Friday is Here, but Sunday is Coming

By Michelle Harris

Psalm 22:1 says, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

 I cried (okay, I really yelled) a similar prayer to God just as David did when I realized that something was terribly wrong with my child.   This was the beginning of what would become a now ten-year journey of suffering for my family, not just with my child, but with more than I could ever begin to share with you here.  That day something else happened.  It was the first moment in my season of suffering that God clearly spoke to me. As I cried in despair, “What am I supposed to do,” my God answered with a song on the radio and said, “Praise me in this storm.”  Praise Him, no matter what.  It is not always easy, but it has become a necessary act of obedience in my life. I have found that no matter how hard life becomes, the louder I praise, the sooner I feel peace that only He can bring.

There is a second place in the Bible where the words “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” were spoken.  In Matthew 27: 46, Jesus cried out to God these very words as he hung on the cross. Jesus was under intense suffering as he uttered these words.  Suffering that He did nothing to deserve, except it was His purpose.  My heart is torn between sorrow and joy when I think of the suffering that He endured.  Sorrow, because I know that Jesus was on that cross because of me.  Because of my sin.  Joy, because I know that Jesus understands the suffering that I walk through. He is my companion and He walks through my suffering with me.

 When I first began this journey of suffering, I would often ask questions: “Why did this have to happen? God, why are you doing this to us?”  Why?  Why? Why? But playing the why game can be exhausting, and rarely do you get an answer.  It was when I allowed myself to shift my perspective that I began to experience healing.  Instead of why, I said “even though”.  Even though I am suffering God, teach me through this.  Use me right where I am.  Isn’t knowing Jesus as your constant and faithful companion so much better than answers to questions that really won’t change your suffering anyway? 

Jesus’ time of suffering on the cross not only gave us a companion, but it gave us a future.  It allows us to walk in the darkness of suffering but see the light of Christ.  Without the cross, there would be no resurrection.  Without the resurrection, there would be no hope. Without hope, there is no future.  

 No words could close out this Good Friday devotional on suffering more than the words of Joseph B. Wirthlin, “Each of us will have our own Fridays – those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces.  We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again.  We will all have our Fridays…   

 But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death – Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, SUNDAY WILL COME.  No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or in the next, Sunday will come.”