Spring 2024

Wednesday April 24 - Seeing glory in suffering
Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” John 11:40
I’ve worked for many years as a hospice chaplain, being alongside patients, families, and carers as they make the most difficult of journeys. Although all our deaths are inevitable, many ask ‘why me?’ and struggle to accept their end. Jesus said to Mary, “if you believe, you will see the glory of God”, but this statement has far greater promise within it than Lazarus being raised there and then.
In my experience, there’s also another type of ‘glory’ in our life experience: that of trusting God in the ‘whatever’. I had a call out to the hospice where a gentleman who, whilst being treated for cancer in the general hospital, had his wife visit, and the distress led her to a heart attack and death. Upon receiving the news, he had a stroke and was admitted to the hospice. Meeting him, I began to say I was sorry about the terrible series of events. He stopped me by raising his hand and spoke: “After almost seventy years of marriage, my wife has been terrified of living without me. Now, she has left the world quickly, and I am right behind her. Do not be sorry, young man – it is a perfect end, and exactly what we asked God for.”
Father, help me to see that my belief in you will always lead to seeing the glory of God, even when it is not what I or anyone else anticipated. I give my life to you today, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Thursday April 25 - Why Lord?
“Could not he... have kept this man from dying?” John 11:37
There is nothing else like death and bereavement for throwing up difficult questions about the love of God, his power, mercy, justice and compassion. I’ve sat a hundred times with people in ‘end of life’ situations who ask these questions. The answers people find depend almost entirely on whether they focus on the circumstance of their illness or on God’s nature.
If we look at God through the lens of a terrible or untimely illness, then he will always appear cruel and uncaring. If, however, we view illness through the lens of a relationship with God, our feelings are entirely different. We may still have questions, hurts, or disappointments, but when we know God as our loving Father, it takes the sting out of death, as the Scripture promises (1 Corinthians 15:55).
I visited the hospice late one night and spent a difficult hour in one room with a family bitterly grieving a ‘passing’ loved one, and had the same experience in the next room. Both were grateful for my visit but unwelcoming of any prayer. Feeling wounded by their pain, I knocked hesitantly on a third room. A lady, not having any visitors, welcomed me in. She said, smiling, “Thank you for coming, Chaplain, but I must admit I don’t really want anything. I’m here with Jesus, and he’s all I need.”
Father, when questions arise in my heart, help me to answer them with your presence. It’s there that I will find fulness of joy. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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PRAYER FOR TODAY
PRAYER FOR TODAY