Soul Scientist

This is an excerpt from the book, “Nevertheless: Finding Hope in Suffering”, which is scheduled to be released by Northeastern Baptist Press in early 2025.

2 Corinthians 1:4 PHILLIPS Thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he is our Father and the source of all mercy and comfort. For he gives us comfort in our trials so that we in turn may be able to give the same sort of strong sympathy to others in theirs. Indeed, experience shows that the more we share Christ’s suffering the more we are able to give of his encouragement.

Lies I wish were true

“Suffering isn’t for saints”; “don’t say it aloud, it will happen”; “just believe/pray more and all will be made right for you”; and other lies I wish were true, but aren’t, nor ever will be.

If the idea of “name it and claim it” wasn’t bad enough, then those lies (and others) just add insult to injury when there is no end in sight to the hard of pain, grief, or loss. And when the hard is (far) more than you can bear today, much less when considering tomorrow, being reminded of such phrases can be a slap to the face. Scripture tells us to turn the other cheek to people, but that command doesn’t apply to phrases (see Matthew 5:39).  

Even if the people saying the phrases are well-intentioned, the phrases still can harm our hope by hurting our hearts. Someone in pain needs nurturing of his mustard-seed faith and the soil of his soul, not the malnutrition of misinformation.

Phrases like these remind me of the application of wrong information to environmental management mistakes made in the past here in the United States. Classic examples of such mistakes include the introduction of kudzu and nutria and the release of exotic snakes. All of these were well-intentioned. All of these are now menaces in our environments. (And don’t even get me started on a myriad of other examples like sea lamprey, African bees, or Japanese stiltgrass.)

Kudzu was introduced as the answer for soil erosion and cheap cattle feed in the Southeastern U.S. It is now what cattle avoid and farmers fight to keep from taking over the land while lamenting higher soil erosion rates underneath it than if it’d been bare ground.

Nutria were introduced as a great source of fur and meat. But instead of clothing or feeding many, they have destroyed natural grasses and other habitats for many native species in Chesapeake Bay and the Northeast. In turn, this has impacted water quality and flooding in those regions along with the potential extinction of some indigenous animals.

Exotic snakes once considered household pets before their release into the Everglades now terrorize indigenous animals and birds. Instead of staying small and cute in tanks, they have become the apex predator able to take down anything in their path, including people unaware of the danger from these snakes.

All these choices seemed either helpful or harmless at the time. Yet, with time, all these choices ended up having far more detrimental impacts than anyone intended or imagined.

These introductions were thought to be improvements on what existed, just like streambed straightening, select cut tree harvesting, and other poor environmental management choices. Similarly, the phrases listed at the beginning of this chapter are thought to be improvements over Scripture. But this is truth; they’re not better or even equal. Nor will they ever be.

Only Scripture has the power to change lives forever and bring enduring hope to the hardest of circumstances as seen in Hebrews 4:12 ERV [^LFor] God’s word is alive and ·working [active; powerful; effective] and is sharper than a double-edged sword. It ·cuts all the way into us, where the soul and the spirit are joined, to the center of our joints and bones [^Lpenetrates until it divides even soul and spirit, joints and marrow]. And it ·judges [discerns] the ·thoughts [ideas] and ·feelings [attitudes; intentions] in our hearts. If you’ve ever had the experience of reading a verse that speaks straight to your mind and heart and brings comfort or conviction, you know the meaning of that verse. And if you’ve had that experience in the past, you’re probably yearning for it today.

From personal experience, the most powerfully encouraging notes I’ve ever received are those with nothing more than a verse (or two) written out and signed with “I’m praying for you today. Love, (friend’s name)”. The Holy Spirit activated by prayer and communicated by Scripture can pierce through pain to push back despair in a way that can’t be duplicated or denied.

No one can say anything better than what God has already said.

God didn’t say He would never give us more than we could handle. He said we’d never encounter anything stronger than Him (see Luke 1:37 and Jeremiah 32:27). God didn’t say that we could do all things. He said anything was possible for us in His strength through Christ in us (see Philippians 4:13). God didn’t say everything was going to be happy and healthy for us. He said He would strengthen and comfort us in all situations (see Psalm 68:35). God didn’t say we wouldn’t feel lonely or in pain. He said He would always be with and for us, no matter what (see Hebrews 13:5). And there’s a lot more that God said!

But how can we know what to say if we don’t know what God said?

Please come back next week for part 2 of “Words Matter”. I surely hope that you’ve been encouraged to realize just how important your words can be to someone in your life today.

written by and copyrighted to Beth Madison, Ph.D., 2024.