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I was reading an article in the Belfast Telegraph yesterday about Annie Lennox who has just released her new album 'Songs of Mass Destruction'.
Now, I'm not into her music but the tone that came from this interview with her was quite striking.
Here's some of what she said
"It is a dark album, but the world is a dark place, It's fraught, it's turbulent. Most people's lives are underscored with dramas of all kinds: there's ups, there's downs - the flickering candle."

"The human condition is that you are born and the only certainty you have is that you are going to die. What human beings have done to themselves, to each other and to the planet, is just horrendous."

How true, It resonates with the words of Job 5:7 "Yet man is born to trouble, As the sparks fly upward"

I'd say that most people in the world today are suffering in some way, illness, poverty, grief, guilt, loneliness, depression and much more. And everyone has experienced some form of suffering.

And Christian's aren't exempt, we suffer too.

Why does mankind suffer?
Well to answer this we need to go back to the beginning; Genesis 3 and we find that after Adam and Eve sinned against God He said to them;

Eve - "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you."

Adam - "Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat of it': "Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. 18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. 19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return."

God had promised that if Adam was to eat of the tree of the fruit of knowledge of good and evil that he would die, and ever since then, because Adam did eat of it we are born to bodies that actually begin to die the moment we are born.

Suffering comes from sin, now to quote my good friend here, Simon Thompson says; "Now to clarify, I'm not saying that the death of those who die of illnesses or horrible circumstances is a direct consequence for a particular sin but it is a consequence of sin generally and us all being guilty of it."

So your or my suffering or sorrow may has more to do with the effects of the fall than perhaps personal sin.

So in a dark world of pain what hope is there?
Jesus!
That is the answer. No one can give sure promises or a constant hope, parents, family, children, friends all let us down and will all die. The promise of joy in them is not everlasting.
Wealth fades away and you cannot take it to the grave.

Jesus is from everlasting to everlasting.

[One of the main issues I am persuaded, that keeps the human heart longing and pining after greater things is that in the beginning we were created to be in fellowship with God. But since the fall we have all been born enemies of God and seperate from Him.

That's one reason why the Cross is so important, Jesus Died to take the punishment for sin and to make a way for us to repent and come to unity and fellowship with Him.]


Am I saying that Jesus will heal all sorrow and keep you from suffering? Yes and No!

No - In this life Jesus will not keep you from suffering, but He will work the suffering for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. And He will use these dark times to build character and transform your life into a more Christ-like way. James 1:2-4 "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing."

Yes - ultimately Jesus promises that He will heal all suffering, sorrow and pain. For those who trust, love and follow Him He promises eternity in Heaven where Revelation describes as a place where "there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." [I emphasise that this is a promise for only Jesus followers, Rev 21:8 "the...unbelieving...shall have their part in the lake of fire..."]

So yes I agree with Annie Lennox, the world is a dark place, but Jesus offers so much more than empty fumbling around in the dark, and as with one of her song title, 'looking Through a Glass Darkly' It is the face of Jesus on the other side that the darkness of sin, satan, death, suffering etc would blind us from.