In the first section of his book Walking with God through Pain and Suffering, Tim Keller takes care of some apologetics in what he calls Understanding the Furnace. It is a survey of how various religions and cultures have viewed suffering and deal with suffering. The bottom line is that Christianity has the best, full-orbed approach to suffering even if many Christians don’t.
The second section, Facing the Furnace, is designed to help us to understand more fully how Christianity views suffering, the types of suffering and the types of sufferers. Christianity does not have a one-size fits all approach to suffering.
It is to the third and final section, Walking with God in the Furnace, that we turn our attention. While there are many aspects to walking with God in the midst of suffering, Keller rightfully does not want people to treat this a a series of steps as if this was a self-help book. Just as we should prepare for suffering by storing up truth to be used in that day when it comes, we should prepare to walk with God before we actually have to do it in the middle of suffering. If you are walking with Him before you suffer you are more likely to continue walking with Him when suffering starts.
“We are not to lose our footing and just let the suffering have its way with us. But we are also not to think we can somehow avoid it or be completely impervious to it either. We are to meet and move through suffering without shock and surprise, without denial of our sorrow and weakness, without resentment or paralyzing fear, yet also without acquiescence or capitulation, without surrender or despair.”
The promise of God is not that we won’t suffer, but that He will be with us even when we suffer. Keller develops this with the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He shows us that their confidence was in God himself, not in what they thought he would do for them. The furnace will kill any not protected by God (see the beginning of 1 Peter 1 again) but it refines them so they trust God more fully. Some “walk with God” as long as the road is agreeable. But those who truly walk with God keep walking with him even when the road is hard and direction uncertain. As I noted, this begins before hardship hits. He summarizes such a walk like this:
“A walk is day in and day out praying; day in and day out Bible and Psalms reading; day in and day out obeying, talking to Christian friends, and going to corporate worship, committing yourself to and fully participating in the life of a church.”
When we walk with God in pain and suffering, we are to weep while we walk. The Scriptures are full of lament, the pouring out of the heart over sin and misery. Authentic faith shares its heartache with God in tears, and perhaps even screams. Authentic faith doesn’t put on the stiff upper lip and pretend life is good. Suffering people need to weep and pour out their hearts- not in isolation but in the presence of God. Our communities of faith need to allow people time and space to weep, and perhaps a shoulder to weep upon. We see in the Psalms (see Ps. 39 which lacks an happy ending) and Job that God welcomes these confused and complicated emotions. He isn’t put off by them but we actually see that our Savior experienced similar emotions and darkness in Gethsemane and on the cross. Our weakness is not to be hidden from God, but brought to him so his strength can be made perfect in it. Faith and hope are like a bobber- always floating back to the surface though tugged down. We learn to rejoice AND mourn in the midst of suffering.
“If you remember with grateful amazement that Jesus was thrown into the ultimate furnace for you, you can begin to sense him in our smaller furnaces with you.”
We also learn to trust God. Walking with someone requires a measure of trust that they won’t bring you to a bad place. God wants us to trust him because we don’t know the end of the story. We live in the middle of it, and often there is pain and suffering there. Keller brings us to the story of Joseph to show how this works for us. Joseph continued to trust God even though life seemed to get worse. The text lets us know that God was with him and blessed but it most likely didn’t seem that way to Joseph. Yet when asked to interpret dreams he turns to the Lord. He trusted God though he didn’t understand the way. That really is what trust is- knowing the character of a person and placing yourself in their hands with a future that is unknown to you. God often seems hidden to us, like to Joseph, so we have to trust the promise knowing that God does not lie.
“God was present at every point, and was working even the smallest details of the daily lives and schedules and choices of everyone. So this shows that “all things work according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:10-11; Romans 8:28)”
Walking with God in pain and suffering also means praying. That seems obvious, but it is hard when you soul is like a frayed nerve. Keller returns to Job to show us a man who prayed throughout his pain. God allowed Job to be tested, and purified, so that he’d freely love God for God and not all his blessings. Prayer is often sorting through all of these things in the presence of God as well as asking for his help.
“We must never assume that we know enough to mistrust God’s ways or be bitter against what he has allowed. We must also never think we have really ruined our lives, or have ruined God’s good purposes for us.”
Keller then moves into thinking, thanking and loving. Usually this is after the raw emotion has been expressed. We are usually digging deeper, so to speak, into Christ and gospel. We regain “an inner calm and equilibrium”. Keller brings us to Philippians 4 to see how this thinking and thanking work together and how we experience the presence of God as the eye of the storm. God comes and strengthens us to live with our suffering, even to transcend them. The thinking has to do with doctrinal thinking. God uses the truths of the gospel to guard our hearts and minds in Christ. Thanking has everything to do with trusting; trusting that God knows more of the situation than you do and has a plan that will work good from the affliction you experience. It gets back to theology, the doctrine of providence in particular. Without theology we are like a ship tossed to and fro on the waves.
In the midst of suffering, God often reorders our loves. We learn to love God more than everything else we love. Often there are a things our sufferings reveal that we love more than we love God. Don’t we must hate them, but we should grow in our love for him who loved us and gave himself for us. Such major renovations of a house are painful, difficult and costly. Often there is more wrong than you realized. Hardship is often like a renovation project as God reveals more of you that needs to change, and that change is not easy.
Keller ends with a very short chapter on hoping, keeping the promised end in sight. People without hope soon perish in despair. People who have hope can endure horrible things, difficult things, because of that hope. A Christian’s hope is eternal life, living in blissful fellowship with God and his people knowing that God has dealt with all unfinished business at the return of Christ which is accompanied by the resurrection and the judgment.
I think this was a helpful section in the book that can equip the Christian to walk with God through suffering. As usual, Keller keeps bringing us to Christ so we don’t lose hope. Does he say all that can be said on this subject? No. But what he does say is helpful in prompting faith, hope and love. And that is a good thing.
Cavman Considers 
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