• Our story as believers begins with a glorious creation, followed by a woman being seduced by Satan. Mayhem ensues, and with it a list of unsettling questions. For example, how could a good God create a world in which evil and pain are permitted to exist? As defenders of the Faith, we are endlessly troubled by the Fall and its indictment of God’s character.
• But the questions themselves are curious. If this world, in it’s current and perennial state (violent and plagued by all manner of evil) is all we know of life, how did we come to the conclusion that goodness and peace were “normal” and violence and evil were “abnormal?” In other words, where did we get the standard by which we pretend to measure God’s conduct?
• The non-believer can’t answer this question. This world is all he knows or believes in. Whatever else life might be, it is entirely “normal.” To him, it will — and should — go on just as it has, time out of mind. The believer, on the other hand, receives all she knows of goodness and peace from God. She knows these things by knowing God himself (Isa 54:13); she knows them by having a measure of them in the midst of the mayhem (Jn 16:33); she knows them by having promises from God regarding the future — promises that resonate in her soul (made in the image of God).
• So let me propose this: the fact that you find yourself in an epic battle against evil, within and without, under the cloak of this present darkness, is entirely normal. It is normal because it is what God has permitted. The feeling of “wrongness” we experience is also normal, because God himself has shown us ultimate reality, and in that reality the battle is over, victory won. Violence and evil will be vanquished; peace and good will be triumphant. Both the battle, and the victory, are “according to the counsel of his will” (Eph 1:11).
• Let me say this another way: what’s happening here is you are being tested. The one on trial is not God, but you. So Peter says (with such gentleness), “In this [your living hope] you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 1:6ff). Your faith must be tested, for without it you can neither please God nor, ultimately, be in his presence (Heb 11:6).
• But I think Paul says it best, read carefully: “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Rom 8:16-17). See it? Both suffering and glory are promised to us. Both are “normal.” I encourage you to embrace this and, by the grace and faith of God, get past your issues with pain: “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake…” (Php 1:29). Stay the course and cling to your faith. It is more precious than anything else in your possession. “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you” (1 Pet 5:10). Believe it. It’s normal.
– Pastor Eric