Suffering

A New Strength and Courage

Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Embracing weakness flies in the face of our culture. We’re supposed to fight it and overcome it. We elevate the strong. We like those who stand tall on their own two feet and need little from others. We like leaders who are independent and self-sufficient and can show us the way. These are the ones who are wired for success. And we assume they are blessed by God and can most easily bring God’s blessings to us. We don’t have to read much of Scripture to realize God has a different way of working.

A Beautiful Burden: The Story of a Kidney Transplant Recipient

Thursday, May 11, 2023

It was a sunny Californian day when I got the call, while walking on the bustling campus of Biola University. I was closing out my junior year and felt like I knew everything and had forever to know more. All it took was one phone call to destroy that false reality forever. I had been having minor health issues that took me consistently back to the campus health center. And what had they found? I was in Stage 3 (out of 5) kidney failure.

What American Mental Health Care Is Missing and How Churches Can Help

Friday, June 17, 2022

Ministry leaders who foster vital congregational community can constructively address the adverse trends in the growing national crisis regarding the upturn in mental illness. In the previous piece on ministry along the mental health continuum, the charge to ministry leaders was to be part of the solution: faith communities serve a stabilizing function that increase disease resistance by reversing isolation. Here, that challenge will be expanded. Ministry leaders can indeed be part of a larger social movement that promotes mental health and fulfills our Gospel calling. Awareness of trends in mental health care can assist clergy to customize and deepen the support offered to struggling parishioners.

The Pandemic Mental Illness Outbreak: A Ministry Perspective

Friday, May 20, 2022

Is the clamor regarding an uptick in untreated mental health cases an absurd prophecy or another conspiracy theory? The data would suggest otherwise. There is reputable evidence that increasing numbers of people are inwardly perturbed and exhibit symptoms such as sleep disturbance, suicidal ideation, and addictive behaviors. The COVID-19 pandemic itself brought evidence-based epidemiology—the data-driven study of patterns in health and disease—into the public spotlight.

Assisted Suicide—A Quadriplegic’s Perspective

Thursday, October 13, 2016

Culture is so easily influenced by the entertainment industry. This is why I am sounding an alarm about a very dangerous message in a film released earlier this summer. It’s simply titled Me Before You.

Death and the Church, Part I

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

We live in a Western culture in which we find ourselves caught between two opposing secular medical responses to the reality of suffering and death: 1) Suffering and death are the ultimate human foes and must be fought—and conquered—at all costs (often resulting in the over-treatment of patients); or 2) Suffering produces a diminished “quality of life,” so death should be hastened (often resulting in the under-treatment of patients).

Dying with Dignity

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Bills to change the law to allow euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide continue to be presented to parliaments throughout the western world, on a wave of overwhelming public support for “the right to choose and have a dignified death.” While it is unlikely the debate will go away, we can still hope for a more honest one.

Plagues, Parables, and Pundits (Part 1)

Friday, January 6, 2017

"For when people were afraid to visit the sick, then they died with no one to look after them . . . . The bodies of the dying were heaped one on top of the other, and half-dead creatures could be seen staggering about in the streets or flocking around the fountains in their desire for water."[1] Thus Thucydides (ca. 431 BC) paints a vivid—if morbid—picture of a plague in the classical world. This situation did not change for another seven centuries. We can learn much from what (and who) brought the change.

Plagues, Parables, and Pundits: A Lesson from Church History (Part 2)

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Too frequently Christians in the West engage questions about medicine and healthcare from within our particular political binary—conservative or liberal. Our pundits endlessly debate the questions, “Who should have access to medical care?” “How should they get it?” And, most of all, “Who should pay for it?” Might Christians have more to say than our polarized political discourse allows? Our ancient brothers and sisters would answer with a strong, “Yes!”

Angry at Death: Reading John 11

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Having been a pastor and professor for a couple of decades, I’ve heard (and spoken) my share of funeral sermons. At times, quite ironically it seems, death is almost personified and praised as the great deliverer, the one who relieves our loved ones of unbearable pain and suffering. And while I understand the “blessing” of death to cease suffering, I can’t help but think of the New Testament portrayal of death as “the last enemy” (1 Cor. 15:26; cf. 2 Tim. 1:10; Rev. 20:14; 21:4). The story of Jesus’s response to the death of his friend Lazarus in John 11 brings not only comfort and hope but much-needed wisdom and perspective.

Death and the Church, Part II

Friday, February 10, 2017

Given our secular culture’s confusing responses to suffering and death—death is either the ultimate human foe to be conquered at any cost, or is preferable to a “diminished quality of life”—many believers are co-opting a worldview that runs contrary to historic Christianity. While we are most appreciative of the fine and informative work of ministries such as The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity, the “think tank” cannot replace the local parish as the center of Christian education. In other words, bioethics (especially issues of death and dying) must be mainstreamed from the academy to the pulpit and pew. This will obviously require a fair bit of intentionality.

Him Before Us: Wisdom to Inform Bioethical Conversation

Friday, March 31, 2017

The prevailing cultural narrative, woven into routine dialogue and highlighted throughout the entertainment industry, turns on how the individual alone must define what is good using one’s internal moral compass. The frame of reference for making optimal moral choices is exclusively located within the uniqueness of the autonomous person, who applies private and personal criteria to achieve happiness, wholeness, and significance.

