“We can stand affliction better than we can prosperity, for in prosperity we forget God.”
–D. L. Moody

Some times I read words like Moody’s above and they really get me wondering what God was thinking. Is thinking. In so many of His ways there are opposites. In order to give love, we must first be loved. In order to gain eternity we must give up the temporary. I could go on and on with illustrations from The Word about how opposites might really be more related than we want them to be.

Affliction. Prosperity. God.

I don’t want to forget God. And I don’t really want for affliction. And yet in my own life I know that the times I am nearest to God, the times when I most clearly hear His voice, are when something in my life is wrong. I could sit here and read Buechner or Moody or Peterson and be nudged, or hear whispers. But rock my world with “great suffering; persistent pain or distress” as Webster defines affliction, and God’s voice suddenly becomes clear.

This past Sunday evening Lori and I watched “The Way”, with Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez. There are powerful illustrations in the movie about affliction, not just for Sheen’s character and his fellow pilgrims, but for many others. There is a powerful line in the movie, “You don’t choose a life, Dad. You live one.” We don’t get to choose our afflictions, but we do get to choose how we respond. Do we tune God out, or do we cry out “Abba, Father”? On one side an affliction can look like a reason to turn from God, to question Him. From the other side an affliction looks like a gift and a blessing, something to be lived through, not avoided.

Yet my wish for you is not more afflictions, but that even in times of mediocrity we still call His name. For God is in every moment, not just the valleys of sorrow or the mountains of joy. Ah, 1 Thessalonians 5:18 –

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”