April 21st, 2026

Hi Friends,

It’s one of the great problems of our lives. It affects us all at one point or another. It is a common excuse among those who refuse to respond to the gospel. It hinders vital faith in many others. How do we deal with suffering?

Last Sunday, Tim showed us an interview that Francis Chan conducted with Joni Eareckson Tada. At one point Joni talked about how the Lord met her in a night of intense pain, without taking the pain away. It put me in mind of one of Joni’s songs, recorded long before she was married, written by Nancy Honeytree. It conveys a most interesting perspective of suffering from one who knows what it is to suffer.

Though I spend my mortal lifetime in this chair,

I refuse to waste it living in despair.

And though others may receive

Gifts of healing, I believe

That He has given me a gift beyond compare.…

For heaven is nearer to me,

And at times it is all I can see,

Sweet music I hear

Coming down to my ear;

And I know that it’s playing for me.

For I am Christ the Savior’s own bride

And redeemed I shall stand by His side.

He will say, “Shall we dance?”

And our endless romance

Will be worth all the tears I have cried.

I rejoice with him whose pain my Savior heals.

And I weep with him who still his anguish feels.

But earthly joys and earthly tears,

Are confined to earthly years.

And a greater good the Word of God reveals.

In this life we have a cross that we must bear;

A tiny part of Jesus’ death that we can share.

And one day we’ll lay it down,

For He has promised us a crown,

To which our suffering can never be compared.

I don’t know why God answers some prayers for healing and escape and not others. Maybe that’s not the right question. Maybe the question we should be asking are, “Am I willing to let this difficulty and suffering draw me nearer to Jesus? Do I want that even more than I want relief?” It takes great character to suffer. That’s why we work hard at making disciples.

Blessings!

Doug