An Answer to Despair

  I am happy to have an answer to my questions in a short time.  I have known people who struggle with issues and bad feelings for long periods, and who thus have to battle against bitterness as well.  Asaph writes in Psalm 73 of his own struggle as he watched bad people get good things.  The rich got richer, the proud gained more reason to be proud.  He was almost reduced to complaining and bitterness.  Then, he says, "I went into the sanctuary."  Then he understood the vaporous character of gain without gratitude, the slippery slope of self-pride in place of God-pride.  

  So today I went to church.  It's my job to make coffee and teach the 9:00 am Bible class.  Today it was 1 Thessalonians 2.  But it was afterwards that I found my answer.  I begin on Sunday getting ready for next week's class, which is to be 1 Thessalonians 3.  I sat in church and listened to two of our girls sing, and one of our boys read a scripture about hope from Isaiah.  And in a quiet moment I started to read chapter 3.  Paul wrote to the church that "we must have these troubles." He says, "we told you that we all would have to suffer."  I know those concepts, but it was only in the context of the church that they became real for me.  For Paul also wrote, "we have much suffering, still we are comforted by the faith of the church."  

  So there it is.  Suffering does not diminish joy, when you are in the church.  Loss does not bring despair, when you listen to the song and the scripture and you experience in living color the faith of the church.  

  Next time I suffer loss and feel the pain, I will seek to remember to go right away into the presence of the One who lets us see.  And I will not forget the church.  And I will never cease to value the role of the church in my life.