When God Seems So Far Away; How Do We Survive?

            ‘Hiddenness of God’ is an ancient and a complex theme. It is portrayed in subjective and objective questions such as, ‘Where is God when we need HIM the most?’ and ‘Where was God during the Holocaust?’ respectively.

            “Deus absconditus is the Latin phrase that describes this phenomenon—the hidden God,” writes Margaret Manning Shull in an article she authored in RZIM.org.¹  

            Trials and tribulations are the existential staple for many people from various faiths. Deliverance from these painful situations may not be in sight for many.

            They say there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel. But the journey towards this light could be so burdensome that death, depression or insanity seems more existentially plausible than comfort, peace, and deliverance.

            Yes, deliverance from pain and misery may not be everyone’s lot. It is most certainly an ardent desire for all, but need not be a reality for everyone reeling under pain.

            But pain and distress are not the only premises emphasizing God’s Hiddenness. True; we yearn for God when we are amidst trials and tribulations. Not only during trials and tribulations, but we yearn for God during other circumstances as well.

            Another article in RZIM.org authored by Margaret Manning Shull explains this situation well, “Why isn’t God more obvious? This question is often asked in many ways and in many contexts, by people of all levels of faith. When prayers go unanswered, why is God silent? When suffering or tragedy strikes, why would God allow this to happen? Why wouldn't God want more people to know God's good news? When all the "evidence" seems to counter the biblical narrative, why doesn't God just give the world a sign? If God was revealed through many wondrous signs and miracles throughout the Bible, why doesn't God act that way today? All of these examples get at the same issue—the seeming "hiddenness" of God.”²

            Hiddenness of God is an ancient theme. The Bible portrays God’s Hiddenness through these verses:

            Why, Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? (Psalm 10:1, NIV)

            Why do you hide your face and consider me your enemy? (Job 13:24, NIV)

            “But if I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him. When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him. (Job 23:8-9).

            Man, then and now, suffers from the same dilemma. He seems to not find God when he needs HIM the most.

            Hiddenness of God is a complex theme. Some Christians who are in pain and suffering seem to have found God’s peace. They may have not necessarily attained deliverance from pain, but they dwell in the peace of God. Other Christians, who are suffering, run helter-skelter trying to find God, which turns into a futile exercise for them.

            Ravi Zacharias often quotes the hymn He Giveth More Grace written by Annie Johnson Flint. Here are the context and the lyrics:³

Annie Johnson Flint, the author of these words, lived a life on this earth full of pain and suffering. She was orphaned as a young girl, lived as an unwelcome burden with her first foster family. However, she finally did find love and acceptance with a new family, only to be orphaned again as a teenager. She suffered many physical afflictions that left her bedridden, incontinent, and in constant pain. And yet she wrote some of the most beautiful, faithful words you’ll find.

“He Giveth More Grace” by Annie Johnson Flint

He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater,

He sendeth more strength as our labors increase;

To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,

To multiplied trials He multiplies peace.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,

When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,

When we reach the end of our hoarded resources

Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

Fear not that thy need shall exceed His provision,

Our God ever yearns His resources to share;

Lean hard on the arm everlasting, availing;

The Father both thee and thy load will upbear.

His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,

His power no boundary known unto men;

For out of His infinite riches in Jesus

He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.

           

            This then is one facet of the complexity that requires greater detail. Some Christians, who are in suffering, find God and thus are able to be at peace with God even during their painful predicament. Some others become angry, bitter, and depressed and are at constant war against God during their painful predicament.

            Dr. Bart Ehrman, an erstwhile Christian, currently an agnostic, departed from the Christian fold because of God’s Hiddenness (especially during suffering). He wrote, “Suffering increasingly became a problem for me and my faith. How can one explain all the pain and misery in the world if God—the creator and redeemer of all—is sovereign over it, exercising his will both on the grand scheme and in the daily workings of our lives? Why, I asked, is there such rampant starvation in the world? Why are there droughts, epidemics, hurricanes, and earthquakes? If God answers prayer, why didn’t he answer the prayers of the faithful Jews during the Holocaust? Or of the faithful Christians who also suffered torment and death at the hands of the Nazis? If God is concerned to answer my little prayers about my daily life, why didn’t he answer my and others’ big prayers when millions were being slaughtered by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, when a mudslide killed 30,000 Columbians in their sleep, in a matter of minutes, when disasters of all kinds caused by humans and by nature happened in the world?”⁴

            God’s Hiddenness is real. How do we cope with God’s Hiddenness?

