Finding God in Suffering

By: American Decency Staff

 

On the wall in the fellowship room at our office hangs a poster from the Voice of the Martyrs which lists "Ten Ways to Pray for Your Persecuted Family."

As you scan that list, what is striking is that the point which you would expect to be number one is nowhere on the list. Of the ten ways to pray that Voice of the Martyrs – the ministry founded by the pastor and once prisoner of Communist Romania, Richard Wurmbrand – puts forward for the church, none of them ask God to deliver His people from their persecutors.

Instead it suggests asking that the believers will "sense God's presence," that they will be "comforted by God" when they see their loved ones suffer, that they will "forgive and love their persecutors," and that they will "grow in their faith," to name a few.

I was reminded of that poster when I read the last known words of American humanitarian and aid worker, Kayla Jeane Mueller who was held captive by ISIS. She appears to have been killed by a coalition airstrike aimed at the compound where she was held.

Kayla Mueller was able to slip a letter to her parentswith cell mates who were released late last year. The letter is lengthy, but excerpts of it are especially worth attention.

"If you could say I have “suffered” at all throughout this whole experience it is only in knowing how much suffering I have put you all through; I will never ask you to forgive me as I do not deserve forgiveness. I remember mom always telling me that all in all in the end the only one you really have is God. I have come to a place in experience where, in every sense of the word, I have surrendered myself to our creator b/c literally there was no else….+ by God + by your prayers I have felt tenderly cradled in freefall.

I have been shown in darkness, light + have learned that even in prison, one can be free. I am grateful. I have come to see that there is good in every situation, sometimes we just have to look for it. I pray each  day that if nothing else, you have felt a certain closeness + surrender to God as well + have formed a bond of love + support amongst one another…

…Please be patient, give your pain to God. I know you would want me to remain strong. That is exactly what I am doing. Do not fear for me, continue to pray as will I + by God’s will we will be together soon."

 At only 26 years old, Kayla had already given years of her life in service to others – the refugees of the genocide in Darfur, the downtrodden in India and Palestine, the African Refugee Development Center in Tel Aviv, HIV/AIDS patients and homeless women in Arizona, and Syrian refugees on the Syrian/Turkish border where she was captured.

What exactly her spiritual beliefs were has not been reported, at least to my knowledge, but two things are evident.

The first is that the God heard the prayers encouraged by the Voice of the Martyrs for Kayla Mueller as he does for countless others. She clearly had forgiven her captors, was comforted by God, and grew in her faith during her imprisonment. The closeness of God in her suffering is something that we ought to be jealous for, and seek to foster in our own lives.

Secondly, it is clear that Kayla shared Christ's ambition to "bind up the brokenhearted."

In a letter to her family written before her imprisonment, Kayla wrote, "Some people find God in church. Some people find God in nature. Some people find God in love. I find God in suffering. I’ve known for some time what my life’s work is, using my hands as tools to relieve suffering.”

James 1:27 tells us that "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world."

That was Kayla Mueller's life, and while she will always be remembered as the American hostage killed in captivity, she ought much more to be remembered for the way she lived – as a servant to the least of these. May we all follow her example.

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