Mary Alice McGinnis
Jan 203 min
by Mary Alice McGinnis
The famous writer C.S. Lewis was no stranger to suffering and pain. In fact, in the early years of his life, the loss of his mother and the emotional abandonment of his father caused him to reject God and become an atheist. He witnessed the ugliness of war, and the rejection of his peers. Later, when God called him out of these depths of unbelief, he endured more pain. In his forties, after many long years, he fell in love and married his beloved wife, only to endure the pain of losing her to death.
In his book “The Problem of Pain” he addresses how we as humans tend to conclude that if we are experiencing pain, that either God does not really love us, or He is not really all powerful.
We all experience the depths of pain in this life. It is a reality. Where have you experienced the depths of pain in your life? By the loss of finances or of a loved one? Maybe in the loss of health because of an illness? Maybe it was in the loss of acceptance—being betrayed, hurt, or rejected by others.
Yet, today’s Psalm points us to an even greater depth of pain.
“Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord; Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?”
We can try to excuse it, cover it up, or ignore it, but the weight of guilt is always there deep inside us. Refusing to go to the doctor to avoid a dreaded diagnosis will not change the reality of cancer growing in our bodies. When we become aware of our diagnosis - our sinfulness - it can drag us farther and farther into the depths. It can feel like a chain wrapped around our neck, plunging us into the depths of a bottomless ocean of grief, shame, regret and even despair.
In this book C.S. Lewis he writes: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”–C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (New York: HarperCollins, 1940/1996), 91.
The Psalmist does not leave us in the depths of despair.
“But with You there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve You.”
We cannot find the pearl of God's forgiveness without first being plunged into the reality of the depths of our depravity. It is then that His forgiveness is the only thing we can cling to. Theologian Alexander Maclaren says: “The word rendered ‘forgiveness’…. literally means cutting off, and so suggests the merciful surgery by which the cancerous tumor is taken out of the soul.”
A watchman KNOWS if he waits long enough, he will see the sun rise again.
When we anchor ourselves in the loving kindness of God and His ability to rescue and forgive us, we can confidently wait upon Him, knowing He will come. We can hold on, knowing that we will see again the sunshine of God’s loving forgiveness rise upon us when we cry out to Him.
Then and only then will we be enabled to put our Hope in the Lord, “for with the Lord is unfailing love and with Him is full redemption.”
When God raises us up from the depths, and He showers us with His redemptive love, then our joyful response is to invite others to experience this liberating joy that can only be found in the One who has rescued us and paid our ransom!
Bring your heart to the Lord in the words of the Lyrics of “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us” by Stuart Townend.