One line from the chorus of a song got stuck in my head when I was a boy. It probably happened when riding the school bus, while Mr. Besler had the radio playing. That one line is: “I never promised you a rose garden.” Does that sound familiar? It’s from a song sung by Lynn Anderson. And, this is the full chorus: I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden. Along with the sunshine, There’s gotta be a little rain sometime.
Skimming through the lyrics, the song is about some guy who’s longing for, or hoping for a more serious relationship. And, to let him down gently, she sings: “I never promised you a rose garden.”
Did God promise St. Paul a rose garden? By his conversion he knew without a doubt that Christ Jesus is the Son of God. Soon after the scales fall from his eyes, he’s proclaiming such at the synagogues in Damascus. People are aghast. What’s going on here? The very person who was the point man in leading the charge against those believing in Jesus is now professing the same thing. But, instead of hearing the womp womp of a sad trombone, Paul meets the fury of fuming protest. Seething anger conspires to kill him. So much so, fellow followers of the Way have to sneak him out of town at nightfall. He’s lowered down in a basket through an opening in the city wall (Acts 9:25).
Again I ask, “Did God promise Paul a rose garden?” Did God promise him a life of no imminent danger, no opposition, no trial, or no persecution? NO! What was God’s promise? “I will show him how much he must suffer for my name. (Acts 9:16)”
Does God promise us a rose garden? Has God promised you a life of no imminent danger, no opposition, no difficulty, no trial, no persecution, or no suffering? Jesus did say: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me. (Luke 9:23)” Cross bearing takes many forms, everything from personal struggles, handicaps, illness, rejection, opposition, deprivations, and hardships.
This all seems to run counter to what we presuppose. We shun suffering. We avoid suffering. We evade suffering. Our society has even legislated to end it – through MAID (Medical Assistance in Dying). We consider anyone who enjoys pain and suffering emotionally and mentally deranged as a masochist. We even pray that God will deliver us from our afflictions. How can anything good come from it?
What do we learn from the psalmist? “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word.” Only to follow this up with, “It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees. (Ps 119:67, 71)” God allows suffering to befall us in that we would be turned back to Him in repentance, in that we would cling to His Word of life, as Christ Jesus His beloved Son IS the Word of life.
We are tempered like a tool in God’s hands. By the road St. Paul traveled, that is how he wrote: “More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:3-5)”
There is the danger, though, for us to respond to suffering in NOT becoming better, but in becoming bitter. We become bitter when trapped under a cloud of sorrow. This is when we can’t shake off the grief and the loss we feel. This sadness can then flip to become anger. We fume against God in protest. How could He allow this to happen to me, or to someone I love, if He cares so much? If there’s going to be a little rain sometime, how come I feel like I’m drowning in a flood?
The only way to not waste away in sorrow – is to fall upon Jesus as the suffering servant. Prophesying about Jesus, Isaiah proclaimed: “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows… (53:4)” We do not have a God from afar, but one who became like we are – to empathize with every ache and pain we feel. But more importantly, He came to bear every ache and pain that was ours to bear in sin.
That’s why St. Paul focuses upon hope, which God’s love pours into your heart by the Holy Spirit. Hope in Christ Jesus is what battles against and overcomes the heavy feelings that tribulation arouses. Hope in Christ Jesus gives you the strength and elasticity to bear your cross, and to be glad that you share in His suffering (1 Peter 4:13). It’s like a backdoor benevolence, a holy abandon of self for Him. •
— By Pastor Neil Stern
Grace Lutheran Church,
Edmonton, AB