How can we bear it?
Text: John 16:12-15 Today Jesus tells us a truth we cannot ignore: people have to bear things they didn’t think they’d have to, and certainly didn’t want to. And this can be confusing to us who follow Jesus. Cultural Christianity says stuff like “God won’t give you more than you can handle” or “God won’t let bad things happen to you if you pray for them not to.” But this is not what God is about. God is not up there sitting on a cloud planning to dole out tragedies to unsuspecting people, betting on just how much pain someone will be able to stand, plotting out suffering. God is not in the tragedy-handing-out-and-testing-through-suffering business. And these sayings are not helpful, either, although I know people mean well when they utter them, often because they just don’t know what else to say in the face of tragedy. But often what ends up happening is that people come to think they DESERVE the bad things that happen to them, that...