            It may be depressingly difficult to offer an answer to this highly complicated question if this theme was not addressed in the Bible. The Bible, speaking about God’s Hiddenness is tantamount to God acknowledging HIS hiddenness from HIS people.

            A loving, gracious, merciful and a just God who acknowledges HIS hiddenness from HIS people will always reveal HIMSELF to HIS people. In other words, HE will not let HIS people down.

            The key attribute in finding God during our pain and misery is patience. But godly patience is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. So those who remain in Christ even during their trials and tribulations are more likely to be patient.

            How long do we have to be patient for? I have not the least iota of an idea.

            The Bible says, “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” (2 Peter 3:8b, NIV).

            Giving God an ultimatum to show up need not work always. Let not man dictate to God as to when HE should show up. This attitude does not work. This attitude will always be to man’s detriment. 

            There is also another possibility – a precarious one at that.

            God may never show up. Even that is within HIS sovereign prerogative. It does not violate any of HIS attributes such as justice, love, mercy or grace.

            The Bible addresses this situation as well.

            Prophet Habakkuk professes faith in God regardless of his circumstances. He affirms his faith in God even if God should allow more suffering and misery, “When the fig tree does not bud, and there are no grapes on the vines; when the olive trees do not produce, and the fields yield no crops; when the sheep disappear from the pen, and there are no cattle in the stalls, I will rejoice because of the Lord; I will be happy because of the God who delivers me! The sovereign Lord is my source of strength. He gives me the agility of a deer; he enables me to negotiate the rugged terrain.” (Habakkuk 3:17-19, NET).

            Trusting in God even when we do not find HIM during our trials and tribulations is indeed a glorious faith. By trusting in God regardless of our circumstances we echo this wonderful verse, “Will not the judge of the whole earth do what is right?” (Genesis 18:25b, NET).

Endnotes:

¹https://www.rzim.org/read/a-slice-of-infinity/deus-absconditus

²https://www.rzim.org/read/a-slice-of-infinity/hide-and-seek

³Thankfully, Phil Schneider’s blog offers the context and the lyrics for this song: https://www.philschneider.net/2014/he-giveth-more-grace/

⁴https://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/blogalogue/2008/04/why-suffering-is-gods-problem.html#WHQpUiBP60ZCJmmy.99

Websites last accessed on 16^th March 2019.

Would Heaven Offset The Horrible Pain We Suffer In This World?

            Our neighborhood consists of people experiencing incredible suffering.

            A child born to a mother who’s a drug addict lives a wretched life. Born out of wedlock, this child remains fatherless. This in itself is to add insult to injury. He suffers immensely because of his mother’s immature and cantankerous life. Abused incessantly by his mother, her boyfriends, and by the society that refuses to give him an opportunity to live a better life, he lives dangerously.

            This child matures into a teenager enduring these horrendous evils. He takes several wrong decisions that are essentially predicated on the countless insults, neglect, cruelty, and the brutal violence he suffers from.

            One such wrong decision kills him.

            Thankfully, he lives no more to experience the horrendous evils of this world. 

            Ergo, we ask two questions:

            (A) Would this teenager go to heaven? (If this teenager goes to hell, then the eternal torment of hell added to the pain he suffered during his life on earth, would lead to a very questionable God, to say the very least.)

            (B) More importantly, would heaven compensate for the untold suffering experienced in this world by this teenager? If so, how?

            First, would this teenager go to heaven?

            If this teenager died as a Christian, he would indeed go to heaven.

            But there are other possibilities too.

            This teenager could have been born into a non-christian household. In this instance, this teenager may not have been a Christian. Then again, this teen may have carried a deep anger against God.

            What happens then?

            An incessantly abused human being, living in utter pain and poverty, has a very remote chance to encounter God. Unless God pursues this person either through a direct or an indirect [divine] intervention, we can assume that he will not seek God.

            (Even if there is a divine intervention, what are the chances that this young man would believe in God? His pain is so horrendous that he would ask God why he’s been forsaken into such a dreadful life, for no fault of his.) 

            If this teen dies as a non-christian and goes to hell to undergo eternal torment, why did God create this person, to begin with? Isn’t it unfair of God to create such a person, who’s born into a painfully dysfunctional [non-christian] household? It is not the fault of the child to have been born into such a painfully horrendous life. It is God, who put him into that very position. So the onus is on God to save this human being.

            The Triune God revealed by the Bible is a loving, merciful, gracious and a just God. Such a God would do everything that HE ought to, to bring this person into HIS eternal presence (cf. Luke 16:22). The onus has to be on God because, in HIS infinite wisdom, HE allowed this child to be born into a painful existential situation.

