The Art Site

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

suffer the little children

she could see the machine. Its face was blurry, its body white-coated, moving slowly and methodically among gleaming silver instruments. Gloved fingers reached for an item from the tray by the bed, carefully picking from the metal shapes and pulling out curved scissors.

the woman's body was half-covered with the white sheet, the lower half exposed, legs pushed apart. Her fingers closed over the loose ends of the sheets, unwittingly gripping them, knuckles straining taut. Her whole body knew what had to come from what her mind had done, but the mind itself was suspended in the surreality of the situation. It was impossible that she was chained to her body, when she could feel no connection with it now. The only tie between spirit and flesh was the mind controlling the body's actions - but now, she could no longer sense her body responding.

and, that part of her mind which forced her body to remain tied to the bed, waiting for sharp metal to pierce the child inside her - it had nothing to do with the rest of her mind that was now so distanced from that other, mechanicalised part, that it seemed a separate entity. It was paralysed, she wasn't even trying to sense what she was feeling. But beyond the paralysis was agony, sharp and bitter, that ripped her mind to pieces and had no pity.

There were three people in the room. Only three, because the nurse had chickened out, mentally unfit for the procedure. The woman lay on the bed, and the white machine-surgeon, his mind alive but his morality de-sensitized, was preparing to kill.
And God was there, watching. He was All-powerful, and He felt the woman's numb agony more bitterly than the woman could, as he saw the surgeon carry out the procedure.

...

What do you think? Why do you think God allows suffering?

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14 Comments:

Blogger 1 of 8 / 1 de 8 niños said...

O, Liddie. You make me cry. I have to go to bed now but if you want I am more than willing to talk/chat with you on those questions (What do you think? Why do you think God allows suffering?). Thank you for sharing that reminder of God in suffering. Jessica

1:44 am  
Blogger Andy said...

very well written Lyd. His ways are surely past finding out.

10:31 am  
Blogger Lydie said...

Hi Jessica. Yes, that sounds like a deal. What do you think about God and suffering?

9:38 pm  
Blogger 1 of 8 / 1 de 8 niños said...

http://www.bbcq.org/sermons.php

If There is a God, Why is There so much Suffering
(Psalm 145; Luke 13:1-5)

How about you email me with a time to chat/talk on skype or facebook on Sunday?

Did just type up a longer answer but lost it by mistake, but have to go now.

God bless, Jessica

12:49 am  
Blogger Lydie said...

Thanks Jessica! [can I call you 'Jess'?]

hmm. I'll look up those passages.. I'm sorry you lost your long reply - I'd have liked to read it, of course! So gutting when that happens.

Yes, I'd love to chat with you about this. I don't believe I'm friends with you on fb, although I'm not sure. Can we chat tomorrow, perhaps? Or tuesday? Sorry, Sunday doesn't work for me as I'm always really busy [even though it's supposed to be a rest day!]

Lydie

12:15 am  
Blogger 1 of 8 / 1 de 8 niños said...

Sorry I missed your reply. Would you prefer skype, phone (are the phone lines up yet) or chat on facebook? Look under your friend and I'm Jessica Murray or Jessica Murrayfor Barcelona Orphanage.

Two readings I would HIGHLY recommend are John Blanchards short booklet 'Where is God when things go wrong?' and the book by Jerry Bridges called 'Trusting God: Even when life hurts'. I was really cross with God for letting us move to Australia when we did and when I read this book it just made me cry and come to a deeper understanding of God's soverignty.

There is also a complete book on suffering by Ken Ham on the Answers on Genesis website (United States one) that I haven't had a chance to read yet but will when I get to.

Please email me with my optus address as I check my emails more than this blog for your reply. (You can find my email address through my Barcelona facebook account.)

Also please let me know how things are going over there with cleaning up after the flood etc...
when have they posponed uni until?

Much love in Christ, Jessica

12:35 am  
Blogger 1 of 8 / 1 de 8 niños said...

