I Should Be Miserable, But ...

University of Chicago researchers calculated a misery index based on the number of serious life problems experienced by the people surveyed over the past year. Problems included death of a loved one, divorce, illness, loss or damage of home, and loss of a job.

According to the study, we’re a lot more miserable now than we were last year.

This seems to go hand-in-hand with a New York Times oped piece about happiness, which points out that the more we pursue happiness, the more it seems to elude us.

Much of modern-day Christianity falls into this happiness trap. It falsely promises people a care-free life, “your best life now.” As if God’s primary concern was making me feel good about myself and my life. As if suffering in the Christian life meant you were somehow less spiritual than your more prosperous and happy neighbors. Wouldn’t that come as a big surprise to the saints and martyrs of the past?

If you were looking at the circumstances of my life in the past year from the outside, you’d probably conclude that I am pretty miserable. We lost my daughter’s boyfriend — a young man we dearly loved — to a tragic and senseless accident. I lost my kidney function, have been in and out of the hospital and have to depend on a machine to stay healthy.

Yeah, it’s been a tough year. Boo hoo for me. But am I more miserable than last year at this time? Shouldn't I be walking around in a cloud of depression? I’m not. Why is that?

As Christians we know our earthly circumstances are just part of the story. These terrible things don’t mean that God loves me less, or forgot about me or is punishing me. Trials and suffering give us the opportunity to trust God, to see His hand at work in our lives to heal, comfort and console — even when the circumstances don’t change or get better. My Savior suffered; do I expect an easier time of it? These trials give us the chance to show the world something different is at work in our lives — something that provides an oasis from the desert of answers the modern world offers.

Comments

[Leann]

God make ALL the difference - He is so cool that way!!!!! Thanks for sharing this wonderful testimony...

Blessings for a wonderful New Year for you and your family!!!!!

[alicia]

That suffering has meaning is one of the unique gifts that Christianity brought into the world. By uniting our suffering with that of Christ on the cross, miracles have happened.
Reading your post, I remembered a story from a good friend of mine. She had emergency surgery for a ruptured appendix, and when she came out of the anesthesia, she asked her husband to bring her the book from her bedstand - the one she had been reading when she took ill.
She had been working her way through C.S.Lewis at that time.
Her nurse was a little concerned later that day to see the title of the book in my friend's hands - "The Problem of Pain"....
Here's praying that 2006 will bring not only sorrows but also the grace to deal with them.

[Dan Rose]

LeeAnne,
Praise God for your perspective. You are an amazing witness for the gospel through suffering well. Thanks so much!

[Dale Price]

Excellent--truly inspiring stuff.

As I explained to a friend recently, we worship a God who was unjustly executed. Even if suffering doesn't make sense, I can take comfort in the fact that He has suffered it with us. Even if He doesn't explain it, and even if He says nothing else, Christ extends a permanently-scarred hand and says "I know."

Thanks again.