All Suffering Is Rooted In Separation

Larry Crabb and John Eldredge are two impacting Christian writers. In their writings I have been exploring this basic principle: all suffering is rooted in separation. (See their books, Shattered Dreams and The Journey of Desire, respectively.) Ultimately, I believe this is true. Think about it. A sick person is separated from health. A person struggling between buying gas and buying food or medicine is separated from adequate income. A lonely person is separated from relationship. A parent of a wayward child is separated from the hopes and dreams for that child. A defeated person is separated from "success", whatever that means. A depressed person is separated from soul-happiness, and on and on...

What about unjust suffering? What about the cruelty going on in Syria or Darfur right now? Even there, it's about separation. The oppressed are separated from liberty, dignity, and life itself. The oppressors are separated divine, inalienable values that should keep them from oppressing the weak and powerless. Those who do harm to others, those who violate others are separated from a sense of what is right. Their victims are separated from living lives in abundance.

Pealing back all the layers, Crabb and Eldredge suggest that suffering ultimately anchors in separation from God. When we experience disappointment, loss, isolation, or pain, those experiences are real and legitimate. We are separated from someone or something of great value.
Crabb suggests, though, that through suffering we can discover that our real desire, though we are out of touch with it, is our desire for an intimate relationship with God. Eldredge says that all of our desires, good or bad, are ultimately veils for our real, inborn desire for the One who gave us life and who loves us with a love that no one and nothing else can provide.

Yesterday I heard the horrible news of a tragic accident in a community near ours. Someone accidentally ran over a two year old child with a car. Did this happen because the driver was separated from God? No. Did it happen because it was God's plan that the two year old die this way? No. As Eldredge says, "I want to state clearly that not every trial in life is specifically arranged for us by God." (The Journey of Desire, page 92.) But through this crushing grief of this child's death, family members will either come to know and desire the presence of One who cannot be lost by death or disaster, or they will yield to escape mechanisms or despair. They will helped by caring people stay connected or to connect with their core desire, or this will know crushing, numbing separation.

Google the name Betsy ten Boom. Secure or download the book about Betsy written by her sister, Corrie ten Boom - The Hiding Place. It's an amazing story about a women who overcame being separated from liberty, justice, health, and eventually her life by staying connected the desire for which she was designed.

Tomorrow is the Resurrection Day. It's all about God gracing us with the risen Jesus, that we might never be separated from God again, and that no separation in this life or the next would overcome us. Happy Easter. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.