Where Is the Hope in Unthinkable Suffering?
One thing that we hang our hats on at Mixtape Theology is the idea of how we saw things 30 years ago and how we see them now. Meanings of songs evolve as we grow in our faith and theology. When I listen to The Great Adventure now, I hear it with different ears. The song influenced my life back then and was one of my gateways into CCM, yet I now understand “long-faced religion” and what trail riding on the wild blue yonder in God’s Amazing Grace is about. It is refreshing and enlightening at the same time.
I recently did a podcast with Andy Chrisman from 4Him, and we discussed this idea. Andy mentioned how when he sang 4Him’s first megahit, “Where There is Faith,” in his 20’s, and probably didn’t even grasp the song and its full impact. Andy had recently lost a friend, and when he now hears or sings “Where There is Faith,” he understands it. Singing of “a lady dressed in black in a motorcade of Cadillacs, and daddy’s not coming back” is different when you live it. You begin to live the truth of “Where there is faith, there is a voice calling keep walking, you’re not alone in this world.”
Enter Life After Death, TobyMac’s latest album, released in August of 2022. Blogging about Life After Death may seem a little late to the game since tge album hit the scene almost a year ago, but the message of the songs and the meaning they hold is what I needed this past year.
When news surfaced of the tragic death of Toby’s son, Truett, we all mourned in shock. Often when someone we admire who is in the eye of the public experiences heartache, we watch. It is not fair, really, but that is what happens. Much like Steven Curtis in the tragic death of his little girl, we wonder how men and women of faith will respond.
It is a blessing to see that often they respond a lot like we would. Broken peaople have questions, anger, confusion, and deep pain that only God understands. Yet like Steven, Toby reflected his thoughts and feelings in his writing and music, and we all get to grow with him on the road of suffering. Honesty in suffering is good. Trusting in the Lord becomes our only lifeline, and we find our “Cornerstone.”
What does this have to do with how I saw things 30 years ago compared to how I see them now? If that album hit the scene in 1992, I would have liked it. However, I wouldn’t have really got it. I now have 49 years under my belt, and I have experienced seasons of suffering. Honestly, 2022 was one of the most challenging years of my life. Several dear friends close to my age passed, along with my grandmother and my step-father. I won’t go into the details of each of those, but through many of the deaths, I have worked through trauma. Maybe that’s why I keep going back to “Help is On the Way,” “The Goodness,” “Promised Land,” and “Faithfully.” Though I cannot relate to Toby’s pain in losing a child, I relate to pain and death. It is part of living in a fallen world tainted by sin. And yes, “It's been a long year, it almost took me down, I swear. Life was so good, I'm not so sure we knew what we had. I'll never be the same man, I'll never feel like I felt before. It's been a hard year, it almost took me down.
But when my world broke into pieces
You were there faithfully
When I cried out to You, Jesus
You made a way for me.”
Yes, brokenness is often an open door to seeing Jesus in a way like never before. While in unbearable pain, there is an unmovable Savior who is faithfully standing by our side and living our life with us. He carries us and reminds us that help is always on the way.
In Romans 5, Paul reminds us we can rejoice in our suffering.
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:1-5)
In my sufferings, I rejoice, meaning I turn to my source of joy – Jesus. And look at the progression: endurance – character – hope. And Hope is a good thing. Or as Andy Dufrense said, “Hope is a good thing; maybe the best of things.” (Nod to those Shawshank Redemption fans out there.) For Christians, our hope is a living hope because our hope is in Jesus, and our Savior is alive. Indeed, help is on the way.
I can’t stop listening to the last track on Life After Death, “Rest.” It begins with Psalm 9:9: “The Lord is a safe house for the battered, a sanctuary during bad times.”
Amid our suffering, we lay our weary heads on Jesus, and rest. We take a breath and fall into His arms, because His arms are the only thing that can save us.
In that truth, we rest.
