THE SPIRITUAL ASPECT – No. 6

I want to continue documenting some of the incidents in which God has guided us, provided for us and spoken to us since my diagnosis. This week, I’m going to risk sharing something that I have felt in my heart for some time now but have never attempted to verbalise. My desire to do so now was prompted by a comment made by one of Nicky’s cousins last week at a family gathering.

I share this in humility to make a point. Nicky’s cousin said something to the effect of, “I just don’t understand why God would allow something like this to happen to someone who is serving Him and doing so much good.” I appreciate her compliment, and understand her argument. I think it comes down to the much-asked question, “How can a good God allow His people to suffer?”

Many books have been written on this subject, and I’m not going to attempt to condense them all into one blog post. However, as I wrote earlier, I do want to present a personal perspective on this question.

My perspective comes from the stories of Joe and Job. In the account of Jesus healing the man born blind, we are not told the name of man who was healed. He was just your average ‘Joe’ trying to make it in spite of some difficult circumstances. Like Nicky’s cousin, Jesus’ disciples had the mindset that bad things should only happen to bad people, so they asked, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Job had the same experience when his friends insisted that he must have done something wrong to deserve all his tragedy.

Jesus’ reply to His disciples reveals a different perspective. He said, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.” Looking at this reply from the old perspective, one would think it cruel of God to allow this man to suffer so many years of blindness. But look with me from the new perspective and think, “What an honour God bestowed upon this young man, that he would become the vehicle through which God would accomplish some very important purposes—important enough to be recorded in John’s Gospel!”

I believe that some of God’s purposes could only be accomplished by someone with my unique set of experiences, circumstances and gifts. The same is true of everyone. Now here comes the risky part: I genuinely feel honoured that God has chosen me to be the one through which He is accomplishing those purposes.

God has already accomplished so much through my illness that even if He doesn’t heal me, it will have been worth it. But I believe He will heal me—not because I’m a ‘good’ person, but to accomplish more of His purposes in and through me. That’s why I now pray more for the time after I am healed than for healing itself.