I Need God in My Suffering

Friday, May 5, 2017

When we can’t find the answers we’re looking for, we can find peace in the only true answer: We need God! Affliction is the lowest common denominator for all of us. Philippians 1:29 tells us to expect suffering: “For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him.” But no matter how strong our faith is, it’s natural to ask why.

Rachel Crying for Her Children: Remembering the Childless in Our Churches

Thursday, June 8, 2017

Whatever the case, we have many Rachels in our congregations—women who are “weeping for (their) children because they are not” or “are no more” (Matthew 2:18 quoting Jeremiah 31:15). These women, and men too, find difficulty in joining in the joy of this day. They may be inconspicuously absent because it hurts too much to be reminded of empty wombs, empty hearts, and empty hands.

Death and the Church, Part III

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

I have intentionally titled this series, “Death and the Church.” Given the highly individualistic character of Western culture, many complex human issues are viewed as personal concerns to be dealt with in a manner that keeps friends, neighbors, and even family at a distance. The well-known expression “It is none of your business,” epitomizes an isolationism that has become a core value of American culture.

What Is the Christian Obligation to a Friend in Pain?

Friday, July 14, 2017

When Jesus encountered people dealing with hurts, he very often brought his healing touch. He restored sight to the blind, enabled the lame to walk, and opened the ears of the deaf, indicating the nature of his kingship and his Kingdom. His life and proclamation promised a new creation where there will be no pain, fear, or tears. Nevertheless, it was but a taste. Those he healed still died; their temporary healing pointed toward a full and final renewal that has not yet come. It makes sense that followers of Jesus want to proclaim and offer hope and full healing. Still, this good instinct can easily go astray. Sometimes, even though there may be good intentions behind this impulse, we can really hurt those who face suffering.

Praying through Chronic Illness

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

As Christians who believe in the God “who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases,” it can be hard to know how to pray for those suffering from chronic illness (Psalm 103:3, ESV). Often, the church starts strong, praying fervently for the healing of the afflicted person’s body. However, as weeks, months, and even years go by, discouragement can set in. Why keep praying for something that does not seem to happen? As other requests for prayer are shared, it is easy to push those with chronic illnesses into the background.

When Christians Face Infertility

Friday, September 22, 2017

It is crucial that churches help believers make ethical decisions regarding fertility treatments by first instilling a gospel framework for suffering in general, and infertility in particular, into the congregation’s imagination. In order for the church to counteract believers’ culturally conditioned attitudes about infertility, pastors must present a fully Christian vision of what a virtuous struggle with infertility looks like.

Dying Well—Jonathan Edwards

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

In Edwards’ early modern world, people usually died at home, spending their final days surrounded by friends and family. Evangelicals thought intently about the way that they should die. Deathbed scenes were public spectacles, remembered for posterity. They testified to the Christian faith and character of the deceased.[5] It should come as no surprise, then, that Edwards died surrounded by a group of close companions, people hanging on the words he whispered painfully to them through his contagious, swollen throat.

Death and the Church, Part IV

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

In our death-denying culture (including the evangelical church), it is very rare to hear sermons on Christ’s resurrection except at Easter. Even then, many messages tend to be apologetic in nature, namely, how the empty tomb vindicates Christ’s claims to deity. While I have heard many pastors sermonize on Paul’s “resurrection magnum opus” in 1 Corinthians 15, too little time has been spent on the extensive treatment that the Apostle gives to its implications for believers facing the reality of even untimely earthly death (cf. vv. 35–58).[3] This existential absence has, in my opinion, only exacerbated a secular-like trust in the achievements of modern medicine in the Christian community.

Thinking as Christians about Love, Compassion, and Suffering at the End of Life

Thursday, July 18, 2019

As I have reflected on those conversations, two aspects stand out: 1) their questions represent the public, secular views about death and dying popularized in American culture; and 2) they were more interested in avoiding physical pain than in thinking Christianly about the problem. I want to briefly describe the view they seem to have absorbed, and the consequences we already see from legalization of both euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (PAS).

Running towards the Mess: Pastoral Ministry in the Foreign Land of a Complex Medical System

Monday, August 5, 2019

Twenty minutes later we were in the hospital lobby. We walked right past the information booth and straight to the elevator bank. Billy Bob seemed to know where to go. As the elevator arrived, he said, “She’s in room 511.” We stepped in and he pushed the button for the 5th floor. That’s when the first of many pastoral lessons hit me up the side of my face.

Ministry to Trauma Victims: Lessons from the Prophet Joel | Part I

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Ministry in the context of trauma can be a challenge. Having survived a devastating traumatic event myself, and having a profession that requires me to respond to students who face trauma every semester, the question of how to respond to situations when it seems there is nothing suitable to say is always before me. Although sometimes trauma occurs as the consequence of unwise decisions, many traumatic situations impact people who are seemingly innocent. This is also the case with the prophet Joel who ministers during a time of a locust plague that has created a nation-wide crisis.

Ministry to Trauma Victims: Lessons from the Prophet Joel | Part 2

Thursday, December 5, 2019

In the first part of this reflection into how Joel responds to trauma, we have seen seemingly innocent people experiencing a national crisis. We have also seen a prophetic encouragement to return to God in the midst of trauma. In this second part, we consider the implications of this biblical model for us today.

Successful Aging: Living the End of Life to the Glory of God

Dignity Vol. 7, No. 4 (Winter 2001)

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