The Sunday after I wrote this post, our pastor Tab Trainor preached an excellent follow-up message on John 9:1-7. I have wanted to write a post on it since first hearing it but have struggled with how best to articulate my thoughts. At this point, it seems most appropriate to start by explaining why it was particularly fitting and especially meaningful to me to hear this message preached by Tab.
Tab is a man who truly loves the people of God. God has given him a heart for each and every person in the flock that he has been called to care for. In fact, it would take multiple blog posts for me to mention the countless times that Tab has personally reached out to and lovingly cared for Mike and I over the past thirteen years. He has been intimately acquainted with our struggles over the years and has faithfully walked alongside us through thick and thin.
Due to the growth of our church over the past five years, we had less contact with Tab and his family for a while. So when Wesley was born, I was not expecting the extent of the care that we received from Tab. Because of his affection for those in his care, Tab remembers what they are walking through and is faithful to follow-up. For the past two-and-a-half years, I cannot remember a month where Tab did not find me at least one Sunday and ask how we were doing and how Wesley was doing. And he never asks it as a perfunctory question. He wants to know. He wants to hear the details so that he can know how best to pray for and care for the people that he loves so much. Many Sundays Tab has also laid hands on Wesley and prayed specifically for requests that we have shared.
While I know that most pastors love and pray for those in their congregations, I truly believe that God has given Tab a gift of grieving with those who grieve, lovingly caring for those who are walking through difficult seasons, encouraging the fainthearted, and helping the weak. Several years after Wesley's birth, while most people have moved on, Tab continues to regularly ask us specific questions about how we are doing and how he and our church can better walk alongside us. He asks about Wesley's development, struggles, and successes. But more importantly, he asks about how Zach is responding to the extra time we spend with Wesley. He asks about how we are doing in our marriage. He seeks to understand how disability might affect our family in ways that others might not be aware of. He asks about our walks with the Lord - if we are trusting Him and believing His goodness and faithfulness toward us. And then he asks how he personally and the church as a whole can better seek to serve our family. Every time Mike and I interact with Tab, I sense God's pleasure as I see Tab's genuine love for Wesley, one of the least of these, and for the family to whom God has entrusted him.
So in August when Tab started his message by asking "How do I interpret my sufferings and hardships and difficulties?", I heard this question as coming from a man who deeply cares for those in his congregation and longs for each person in his flock to interpret their struggles through the lens of the cross.
Tab went on to say that what Jesus says in John 9:3 also applies to our own suffering. Along with the blind man, we suffer that the works of God might also be displayed in us.
Tab reminded us that God does not want us enduring trials with a vague sense of condemnation, thinking that God must be displeased with us. The God of the Bible is not a god of karma who is out to get us. Our trials have a purpose - they are not meaningless. For instead of having a god of karma, we have a God who loves us. Does this mean that we will be healed? Maybe, but not always. God's works can also be displayed in sustaining us and transforming us through trials or refining and strengthening our faith.
Seeing this truth helps us to take our focus off of the why questions (Why Lord? Why me?) and instead helps us to ask the how questions (How Lord do You want to be glorified and praised in this? How do you want me to display Your work on this stage? How is Your power made perfect in my weakness?)
But in order to do this, we need a Christ-centered trust. Since Jesus Himself is well acquainted with suffering and grief, He can relate to all of our sufferings as a result of His own experience. It is trust in the suffering of Christ that can bring great comfort to the suffering saint. Because God sent His own Son to take the punishment for our sins and suffer in our place, we can now trust that God will work out all of our circumstances for our good and His glory.
"Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful." James 5:11
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