Image: Cabana Beach by SafePit on Mecabricks
Part 2 – Fallen Legos
Stepping on a Lego can be painful, but the one who loves Legos learns to put it in perspective.
We continue our study in the deconstruction movement, using Legos as a visual framework. If you haven’t already, please begin with Part 1. Now, let’s do the hard work and sort through our next topic of suffering.
If you’ve heard the phrase “we live in a fallen world”, then you are familiar with the idea of making sense of suffering. It doesn’t take much living or watching news to realize this world is not paradise. And yet something within us tells us it’s not the way it’s meant to be. I hope we can agree that suffering is wrong, that people have value, that we have a world full of wrongs that ought to be righted. History tells us we have always strived towards a better world. As C.S. Lewis said, “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.” Still the question looms – Why would a benevolent God allow suffering? Before we can answer that question, we need to fully embrace the meaning. Imagine you were born in the ultimate utopia, totally devoid of pain. Someone asks you why there is suffering. They might as well ask you what it’s like to ride a unicorn on Mars. It’s outside your experience. You see, the true meaning of suffering is not in the Q&A but in the experience. I could find logical reasons as to why suffering exists, but the experiences of my life have offered the most assuring answers.
Stepping on a Lego can be painful, but the one who loves Legos learns to put it in perspective. That harm done by the Lego piece is seen as temporary and the piece moved to the right place, where the Master Builder can make something wonderful. And if stepping on a Lego is not painful enough, just consider what a Lego set does to your wallet! But it’s the awesome picture on the box that makes it worth the cost. Anything or anyone worth loving involves sacrifice, whether that involves physical pain or financial costs or spending time doing what the other person enjoys. In fact, true love sees it as an investment rather than a loss. Let’s deconstruct the false notion that we can find worthwhile love and joy without the cost of suffering.
Hebrews 12 points us “to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Contrary to a viral sound bite, God did not simply “give up a weekend for us.” I can’t think of anyone who would go on that horrific weekend cruise for me. Actually, Jesus endured the loss of paradise, rejection by world leaders, misrepresentation, death threats from birth, betrayal, barbaric torture, and death by an angry mob. So I’m in Heaven, and God says to me, “Hey, you want to go through all that for those haters?” Me – “Nah, I’m good. Pass me another slice of perfect cheesecake.” My point is, Jesus saw a kind of inexpressible joy that outweighed every moment of His suffering. He saw the picture on the Lego box, so to speak, and decided it was worth the cost.
Likewise, that hope carried my father through a grueling battle with cancer. He would tell everyone how he felt like the apostle Paul when he was “hard pressed between the two (life and death.) My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.” My father, even in his suffering, saw the greater value of Heaven. His longing put a longing in my heart to pursue Heaven, knowing that my father went ahead of me at a young age. In this world of restless suffering, I recently heard Erika Kirk say in the face of blind hatred, while echoing the love of Jesus,”Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Those who find such peace of God in this world have but a taste of the world to come.
- Deconstructing Brickwork Part 3
- Deconstructing Brickwork Part 2
- Deconstructing Brickwork Part 1
- Time to Rebuild
- The Trinity in a Flash
godbrix 