The School Of Suffering!

Rev. George R. Dillahunty
685 Grant Avenue
Virginia Beach, Virginia 23452-3047

March 17, 2911

Text: Psalm 119:67-71 (King James Version)

"Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now I have kept Thy Word. (v. 68) Thou art good and doest good; teach me Thy statutes. (v. 69) The proud have forged a lie against me: but I will keep Thy precepts with my whole heart. (v. 70) Their heart is as fat as grease; but I delight in Thy Law. (v. 71) It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn Thy statutes."

Topic: The School Of Suffering!

The late great English divine, Frederick William Robertson (1816 - 1853), once said, "As the tree is fertilized by its own broken branches and fallen leaves, and grows out of its own decay, so men [and. women] and nations are bettered and improved by trial and refined out of broken hopes and expectations."

At the age of nine (9) or ten (10), the mother of the late great Irish-born British novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, former atheist, lay theologian and Christian apologist, Clive Staples "C.S." (Jack) Lewis (1898 - 1963), Florence Augusta "Flora" (Hamilton) Lewis (1862 - 1908), suffering from cancer, died. As a young man, in 1917, Clive joined the British Army, being commissioned as an officer in the Third Battalion, Somerset.Ligtht Infantry; and, fought in World War I - where he faced the horrors of seeing friends grotesquely wounded. He was wounded himself, 15 April 1918, by "friendly fire" - when a British shell fell short of its target. He was honorably discharged in December of 1918.

As an adult, Clive pursued a relationship with his emotionally distant father, Albert James Lewis (1863 - 1929) - but, to no avail! Later on in life, Clive fell hopelessly in love with an unlikely woman - a divorced American writer, former Communist and atheist, who had recently become a Christian - named Joy Gresham - and, they were married in 1956. She became the joy of his life!In 1960, she died from cancer - three (3) years later, Clive died from renal failure!

A popular movie by Savoy Pictures and Paramount Pictures, was made of their courtship and marriage, called "Shadowlands," starring Anthony Hopkins, Debra Winger, and Edward Hardwicke. The film was directed by Richard Attenborough; and. was adapted from the 1985 play of the same name, written by William Nicholson. It was released on 25 December 1993.

His sorrow, after the death of his wife, caused Clive to develop a deeper appreciation of the costly benefits of pain and grief - one of which was the ability of agony to get our attention! With deep wisdom, he wrote, "Pain is God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world."

Why does Almighty God allow bad things to crowd into the lives of good people? One reason could be that in pain, we learn to hear Almighty God’s "still small voice!" The late great British-born American poet, Wystan Hugh Auden (1907 - 1973), once said, "It is where we are wounded that God speaks to us."

The story is told of a highly successful Christian commercial realtor, named Steve, who lost his company when the "economy went south" He was a good father and a good husband! Like many others, in today’s modern-day society, he found himself out of work and out of options! It was in his dire circumstances that he heard Almighty God’s "still small voice" through the "megaphone of his