Suffering and Good Friday

I was all set to write a newsy post about our life here at the Rock House. I finished half of it yesterday. But today, on this Good Friday, I can't seem to do it.

There is just so much suffering.

Failed adoptions. Rwanda closing its doors to adoption. Sickness. Marriage problems. Ministry troubles. Death. Financial loss. Heartache of every sort. These are the things happening to people I love. I'm in this weird, awful place of seeing the world collapsing for people I am close to, and my heart aches for them. And then when my mind goes to those places, to Rwanda, Mongolia, Uganda, Mexico, Thailand, places I have seen and loved where suffering is on the faces of the lost, hurting, broken, starving... first or third world, suffering is heavy on this earth.

And all I can do is thank Jesus for what He did on Good Friday thousands of years ago, in His suffering buying us relief from the fallen world of our own making. Paying, with His sacrifice, for the sin that kills and destroys and leads us from the God who is love.

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you... (1 Peter 5:10).

Good Friday isn't about Jesus dying so we could have a life of ease. It's not about us and our comfort. It's about the goodness of our Savior, suffering on the cross so that we could know Him and love Him and worship Him. The relief of our suffering is in Him. His work for us, buying us freedom we didn't deserve, makes our sufferings temporary and our joy eternal.