Stuck in the Middle of Suffering
Everyone loves a happy ending. Whether it’s in a movie, a TV show, or a book, we often can’t wait to get to the end. We want to discover what happens to the characters we’ve grown to love. We ache to finally see how the climactic arc peaks until it resolves into a resolution. Since stories saturate our world, we often begin to view our lives through the same glasses. We long for our own tidy endings. We wonder what the tipping point will be that finally pushes us to the resolution we crave. When will we finally find the community we long for? When will the pregnancy test turn positive? When will our spouse at long last return to the Lord?
Resolution feels inevitable. Our life stories are building towards something, so where is the ending we feel we’ve been promised? Scripture tells us God is working all things for our good, yet if we’re honest each one of us probably has an area of life where we feel like we are perpetually waiting in the bad. Our story lacks progress. The resolution hasn’t come. Instead, we feel trapped in the middle. Our circumstances don’t propel us anywhere. In fact; they only seem to get worse.
If you, like me, have found yourself waiting in the midst of tears and prayers, I want to show you how the Scriptures speak to those of us stuck in the middle.
A Closer Reading
If you grew up in the church, you’re probably familiar with the popular Bible stories. You know about Abraham, Moses, the Israelites, and the main struggles and conflicts that abound in the pages of the Old Testament. But if you know these stories, it can be easy to forget what comes between them. It’s natural to sail our way from Joseph’s burial in Genesis 50 right into the story of Moses in the beginning of Exodus without thinking of the amount of time that has transpired.
We leave Genesis with seventy people in the family of Israel and arrive in Exodus with an Israelite nation that is so numerous it threatens the new Pharaoh of Egypt. In the middle of these chapters, generations of Israelites are born, marry, and die. We know the incredible ending that comes in the redemption of the Exodus, but that doesn’t change the fact that so many Israelites died under the yoke of slavery. We might say they were stuck in the middle of the story.
Scripture tells us God heard the groans and cries of his people, saw their oppression, and provided a deliverer through Moses (Ex. 2:23–25). But I wonder how many cries he heard before the appointed time for Moses to be born? I wonder how many of the Israelites wailed to the God of Jacob for freedom during their lifetime, and went to their deaths with that prayer on their lips? I wonder how many remained stuck in the in-between—waiting for the resolution to come?
We find many similar stories throughout the Old Testament. We can think through the years that Israel spent in captivity and the men and women who died waiting and hoping for a chance to return to their homeland. Of course, we know they eventually did, but how many lived their whole life in exile? We know the beautiful story of Anna and Simeon in the temple who saw the child they had waited their whole life to see and worship. Yet between the closing of the historical canon in Chronicles and the entrance of Jesus into the world was hundreds of years of waiting. Generations of God’s people waited in the middle of the story, desperately longing, praying, and hoping for the promised resolution and never seeing it realized on this earth. Like us, they were perpetually stuck in the in between.
Held in the Middle
The testimonies of the Scriptures affirm we’re not alone. We have a host of saints before us and beside us who suffer in their waiting. The entire global church sits right smack in the middle, after all. In the beautiful narrative of God’s Word, we are suspended, waiting for the story to unfold. We’re the footnote we skim through, to get to the incredible end—the second advent of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And yet, our lives here in the middle matter to the Lord as much as the groanings of the saints throughout history. While we might gravitate to the more inspiring events of our life, our Lord is deeply concerned with the particulars in between. As the Heidelberg Catechism says, he cares for us in such a way “that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven.” (Lord’s Day 1, Heidelberg Catechism, www.RCA.org) Though the world may not care for bland storylines the Lord’s eyes and ears attune to our suffering and pain.
So how do we find comfort while we wait? We do so in the same way God’s people have for thousands of years—we turn to him for help. Just as the Israelite people petitioned the Lord again and again, we can do the same. Peter tells those who are facing trials to, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (1 Pet. 5:6–7).
In the midst of our suffering, we often feel pressed down by the hand of God. We know God is sovereign over all, so particularly in our difficulties we’re tempted to feel the weight of his inaction. Why hasn’t he fixed this? Why won’t he answer my cries for help? But God does hear, and he calls us to cast our pain, lament, worries, and hurt on him. He wants to bear it with us and for us—because he cares for us.
We know God will one day bring peace, righteousness, and justice to the earth, but we also know it may not be in our lifetime. We may never get the resolution we hope for. Yet, we can be sure that in our waiting we are cared for, and that the Lord desires to take our struggles on himself, comforting us, (Matt. 5:4), and showing us his inexpressible grace for each day.
Never in Vain
Not only can we be sure the Lord cares for us, but we can be sure that our hope in him is never in vain. When we’ve been stuck in the same struggle for so long we may start to feel shame. After all, many Christians falsely tout that with enough faith our suffering will end. Over time we can begin to feel as though we’ve been cheated. We feel foolish for even praying, and foolish for hoping the Lord will work. Yet we must remember any hope in God will never be put to shame, no matter what happens in our circumstances. Paul tells us that “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame” (Rom. 5:3–5). Our hope in God is never put to shame.
How could this be? Paul goes on to explain that our hope isn’t in vain because the Lord will pour his love into us through his Holy Spirit. He will give us himself. Though our circumstances may not change, though our resolution will not come this side of heaven, we will be given more and more of Christ as we cast our cares on him.
For those stuck in between, he gives the gift of himself. His life, his love, his mercy, his goodness, his care. It’s ours now. So, we can join the Israelite slave waiting for freedom. We can join the exiled woman yearning for her homeland. We can cry out to the same God of Israel. We can cast our worries on him and receive his love through the Holy Spirit. And like Joseph before us, we can begin to see that God can make us fruitful right in the middle of our affliction (Gen. 41:32). Our beautiful ending will come one day when we embrace our beloved Savior, but until then, he’s holding us every single day of our middle.
Brianna Lambert is a wife and mom to three, making their home in the cornfields of Indiana. She loves using writing to work out the truths God is teaching her each day. She is a staff writer with GCD and has contributed to various online publications, such as Christianity Today and The Gospel Coalition. You can find more of her writing paired with her husband’s photography at lookingtotheharvest.com.