Breakers and Waves Part 2
When Suffering Keeps Coming
*This is part two from my previous post. If you haven’t read it, you can do so HERE.
“A man’s spirit will endure sickness,
but a crushed spirit who can bear?”
The God Who Bears
The Prophet Isaiah has an answer for Solomon’s rhetorical question in Proverbs 18. Who can bear a crushed spirit? Who can bear a broken heart? We certainly can’t do that for ourselves. And we can’t do that for those that we love.
But Jesus can.
Isaiah prophesized this roughly 700 years before his birth:
“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Is. 53:4).
We have one who has borne—and will bear—our pain and suffering and sorrow. He is bearing it for you and with you now. He intercedes for you now. And when you feel like the bruised reed and smoldering wick that you are, he will not break or quench you. He will surprise you in the dark and depths of your pain.
Near the end of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, in The Return of the King, Frodo and Sam have finally met their fate on the slopes of Mount Doom. These two set out on an impossible journey and have been through every difficulty imaginable. The ring has been destroyed and the volcano has erupted, and they are pinned down on a small hill surrounded by lava awaiting their fate. They are completely and utterly exhausted. I need to quote Tolkien at length here because my words just won’t do the scene justice:
“Frodo and Sam could go no further. Their last strength of mind and body was swiftly ebbing. They had reached a low ashen hill piled at the Mountain’s foot; bur from it there was no more escape. It was an island now, not long to endure amid the torment of Orodruin. All about it the earth gaped, and from deep rifts and pits smoke and fumes leaped up. Behind them the Mountain was convulsed. Great rents opened in its side. Slow rivers of fire came down the long slopes towards them. Soon they would be engulfed. A rain of hot ash was falling.
And so it was that Gwaihir saw them with his keen farseeing eyes, as down the wild wind he came, and daring the great peril of the skies he circled in the air: two small dark figures, forlorn, hand in hand upon a little hill, while the world shook under them, and gasped, and rivers of fire drew near. And even as he espied them and came swooping down, he saw them fall, worn out, or choked with fumes and heat, or stricken down by despair at last, hiding their eyes from death. Side by side they lay; and down swept Gwaihir, and down came Landroval and Meneldor the swift; and in a dream, not knowing what fate had befallen them, the wanderers were lifted up and borne far away out of the darkness and the fire.”(1)
The backdrop of this scene is the hobbits yearlong journey filled with pain and sorrow and loss. The reason this episode is so moving for lovers of Tolkien, is the pain that precedes it. The impossible amount of prior suffering makes the impossible rescue by the eagles that much more gripping. Throughout Tolkien’s writings, these great eagles represent divine mercy. They intervene when all hope seems lost. Tolkien has a word he coined for moments like this in his tales: eucatastrophe. Eucatastrophe means “a good catastrophe” and describes the unlooked for, irrational bursting in of sudden and miraculous grace. Tolkien says, “Eucatastrophe brings the joy of deliverance from beyond the walls of the world and will give to the child or man that hears it, a catch of the breath, a beat and lifting of the heart, near to (or indeed accompanied by) tears...”(2)
Much to our benefit, Tolkien isn’t the only one in the eucatastrophe business.
Our God is.
He intervenes when all hope is lost. He sends rescue from someone or something we would never have dreamed. He did it for Israel when they were chained in captivity: “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself” (Ex 19:4). He did it for the persecuted church.(3) And he will do it for you. It may not come when or how you expect it. But when you are pinned down with fire and sulphur around you, don’t lose hope. Don’t give up.
Look for the eagles.
Hearts of Steel
You might think this all sounds a bit romantic, because you probably know how difficult rapid-fire afflictions can be. Breakers and waves will make you choke on sea water. Chronic pain can certainly harden and embitter you.
But deep suffering can also make you malleable and strong. I’ve yet to meet anyone that doesn’t respect a person who possesses gravitas. I’ve also yet to meet anyone who didn’t want to become a person with gravitas. Let’s face it: suffering can give you perspective, insight, and substance you might not ever have stumbled upon. Sure it can harden us in harmful ways. Most of us have witnessed that in others—and maybe all of us have succumb to it at times ourselves.
We need deep strength to make it through our trials, and we need that strength on the other side to walk with other suffering saints and exalt Christ. We are going to lose some of these battles. We are going to blow it and try to walk in our own strength. But we can win some fights too. What I didn’t tell you at the beginning of the previous post, is that Mohamed Ali also beat Joe Frazier—not once, but two times! Twice he was able to withstand Frazier’s body blows and find a way to win.
You can too. The blows life sling at us are painful, but they don’t have to be lethal. They don’t have to have the last word. Because of Jesus, you can fight. He did say, after all, “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
These truths are meant to help you fight for joy and peace. They are meant to help sustain you when the waves crash against your soul. And they are also meant to assist you in doing what the Bible tells you so often to do:
Be strong. Take heart.
And have courage.
Maybe the trials breaking your heart are also infusing it with iron.
(1) J.R.R Tolkien, The Return of the King (London: Harper Collins, 2005), 950-951.
(2) J.R.R. Tolkien, “On Fairy Stories,” from Tree and Leaf (London: Harper Collins, 2001), pp. 68-69.
(3) A good example of Jesus’ heart for the persecuted church is found in Acts 9:4–5. Jesus identifies with the early church’s suffering in his interaction with Paul, then he saves him, and he later unleashes Paul to minister to the Christ followers he formerly persecuted.
