Advent and Suffering Guide

Dear First name / friend,

 

 

 

Christmas can feel like forced joy. When you’re going through hardship, the lights and elves and presents and music feel like salt in a wound. Perhaps you have asked—like I have—where are you God? I asked it when I knew the answer.

 

Scripture tells us the story of a God who came down into abject suffering. It all starts in Genesis 3. God’s presence left the Garden because of the sin that stained it. But with no delay, He put into motion a plan to bring His presence back to earth, among His people, available for those who wanted to walk with Him in the cool of the day. Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob—they carried the flame of God’s faithfulness forward, and at last a Tabernacle was built (Ex. 35-40).

 

Then a Temple (1 Kings 6): God’s presence with His people. But once again, God’s presence was not deemed valuable enough by the people He came to save. His with-ness was not seen as the treasure it was. The Temple was destroyed, God’s glory departed…but only for a little while. These earthly shadows of a heavenly reality hinted at the promise to come. For this weary world a Son would rise with healing in His wings, a hope to conquer the restless evil, and a restoration for that which was lost.

The with-ness once gone has been eternally given. The presence of God, once captive to a tabernacle, now “tabernacles” within every person who bows her heart to fear God’s name. God is with us. God’s presence in this evil world is within you—and me.

 

In John 14, Jesus promises the Holy Spirit, who previously came upon Old Testament saints for specific tasks and times. But this time, the Spirit will rest with us always, enabling us to bring the with-ness of God to our cities and towns:

In our hardship, and in light of the world’s suffering, we look at evil and wonder, Where is God? He is here. In us, and in the world. We ask, “Why doesn’t God just fix it all?” But to ask this is to ignore the greater truth: He is fixing it all. And He’s using us to do it.

 

When the tears fill my eyes at yet another grief and I feel overwhelmed by the restless evil that is in this world, I am no longer driven to doubt; I am driven to action. The grief in my heart is not a product of my own ideas but a product of the presence of God in me. And the grief you feel for the evil you see is God’s power at work in you, motivating you to be the difference, empowering you to bring the presence of God to every wrong and fallen thing you touch. You are the tabernacle of God in your community. You, and I, filled by God, are the answer to evil.

He does not give as the world gives. He does not give hollow promises and short-lived solutions. Immanuel gives peace. He makes a home with those He loves, and sends them out to the loved ones lost:

He is at work always, restoring, redeeming, and He is using us to accomplish it. He tells us to go and make disciples–to go and feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the poor, rescue the unwanted, tend to the sick—and says I am with you always not as an addendum or an aside.

 

I am with you always is the REASON.

 

Because He is here, overcoming evil, we do the work of overcoming evil with Him.

 

 

In me, through me, in you, through you, blessing the world.

 

You are His chosen instrument of bringing goodness and blessing and comfort to the world.

 

The Church, when walking by His Spirit and listening to His voice and obeying His prompting is the work of God's hand—the offense against evil. The winning side.

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