            Can we then assume that every non-christian suffering horrendous pain will go to heaven? The parable of the rich man and Lazarus seems to suggest that the poor man was taken to heaven merely because of the pain he endured while on earth (cf. Luke 16:25).  But this verse cannot be used to formulate a doctrine of salvation that every suffering person will go to heaven irrespective of their religion or irreligion.

            So what happens to every non-christian who suffers horrendous pain? Will he/she go to heaven merely because they experience brutal suffering while on earth? No! If God does everything HE should, to bring this person to HIS presence, and if this person continues to consciously reject God, then we could posit a future of eternal torment for him/her.

            Having said this, we should remember that God, who places people, whom HE loves, in such hazardous existential lifestyles, would act according to HIS infinite love, grace, and mercy for these suffering souls. HIS decision about the eternal destination of these suffering souls would be a perfectly just decision.

            The second question we ask is this, would heaven compensate for the untold suffering experienced in this world by this teenager? If so, how?

            Memories of our life on earth and the ensuing disappointment are vital factors to be considered. If heaven erases our earthly memories, then our life in heaven could be devoid of any form of disappointment.

            But heaven would not erase our earthly memories. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus suggests this fact:

“There was a rich man who dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. But at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus whose body was covered with sores, who longed to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. In addition, the dogs came and licked his sores.

 “Now the poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. And in hell, as he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far off with Lazarus at his side. So he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in anguish in this fire.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things and Lazarus likewise bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in anguish. Besides all this, a great chasm has been fixed between us, so that those who want to cross over from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ So the rich man said, ‘Then I beg you, father—send Lazarus to my father’s house (for I have five brothers) to warn them so that they don’t come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they must respond to them.’ Then the rich man said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ He replied to him, ‘If they do not respond to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’” (Luke 16: 19-31, NET, Emphasis mine)

            The rich man, who is in Hades, can vividly remember his earthly life. Ergo, we will remember our earthly life and along with it, its sorrows and joy. If we will remember our earthly lives in heaven, it is quite possible that we could carry the disappointment of our earthly life into our heavenly existence.

            The other possibility is that the joy of being with God and enjoying the perfect comforts of heaven will more than adequately compensate for the pain that we endure during our earthly life.

            Let us consider some earthly instances of the latter possibility to aid our understanding. If a blind man regains his sight, would he not celebrate his sight and be joyful (that he can now enjoy God’s creation)? Similarly, if a person confined to bed with illness is healed, would this person continue being bitter about his past illness or would he enjoy his healing and live a normal life?

            A blind man, if he regains his sight, would thank God and will be joyous that he can now enjoy the sight of God’s wonderful creation. Similarly, a person bedridden with illness, upon healing, will be thankful to God and celebrate his healing by enjoying the fullness of life that God has given to him.

            Likewise, when we are in heaven, the sadness or the bitterness of our past, even if we remember them, would be lost or would become insignificant while we are in the glorious presence of the Triune God. Considering the fact that we will be enjoying the abundant comforts of heaven, would we even have time in heaven to rue the sadness and pain of our earthly life?

            I don’t think so. 

Lessons Learnt From Aruna Shanbaug's Life

            Shortly after her 25^th birthday, this nurse was sexually molested and ruthlessly strangled by a vengeful hospital sweeper. The brutal attack incarcerated her into a vegetative state for 42 years. Aruna Shanbaug died on 18-May-2015, disowned by her family, but devotedly loved by the hospital staff to an extent that they kept her away from the pain of bedsores.

            We do not hope for Aruna’s painful situation upon anyone. But her situation could happen to anyone although in a different manner. Such is life’s gory unpredictability.

            She was in her prime and beautiful; her beauty attracted a young doctor who dated her because he saw her fit to be his wife. She was born to serve or so it seemed; she chose a respectable profession that served the ailing. That she lacked nothing could be a safe guess.

            But Aruna’s undoing was activated when she reprimanded a hospital sweeper for stealing food intended for hospital dogs. In response, his evil and perverted mind processed a reciprocation of rape. After sodomizing her, he harmed her irreparably by strangling her with a dog’s chain.

            In a moment, Aruna’s life morphed into gruesome pain.

            Her pain compounded when her family abandoned her. Aruna’s life could not have been darker and gloomier. Pain was at its zenith.

            Instantaneous death could have been a blessing in disguise for Aruna, for living in a vegetative state, and abandoned by her family, was a colossal pain than death. This is horrendous suffering.

