Searching For God When We Hurt by ‘Brother Bill’
So, where is God when we hurt?
Let’s not dodge the question with a Hallmark card. Let’s walk straight at it, the way a man walks toward a house fire looking for his kids instead of away from it.
**The cheap answers don’t hold weight**
You’ve heard them. “Everything happens for a reason.” “God needed another angel.” “It’ll make you stronger.” Fine words for a stubbed toe. Worthless for a mother pulling her child’s shoe out of rubble. Job’s friends tried this exact routine — three chapters of tidy theology aimed at a man sitting in ashes — and God’s verdict on their performance was blunt:
“And it was so, that after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, ‘My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.'” (Job 42:7, NKJV)
So if the tidy answer made God angry when it was aimed at Job, it’ll do no better aimed at Venezuela, or at you.
**Where He actually says He is**
Not standing at a distance, arms folded, watching the show. Scripture is stubbornly specific about this:
“The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit.” (Psalm 34:18, NKJV)
Near. Not “aware of.” Not “sympathetic toward.” Near — the way you’d stand near someone at a graveside, close enough to touch.
“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you.” (Isaiah 43:2, NKJV)
Notice what the verse doesn’t promise. It doesn’t promise you skip the water or dodge the fire. It promises company in the middle of it. That’s a smaller promise than we’d like and a truer one than we deserve.
**The part those in pain would insist on saying plainly**
God never once promised us a universe with the rough edges filed off. He promised the opposite, straight from the mouth of the only man who ever fully carried both natures at once:
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33, NKJV)
That’s about as far from a greeting-card sentiment as you can get. Christ doesn’t say “you might have tribulation, if you’re unlucky.” He says you will. Then He tells you to cheer up anyway — not because the tribulation isn’t real, but because He’s already beaten the thing causing it.
**The comfort, not the explanation**
Here’s where the Lewis in the mix insists on precision: we are not owed a full explanation of *why* the tectonic plates move the way they do, or why a given family’s house was the one that fell. We are owed, and given, something else — comfort, not commentary:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4, NKJV)
That verse does something sly. It doesn’t just comfort you — it deputizes you. The comfort you receive isn’t meant to end with you. It’s meant to move through you to the next person standing in the rubble of their own life.
**The last word, and it isn’t earthquakes**
“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39, NKJV)
An earthquake is a created thing. So is grief. So is the empty chair at the table. Paul’s list is comprehensive on purpose — he’s not leaving you an escape hatch to wonder if your particular catastrophe was the one exception.
So — where is God when we hurt? Not orchestrating the suffering from a safe distance and not standing helplessly beside it either. He’s in it, near the broken heart, present in the fire, already having overcome the world that keeps producing fires. That’s not a complete answer. It’s a true one. Sometimes those are the only kind on offer.
So; Just when you think it’s safe to go back in the water (JAWS).
People are always asking me how I feel? My normal response is dismissive as I’d rather not focus on it and I’m more concerned about others. Paul said it best in 2 Corinth:12: 8 Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.
9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
On our journey when we keep our eyes on the prize life with pain has purpose enjoy.
Brother bill/dad
READ:
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NKJV)
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
