Bonovox

This theme has been on my mind allot lately.  It probably has allot to do with the recent passing of my buddy Brian, and his year and a half long battle with cancer.  (Your still influencing me beyond the grave, you hoser!).  But we have been close to much suffering in the last few years.  The girl two doors down (a fellow home school family) Priscilla, passed away at 14, after 6mo.s of cancer.  A friend of ours 9 year old son Christopher was badly burned last week, and underwent skin-graft surgery yesterday.  I lost another friend to cancer in like one or two weeks, Rdr. Michael.   We lost our good friend Jeanette ("Grandma Jan").  My Springer Spaniel Mickey died last May.   And we have been battling sickness with the kids, and with ourselves the past month.

But I read two things today, that help me return to the Christian perspective on Suffering:

First, the way the Roman Catholic's Pope has gracefully submitted to his cross of suffering.  His own words confirm the role of suffering in our lives.  From Touchstone:

In 1994, as age and infirmity began to incapacitate John Paul publicly, he told his followers he had heard God and was about to change the way he led the church. “I must lead her with suffering,” he said. “The pope must suffer so that every family and the world should see that there is, I would say, a higher gospel: the gospel of suffering, with which one must prepare the future.”

Secondly I read this letter about some of our Orthodox missionaries in Albania, Nathan and Lynette Hoppe.  The letter is written by their doctor, and fellow missionary, Dr. Charles Linderman.  I share with you this passage:

In rapid succession, as if the Archbishop Anastasios built the Orthodox Clinic only to evaluate Lynette, she underwent mammography, x-ray, ultrasound, physical exam, and fine needle aspiration. Results: infiltrating carcinoma, with a lesion 5 cm in greatest diameter. I can now testify to why doctors should not treat family. I was now telling my best friends, Nathan and Lynette Hoppe, that she had breast cancer and much worse yet, it looked aggressive. As a surgeon, I have told more people than I want to remember they have this dreaded diagnosis and have found that this news tends to strip people of their façade and societal persona. Those that know Lynette will not be surprised to hear of her response. No one has ever responded like both Lynette and Nathan. First, she consoled me as if I had to engage this struggle instead of her. After a moment to consider what I had just said, she followed with this reflection of her heart: “Well Charles, now I have the blessing of showing the Albanians that we are serious when we say that suffering is an important part of our spiritual growth.” In fact during this entire process she has remained powerfully motivated to witness to her faith in God and her trust that His grace is sufficient.