I love the beginning of James to really chew and chew on as well as the familiar Romans ch 8.

The following (that I mentioned earlier) is actually a sermon I've listened to so you might want to listen to it to get what the pastor was saying about suffering in relation to the passages.

http://www.bbcq.org/sermons.php

If There is a God, Why is There so much Suffering
(Psalm 145; Luke 13:1-5)

Could you confirm your email address with me as last time I tried to email you it bounced, maybe something to do with the internet conection not working?

12:40 am  
Blogger 1 of 8 / 1 de 8 niños said...

"...Do you believe God is good? Do you believe His plan is perfect?..."
http://mwindulambewe.blogspot.com/2010/07/question-answer.html

2:28 am  
Blogger Mwindula Mbewe said...

Hi, Jessica recommended this post/blog to me, and am glad she did, its great Lydie.

Its clear from scripture that God is self centered and jealous, and rightly so. He deserves all the praise and glory! And asuch everything He does is so that we and all creation can make much of Him and less of everything else. Theres a link between God's glory and suffering question is, when we go through trials, do we search for that link or we just either say God is in control or blame Him and move on?

6:46 am  
Blogger 1 of 8 / 1 de 8 niños said...

Mwindula, I'm not sure if my mind grasps exactly what you are trying to say. Are you saying that God is most glorified when we praise Him through suffering (instead of playing the blame game and blaming Him for only the bad things and not acknowledging the good things that he gives people)? Or are you trying to explain a slightly different concept that I haven't understood yet. And when you say "...when we go through trials, do we search for that link or..." what are you meaning. Just curious as wasn't quite sure what exactly you meant... thinking, Jessica

9:26 pm  
Blogger 1 of 8 / 1 de 8 niños said...

Here's the link for the online book I mentioned earlier. As I say I haven't had a chance to read it yet (although I've read other good stuff by the same author) so will leave it up to whoever choses to read it to decide what it's like.

'How Could a Loving God...?'
by Ken Ham
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/hcalg/

Another booklet which I have read and would recommend is:
'Why does God's Creation Include Death & Suffereing?'
by Tommy Mitchell
http://www.answersingenesis.org/cec/online_resources.asp#death

1:44 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Keep up the good work Lyd.

9:00 am  
Blogger 1 of 8 / 1 de 8 niños said...

Books recommended by Mom on the subject of suffering:

http://mustlookgoodbook.blogspot.com/2010/11/what-is-point-of-life-manuals-on-how-to.html

10:20 pm  
Anonymous Ugly Duckling said...

There are women who undergo abortions at high school or varsity age, and then are haunted for the rest of their lives by the thought of what that child would have been like, what he would have grown up to become. Is this one of the forms Hell on Earth takes??

Some women may tragically desire abortion, may be pressured to consent to it. But it is morally desensitised men who nearly always perform it. This is one of the many reasons I do not put my fellow men on a pedestal. One of the reasons I declined to make my career in medecine is my fear that I would be required to perform abortions, or at least learn how to do them.

Quite a few times, situations that I thought bad when I first experienced them turned out to have an ample silver lining. There are aspects of my upbringing that I thought confined me to a back seat in the bus of life, but that I much later realised helped make my life richer, made it easier for me to understand moral truths that elude many others.

Years ago, I bought a house in a neighbourhood that was far from flash. I did not enjoy many of the amenities that living in ChCh can offer. But my frump house and neighbourhood laughed off both earthquakes.

When I was of school and varsity age, I was shy and awkward with the opposite sex, which made me feel sad and lonely. I now see that that was God's way of enabling me to walk along the sexual sewer of the late 20th century, without falling in. I do not have another woman's abortion on my conscience. I eventually married and had children. The children's story about the Ugly Duckling resonates very deeply with me.

There has been violence in my extended family. But I am confident that that violence will eventually prove to advance a moral purpose.

6:29 am  

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