When I Think of You Jesus – featuring Lucy Stimpson- Maynard from the album “Precious” recorded and produced by Ross Gill

Before continuing with the series on suffering I would like to let you know that my dear friend Dr Graham Giles has just returned from the 64^th President’s Prayer Breakfast in Washington. He sat close to President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle during the prestigious breakfast which is part of many meals and meetings that take place during the week.  Graham was invited because of his involvement in a number of justice and humanitarian issues – he is now a Trustee of Mustard Seed Songs and used the occasion to promote Risen!- The Musical including the distribution of CDs.

Last week   I found an extract in “Every Day With Jesus” that endorsed the point I made about suffering in the blog of  January 14^th.

Job’s freedom to choose God also, of course, gave him the ability to reject Him. C.S Lewis explains why God gives us this kind of choice. “If a thing is free to be good, it is also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil to be possible. Why then did God give us free will? Because free will, although it makes evil possible, is also the one thing that makes possible any love or goodness worth having. Without free will, we would simply be like robots.

I have also been thinking that suffering allows us to appreciate how good the good times had been before we started suffering – especially things we had taken for granted like good health and being able to walk and run. It is not until we lose the ability to do something that we fully appreciate how good the thing was that has been lost.

It was Jodie Mitchell in her song “Big Yellow Taxi” who wrote “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.”  I am not suggesting that one has to suffer in order to appreciate the good things that have now passed, either temporarily or permanently but that we should make an effort to appreciate all the good things in life that we have and praise God for them. Furthermore I would suggest it is the simple things in life that are the best – things like friends and family rather than material goods- a new car is great fun but the novelty soon wears off and, in my experience it is better to be in the back garden with someone you love than in the Seychelles with someone you don’t.