We will waste Chases’ life if we saturate our minds with thoughts of self, or this birth defect instead of the Christ exalting, faith producing, heart transforming, Word of God.
It is not wrong to know about Chase’s birth defect. But if we spend more time learning about Chase’s medical condition than we do learning about God and His design our souls will shrink. Suffering is meant to awaken Christians to greater visions of God.
Our greatest need is to have God speak directly to us during this time of difficulty. We need the truth of who God is and what He is like particularly with regard to what we are walking through. We need to see His purposes, we need to encounter the powerful effect of His unfailing promises. We need to hear God talking and experience Him working. We need to hear God speak to us from the Bible!
Is this a time for theology? If you mean truth about God, who He is, what He is like, and what He promises to do for us…ABSOLUTELY! Our primary need is to be near to God and hear His perspective on this. Why? Because God’s voice speaks louder than the screams of our pain, shines brighter that any present darkness, endures longer than anything that is or could be lost, and is the defining reality for all of life…including suffering.
Left to ourselves we would be delusional. This suffering would overwhelm us, obsess us and fill us with worry and distraction. God would seem invisible, silent, non-existent. Pain and how this leads to endless imaginations are intoxicating. We would be caught in a tailspin of fear, guilt, regret, confusion, anger, emptiness, and uncertainty. Who wants to live this way, especially in times of suffering?
What we need most in this hour is to hear our Saviors voice through God’s Word and to feel our heavenly Fathers hand by believing the truth found in God’s Word. We need to hear this voice and believe this truth as we spend those precious moments with God everyday alone. We need to hear it when we cry, when we pray, when we laugh, when we’re weary from the fight to believe. We need to hear it when we are staring at the sonogram machine, or when the doctor tells us our baby has minutes or days to live. We need to hear His voice and believe His truth as we fellowship with our friends and family. If we listen, we will become fearless. If we listen, we will endure. If we listen, we will fight the good fight. If we listen, we will know that we need to be rescued. If we listen we will persevere. If we listen, we will live.
Psalm 119.71-72 “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold or silver pieces.” What a waste of our son’s life if we spend more time thinking about this trial or his medical condition than we do thinking about God!
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