The reality that
doing the will of God is not always easy and comfortable, and that it may in
fact include a great deal of hardship and suffering, seems to escape many
people today. We live in an age where the tremendous accomplishments, of the
human race, blind us into believing that there must surely always be an easier
and less inconvenient route to the achievement of our objectives.
Just consider
how many thousands and thousands of books are available in the bookstores, all professing
to have the quick and simple solution to help achieve our objectives – success
in business, wealth, beauty, health, perfect marriage, a happy family and so
the list goes on. Consider also how successful the doctors have become at treating
most illnesses and diseases; failing organs can be replaced to extend life for
years; the effects of aging can be neutralised through plastic surgery; even
changing your God given gender is possible through sex change operations.
This idea, that there
must be an easier and less inconvenient solution, even reveals itself in the
way people try to manipulate absolute moral principles. They argue that a
loving God would not expect anyone to endure the hardship and suffering that could
result from adhering to the moral principle. God will understand their good
intentions, they claim, and therefore the immoral may on such occasions be
considered moral.
Consider some
examples that are so common today:
Homosexuals
claim that a loving God would not want them to live their whole lives celibate
and alone. Instead of accepting the moral solution available to them, namely
celibacy, they manipulate the immoral homosexual act into a moral act. They
claim that, since they were born homosexual, without any choice in the matter,
God understands and condones their immoral homosexual relationship because
their intentions are good and honourable like a heterosexual couple.
A
woman splits from her very abusive husband because to stay would certainly result
in her husband murdering her. However, instead of accepting legal separation as
an adequate solution to the problem, the wife chooses to go one step further
and wants a divorce, claiming the right to a ‘do over’. The moral solution of
remaining single is considered too difficult to bear. Therefore, the immoral
act of divorce is now manipulated, based on her circumstances, and turned into a
moral act.
A
person who is dying from an incurable disease and suffering incredible pain and
hardship, chooses to make use of ‘assisted suicide’ to bring an end to the pain
and suffering. The person argues that a loving God would not expect anyone to
suffer the indignity and pain. God would therefore condone this act of mercy
and once again, in doing so, the immoral act is manipulated into a moral act.
It is difficult
to understand all the pain and suffering that we all, in differing degrees,
face at times. We will also probably never, in this lifetime, achieve any full
understanding of the need for all the suffering and hardships. This should not
however lead us to manipulate moral truth to suit ourselves.
“Woe
to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light
for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”[i]
When Jesus asked
the brothers James and John: “Are you
able to drink the cup that I am to drink?”[ii] James
and John replied without hesitation: “We
are able.” We must always answer Jesus in the same way. Yes, we are able to
live exactly as you taught us. We are even ready to accept every hardship that
comes our way because of it!
And, if we have
any doubt that this is what Jesus wants from us, hear what Jesus says to James and John
after they answer him: “You will drink my
cup”. He doesn’t say they will be spared from hardships and suffering. No
indeed, he says that they will suffer! As must we, in whatever way that may be,
always offering the hardship and suffering we endure up to God, while actively resisting, with
our whole being, the natural desire to choose a more convenient and less
difficult path to follow.
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