Suffer

I finished The Reason for God by Timothy Keller yesterday.  I think everyone should read this book, penned for "skeptics and the believers who love them...The first, shorter part of the book looks at popular arguments against God's existence, while the second builds on general arguments for God to culminate in a sharp focus on the redemptive work of God in Christ." (from Publishers Weekly via amazon.com)

Some of the topics that hit me the hardest:

• the importance of forgiveness and the pain that is involved in that forgiveness
• the danger of building one's life on anything other than God
• Christ's identification with us in our suffering

Amos and I heard hard news about a friend today, and I have been thinking back to what Tim Keller kept hitting on, namely that Christ suffers with us.

He loves us.

True love involves caring for the sufferer and entering into their suffering yourself as you draw close to them.  Christ did this for us on the cross.  He identified with us in our humanity and suffering.  He left His Spirit to comfort us as we live, laugh, love, and suffer here on earth.  "Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows..."

He knows.

And that is immensely comforting to me, especially as I want just to fix the situation and make everything right.

He cares for our friend more than anyone else ever could.



God knows.