I had a conversation the other day with someone who was instrumental in my coming to faith over 40 years ago. During that time, I had been in contact with her a few times, but it had been 10 years since we had last connected. So we had a lot to catch up on in our lives.

In her sharing, she told me about an aspect of her life that was, and continues to be, really hard. I will not share the details, but I do want to try and give a sense of what I heard. Someone who she cared deeply for was blind sided by a tragic circumstance that was a source of a great deal of suffering, both for him and his family, including small children. For years there was faithful perseverance and seeking God for deliverance. There were times when it appeared that God had provided the desperately sought after healing, only to see the situation deteriorate again and even get worse. Eventually, the person who she cared for lost his faith in God and is not currently following Jesus. From what I heard, I do not blame him. It was the kind of story that makes me want to cry out, “Where are you God? How can you have allowed this?”

As I came away from that phone call, my heart went out to my friend and this man. But I also realized that I was strangely encouraged. Why was I feeling ecnouraged while hearing about a tragedy that seemed to testify to the absence of a good and loving God? I came up with two reasons.

First, when I go through experiences of tribulation where I struggle to apprehend God’s goodness, I can wonder if I have somehow failed to live rightly, or exercised proper faith. If I were a better Christian, would I not be suffering like this?

My friend is someone who I look up to in the faith. When I was a seeker, she stood out as someone whose relationship with God was real and genuine. So for me, she is a pillar of faith. To hear that her life included suffering encouraged me that my own milder areas of suffering did not mean that I was doing something wrong or that I just needed to do something right to fix it. If this could happen in her life, then this was a part of life in this fallen, not yet Kingdom of God, age that we all live in. Because of how I saw her, it was easy for me to believe that God was with her in her suffering. And that made it easier to believe that God was with me in mine.

Second, these types of experiences are threatening to my faith. They cause me to wonder if the God that I believe in is real after all. It is difficult to reconcile the reality of a good, loving and powerful God being present with us in the midst of circumstances that seem far more harmful than redemptive. Am I going to be able to trust in God’s goodness for my life if the suffering continues? Or will I end up losing my faith?

In our conversation, my friend also shared about her work. In that sharing I heard her excitement about what she was seeing God do. She still had the faith and enthusiasm for God that had attracted me 40 years ago. If her faith could survive what she shared with me, then my faith can survive whatever tribulations I am currently facing or might face in the future.

Faith and Work ministry circles feature business testimonies celebrating success far more than testimonies of persevering through failure. And when there are acknowledgements of failure, the testimony is always about triumphing over that failure and then experiencing success. I do not hear testimonies where people are currently struggling with business failure.

Success is the pursuit of business, so I understand why testimonies of success are viewed as offering hope and therefore are the focus of gatherings to glorify God in the workplace. But failure in business, which is a form of suffering, is as much a part of life as tragic circumstances. I wonder if testimonies from people in the midst of business failure or struggle are needed to encourage people in their work lives as I was encouraged by the conversation with my friend. To people who are struggling, the message of success testimonies is… “Hang in there and you will eventually be in the place of success where I am.” This encouragement requires people to imagine that they are in a different place of success. I am drawn to the idea that testimonies in the midst of struggle are vehicles for the Holy Spirit to offer encouragement and strengthening where people are in their present place of suffering.

I would love to connect with you about these posts if they have stirred any thoughts or questions. Take a minute, shoot me an email at bo@leavenedlives.org, and let’s see where that takes us.