            Without a cure in sight, death may have seemed like the best form of pain-relief. But God kept Aruna alive for 42 years in vegetative state.

Why and for what purpose did God keep Aruna alive almost to the point of being a burden upon the society?

            The Bible reveals that sickness and death are intended for God’s glory (cf. John 9: 1-3, 11: 4). So, how did Aruna’s life display God’s glory?

     Intriguingly, Aruna’s life offers a bright ray of hope to those in pain.

            The significant players in Aruna’s life were the hospital sweeper, Aruna’s family, the doctor who dated her, and the hospital staff.

            The hospital sweeper who molested and injured Aruna was an epitome of evil. He reminds us that evil lurks around the corner, waiting to assault us any moment. Despite our diligence, we could be susceptible to an evil assault, for we are rank powerless against evil if we strive to live our life in our own strength and might.

            Whatever be our situation, such an evil response cannot be justified. Even if we are in the very same situation as the hospital sweeper, reprimanded for doing wrong, we should take utmost care to not process any response that is remotely proximal to evil.

            Aruna’s family reminds us that no one or that nothing is certain in our lives. Our family and friends could discard us anytime. When we find ourselves in deep trouble, not many may come to our rescue. No one is perfect, our families included.

            On the other hand, if we are blessed to have family and friends who care for us when we desperately need help, then we ought to be grateful to God and to those who care for us. It is indeed a blessing to have family and friends who sacrificially care for us when we need them the most.

            The doctor who dated Aruna apparently took care of her for four years, but when he learnt that there would be no definite cure for Aruna, he decided to move on with his life. It seems that he has since married and lives outside India.

            Could we blame him for dumping Aruna? I don’t think so, for he too is not perfect. He may have found it unwise to squander his life over a person bound to remain incarcerated to die someday.

    What’s the point in being miserable and lonely waiting for someone who is not going to recover? Isn’t it the greater good to live happily? These thoughts probably motivated him to move on with his life.

            The hospital staff, especially the nurses and doctors, is the human-reason for Aruna’s seemingly painless vegetative state of life. As media reports portray, these nurses were God’s own angels, who kept this pathetic remnant of a human alive and well to the best of their abilities. 

            In hindsight, if it had not been for these kind souls, Aruna could have been dead, gone and forgotten a long time ago. In fact, the hospital staff may be the sole reason for Aruna’s fame in pain, for she was kept alive for 42 years. If she were not living, even vegetatively, she would not have been in the main stream news.  

            Think about this, what did the hospital staff have to gain by serving Aruna for 42 years? I could safely assume that they had nothing to gain. However, they cared for her because they loved her as if she was their own. This, I reckon, is the highest form of human love. 

            This is unconditional love - the very form of love that we should practice. Unconditional love expects nothing in return. Occasionally, we could be rejected by those whom we love unconditionally. But the prospect of rejection should not deter our love. 

            Were the nurses mandated to care for Aruna as if she were their own sister or mother? To care for Aruna so much so that she did not suffer from bedsores is the highest form of care. These nurses have undoubtedly engraved an admirable benchmark for us to emulate.

            Impossible as it may seem, the utterly selfless caring act of these nurses, most surely informs us that such a glorious art of caring is humanly possible. As long as God gives us breath to breathe and energy to serve, may we serve those in need with an utterly unconditional love.

            If anyone is in need, then we ought to serve them sacrificially. Sacrificial love is the need of the hour. We should practice sacrificial love always and at any cost.

            Significantly, Aruna’s life teaches us that not everyone would be healed by God. God heals some and not the others. We do not know the precise reason for God not healing some. But we are sure that God loves and cares for everyone. Just as God cared for Aruna through the hospital staff, HE would most surely care for you and me.

            Aruna’s life offers a glimmer of hope to those in severe pain. There are moments we may find ourselves lost and lonely in our terrible suffering. Aruna was lost and lonely in pain. But as Aruna received unexpected yet quality care, God will provide care and assistance from HIS people.

            May we be those who provide that unconditional and selfless love and care to anyone who is in need.        

Endnotes:

Information about Aruna Shanbaug was gleaned from these sources:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-32777562

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/18/asia/india-coma-victim-dies/

http://www.ndtv.com/blog/saying-goodbye-to-aruna-shanbaug-by-a-kem-hospital-nurse-764273

http://www.firstpost.com/living/the-unbearable-agony-of-being-aruna-shanbaug-a-great-injustice-331622.html

http://www.firstpost.com/living/the-rapist-who-never-was-let-us-not-forget-the-man-who-destroyed-aruna-shanbaugs-life-2251942.html

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-32776902