I have noticed a recent and disturbing trend as I and other friends and family have dealt with suffering over the past few years. Why is it that when people experience suffering all too many followers of Jesus tend to respond out of a charismatic type of doctrine? First let me clarify a few things here. I am not referring to style here, I am not saying some people are more demonstrative in their expressions of faith than other, but I am talking about doctrine. What I mean is that people tend to embrace more emotionally based forms of doctrine (even if they are unaware) as seen by their responses. Charismatic by definition has more to do with emotional ecstasy than reality which is why we fall for and are most disappointed by very “charismatic” leaders. We fall for them emotionally and are surprised by the reality that was their all along. This is equally true in christian circles with doctrine, we fall for bad doctrine because of how it helps us emotionally. From that perspective I understand why typically people embrace this while going through periods of suffering, but it is concerning because it typically leaves people hopeless.
In sharing this I am fully aware that I may offend some, but as I continue to pray about it this topic is so important and needs truth to be spoken. It is so important because we see suffering (physical, emotional, economic, relational, etc.) all around us. Although it is one of God’s promises in scripture we are always surprised by it because we hold out a hopeless hope that it will not actually happen to us. Yet, the thing we fight against is one of things that is promised to make us more Christlike if we would only embrace it. Sorry for the tangent, back to the point.
So what I notice is that when we experience suffering people come out of the wood work with all kinds of crazy things with little to no scriptural support. We have gone through with friends and experienced with first hand as Mindy continues to battle chronic pain as a result to complications from childbirth. It was amazing the number of people who seem to think that they can boss God around and command him to do this and that by twisting scriptures in an attempt to “claim them” for us. Now where would Mindy and I be if we fell into this idea (which did impact us briefly and caused true pain)? Mindy still has extreme chronic pain and most likely will until she meets Jesus face-to-face in heaven. If I twist scripture around to think that I had the right to boss God around, claiming his word to hold him to a test, and make him do what I want and He doesn’t do it what does that mean? It destroys ones trust in God which is what falling into emotionally based doctrine does. To truly understand God is to know He is in control and does not have to do anything for me, I am not entitled to healing, wealth, prosperity, a good job, favor with people, etc. Please do not mistake this, pray for your friends but pray with humility and love, in fact, beg God, but understand he will do what he chooses to do. While you are at it, pray for the healing and blessing that will come not through the specifics that you pray but through the suffering that is promised to each of us. I believe Mindy can already and will at the end of her days look back and see how her horrible chronic pain was a true blessing.
There are so many crazy things that people begin to include that are really only emotionally based coping mechanisms. You have heard them, singing healing over someone sick (I still cannot understand this from a practical or scriptural perspective), thinking magic thinks like a certain type of oil (although elders should anoint the sick with oil and pray for healing), claiming repentance for another person (what, how does that work), and looking for miracles not found in scripture like eating a certain diet or taking certain vitamins.
Some of these might have a benefit and most of them are just like Satan’s initial deceptions, partial truths that sound good. Like eating healthier is always better but it is not a miracle cure for sickness and death, or embracing accountability with a close friend and pursuing if sin might be leading to suffering. The reality is this is all based in sin. The result of sin is suffering, pain, separation, and death. We live in a fallen world where sin has infected everything and our bodies are subjected to the curse and sickness and death occur. Sin has impacted the world to where work is hard and produces lots of suffering and pain with little return. These are found in the beginning with the curse. The problem is instead of responding biblically to these with hope because of Jesus we pursue emotional fixes to help us with our fear. These emotional fixes keep us enslaved to our fear and pull us alway from the true hope we find in Jesus.
Again, in sharing this I know I become a target to those of you who are relying on these emotionally based responses to carry you through, but let me share with you true hope. I am not very old, I have only experienced 31 years of life on this earth and only about half of those have I been a follower of Jesus. However, during my short time I have personally been a part of miraculous healing of people I prayed for, experienced the miracles of people forgiving those whom have abused them, first hand experienced God miraculous provision when their seemed to no hope in sight. I have seen a lot, I have seen God do the supernaturally in truly unexplained ways (including with me) and I have seen him do the supernatural though other people, the miracle of modern medicine, etc. Throughout all of this, what I continually come back to is that there is a great and mighty God. His name is Jesus and he continues to this day to do the miraculous and supernatural. He loves greater and more than all the greatest scholars and poets could ever deduce. He extends his grace and makes it available to all despite the fact that his own suffering was a result of our flat out rebellion to his authority and character.
My friends, suffering is a reality we will each face, so is sickness, pain, death, separation, and evil. Instead of fixing your eyes of emotionally based religious experiences and expressions let us fix our eyes on the one who has conquered it all. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus and find hope in him despite what circumstances He allows to unfold. Let us recognize him as in control and thank him for the moment that we have. Let us push away our ideas of entitlement to better, easier, wealthier, funner, happier, and be thankful for his consistent presence with us through all of reality. Let us quit setting up ourselves, our families, and our friends to lose hope and trust because of our emotionally based religious responses. Instead, let us look to the savior and to his truth and find him. Let us come to know what it means for him to be the comforter instead of the experiences we create and call his. Let us suffer well, let us suffer together that the world might see the one who carries us through it all and find true hope themselves. Let us put aside charismatic theology and let us hold to scripture. Let us put off our fantasies and instead live in God’s reality with him, maybe, we might in doing so find the fantasy we were looking for all along.
