Joni Eareckson Tada makes a point here about the role that suffering can play in our lives. A pastor friend had done his doctoral paper on how suffering brings people to God. While I don’t believe God BRINGS the suffering, I do believe that there is plenty of it in the world due to the brokenness from sin and our own selfishness. And God will allow it to be a tool to prune us, reset our priorities, and lead us to himself.
“Blows and wounds cleanse away evil, and beatings purge the inmost being.”
Proverbs 20:30
The first time I read this verse, I cringed. It brought up contorted images of the Spanish Inquisition and the Salem Witch Trials–or at best, stern, tight-lipped schoolmarms walking the classroom aisles with a rod in hand. Proverbs may be a book filled with wisdom and godly instruction, but this verse seemed better suited for the sixteenth century.
But my heart has warmed to Proverbs 20:30. That’s because I’m writing this vignette from my bed where I have been spending long days dealing with severe back pain. The encroachment of my disability has humbled me of late: My pride has taken a severe beating as I’ve missed deadlines; I feel humiliated doing “business” from my bed; and I’ve had to bite my tongue from grumbling. God is forcing me to learn the deeper meaning of Psalm 119:67, 71, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word…It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.”
God may land a knockout blow to your puffed-up pride. He may wound your heart through a deep disappointment. He will go to great lengths to beat hateful habits out of your character and purge selfishness from your soul. Your ego may feel trampled. But that’s not bad. I, for one, know I will come out the other end all the richer and happier for the wounding. It’s what Proverbs 20:30 is all about.
Your God is not a stern, tight-lipped celestial ogre. He’s not on a witch hunt. He is the kind Father who has compassion on his children (Psalm 103:13). He’s also the wise and wonderful God described in Hebrews 12:10 who “disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.” Join me today in saying “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him” (Job 13:15).” Joni Eareckson Tada 8/4/15