Who Can Make Straight What God Has Made Crooked?

So this is my second reading through Ecclesiastes this month, but I don't think I've blogged exactly about what was the content of my devotion this morning. Maybe you will find it similar if you have read other blogs. If so, sorry, but I doubt you have got it down so well that you don't need a reminder. Obviously I benefit from the reminders :) or else I would find this mornings devotion as mundane when in actuality, I feel EXACTLY the opposite about it.

So I've reached Ecclesiastes chapter 7 again, and if you haven't read it. Stop right now and read verses 1 through 14. Read whatever version you like, but I read it this morning in the ESV and the NLT. I find that those two study bibles really do a good job at covering the theoretical/theological part of me as well as the touchy/feely/application part of me :).

So once again, this chapter is talking about the gain found in suffering over the gain found in laughter or enjoyment. It states that the death of a friend is actually more beneficial to the soul than the birth of a new life because everyone will experience the former. And that is true. Perhaps not everyone in life will experience the joy of a new life coming or happiness in general, but every person will experience death, either of a loved one, a friend, or him/herself. So what can be gained from experiencing death? Well I'm reading a book called Tuesdays with Morrie given to me by Mr. Ray P., and this verse brought that book to mind this morning. It's all about a man who embraces the news of his impending death and uses his life as one to teach others. He continues to tackle the world and learn all he can and concentrate on what really matters in life. The knowledge of death can set straight the heart and mind of a person. A clearer understanding of life's purpose is thought about as well as the application of how one spends time and how one is to function through pain.

The ESV says in these verses that 'by sadness of face, the inner being (or heart which in the Bible refers to more than emotion but to the entire inner being) is made glad. Glad, I thought. How glad? So I went to other translations and study bibles and apparently the Hebrew sentence structure gives the idea of glad in terms of being made better or REFINED.

Greeks and Romans seek to despise suffering, finding it as evil and to be avoided. Eastern religions want to live above it and believe an existence is attainable where we are not affected by suffering b/c we have found the cessation of our urges and desires. Christianity, however, embraces desires and embraces pain as something that can be learned from and good, as something that can be REDEEMED. How accurate is this, or, better stated, how in line with the Gospel message this is! Christ has come to make all things new. He is the redemption of Human Existence and life, and a day awaits us when all things are consummately made new, so it only makes sense that the seemingly worst part of life, suffering, pain, and death, are able to be reclaimed and used by Christ, redeemed by Christ. How are they redeemed in this moment while we live on the opposite side of the New Heavens and Earth? They are redeemed through their usefulness in making us more Christ-like and more wise and refining us.

The chapter continues to say that rebukes of the wise and suffering is better than the crackling of thorns under a pot, or, better understand, better than useless noise and laughter. Suffering brings wisdom, and wisdom, the book states, is better than money because it can save our lives.

So what are we to do? Accept how things are. Embrace your pain or depression or suffering. For "who can make straight what God has made crooked." This verse is a rhetorical question with a bit of analogy asking us "who can understand what God has made inscrutable?" And the answer is 'no one.' In this life, we will daily live with uncertainty. We do not know the specifics of our ends or what will come next. Instead, we are called to accept that, and not only accept, but embrace it as a gift. The embracing of this is an opportunity to grow in God and to become that which we currently are not and could never be were life full of laughter, certainty, and easily attained happiness.