You Were Made For This

I’ve been reflecting more and more lately about how much God cares about us.  When we hurt he hurts. Today’s episode is about how God responds to the dark times we go through, and what he models for us in relating to the hurting people in our lives.

But before we begin, I’m John Certalic, and you’re listening to episode 224 of You Were Made for This, the podcast about the joy of relationships we were made for. Those that reflect the character and image of God in the unique way he made each of us. Today’s episode is an example of how this works

An unwanted anniversary

I’ve been reading through the Book of Psalms in the Old Testament this summer, and the other day I came across a passage that jumped out at me as if to say, You’ll want to pay more attention to this one. It deserves your attention. You're going to want to reflect on this more than normal.

Here’s the passage, just one verse, Psalm 56:8

You keep track of all my sorrows.

 You have collected all my tears in your bottle

You have recorded each one in your book.          NLT

The first thing I thought of as I read this verse is my friend, Martin. This Friday, two days from now, is the fifth anniversary of the death of his wife, Suzanne.

Martin and Suzanne were missionaries, first in China, then in Germany where Martin is from. I got to know both of them when Janet and I served at a missionary conference put on by their sending agency. When they left the mission filled to move to the States to care for Suzanne’s mother in Chicago, we got together several times and continued our friendship.

It was shocking to get a text from Martin one evening that his his beloved wife, and our friend, had died from a brain aneurysm. She was only 53. I devoted several podcast episodes about the aftermath of this terrible event in Martin’s life. You can hear more of the details  if you go to the end of the show notes where you’ll find links to those episodes. Numbers 071 and 072.

An Old Testament example of how God cares

For today, though, I can’t shake Psalm 56:8 and how it relates to what Martin went through, and continues to go through, because that’s how grief works. In the midst of the awful things King David went through, he still had a deep appreciation for God’s empathic character.

David brings his relationship with God into his circumstances in this verse. Three sentences that all begin with “You.”

Each “You” is a specific statement of how God is at work in David’s life. Each “You” is followed by a distinct and compassionate verb phrase: keeping track of all David’s sorrows, collecting all his tears in a bottle, and recording each sorrow in a book.

I don’t know about you, but when I’m going through a rough patch, I want God to fix things, to put ab end my problems. Instead, we see in in the example of David that he doesn’t ask God to fix things for him. Rather, he is content knowing that God is right there with us in the midst of what we’re 

dealing with. He’s there not simply as an observer, but as an active and empathetic participant with us.

God cares enough to keep tears out of heaven

What strikes me most in this passage from Psalms is the bottle in which God stores all of David’s tears. This, of course, is poetic and figurative language used to describe God’s awareness and understanding of the pain we go through in life. 

And while the bottle God is using to collect our tears may be overflowing at times, this same bottle is empty once we get to heaven. Revelation 21 tells us there are no tears in heaven. What a comforting thought, this is – God emptying the bottle that contained all the tears we shed on earth.

Another element to how God cares 

There’s another point to this verse in Psalms that I find interesting and instructive in relating with the “Martins” in our life. I know you have them, people like Martin who have suffered great loss.

It starts with recognizing and reminding ourselves that we are all created with the image and likeness of God backed into each of us. He enables us to manifest his character through the qualities  he used to make us the unique person we are so that we can care for people in ways that God cares.

What a privilege!  

For example, in Psalm 56 when David describes God as one who keeps track of our sorrows, collects tears, and records them in a book, there are some clues as to what we can do to help people. These 3 actions of God are all about acknowledging and remembering what people hav gone through or are going through now.

And this is something WE can do for people . We can acknowledge and remember what our friends have experienced, even years after the fact. After Suzanne died, I recorded the date of her death in my computer’s calendar, and set it to repeat on the same day in years to come. I didn’t want to forget the day. I do this for other losses my friends have suffered. 

It reminds me to contact my friends and let them know I remember them and am thinking about them and what they have lost.  Text, phone call, card, email, or even a visit. It almost doesn’t matter what form it takes. It’s just to connect with them to let them know I haven’t forgotten the awful pain they’ve experienced. There is so much power in the simple act of letting people know you remember.

Closing

Well that’s what I have for you today. I hope your thinking was stimulated by today’s episode to remember that God’s purpose in our lives isn’t always to fix things for us. Instead he uses our difficulties to reveal his kindness  compassion,  and love.

And more than this, remember that we can do the same thing for the people in our life going through struggles and loss. Because we were made for this!

Now before I go call Martin by the end of the week to let him know I still remember his loss, here’s Psalm 56:8 one more time with its wonderful truths about God we can cling to:

You keep track of all my sorrows.

 You have collected all my tears in your bottle.

 You have recorded each one in your book.

I’d love to hear your thoughts or reactions to today’s episode. Just go to the show notes for today’s program at JohnCertalic.com, then scroll down to the end to the “Leave a comment” box.

Finally, remember to spread a little relational sunshine around the people you meet this week. Spark some joy for them.  And I’ll see you again next time. Goodbye for now.

Other episodes or resources related to today’s shows

071: How to Help a Grieving Friend

072:  What I Learned From a Grieving Friend

Most recent prior  episode

223: A Christmas in July Story

All past and future episodes can be found at JohnCertalic.com