110707

November 7, 07

Just a Small Twinge of Grief

by Shana Schutte

Have you ever wondered why God sometimes seems inconsistent in compassion and love? Why He answers the prayer of a little girl for a puppy, but denies the request of a man to be healed from cancer? Why He allows school shootings, AIDS and terrorist attacks, but gives a man a new job when he asks?

If we consider the woes of humanity long enough and believe the lies that God is involved here (but not there), in this issue (but not in that one), we can start to sound like Asaph in Psalm 10:1 who asked, "O Lord, why do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?"

We may also rationalize that if God is uninvolved in "heavy issues" like world hunger, sex trafficking and Internet pornography, that He is certainly not involved with "smaller" problems, such as the grief caused from these tragedies, right?

Thankfully, Asaph has an answer for us. Even though he wondered where God was in verse 10:1, by the time he came to verse 14, he embraced the truth when he wrote, "But you, O God do see trouble and grief; you consider it to take it in hand."

The word "grief" in this passage is the word ka'as in Hebrew. The amazing part of this word is that the most nominal forms of it involve the trouble which man causes triggering hurt feelings. From my experience, hurt feelings don't have to involve deep pain. Rather, they can involve just a small twinge of grief. Isn't it comforting that according to ka'as, God notices all your grief, whether it's overwhelming or not.

When is the last time you felt grief? Was it when your spouse spoke a sharp word to you? When you lost your job? When your children let you down? No matter how insignificant your grief seems, God notices. Not only that, but He has also "considered" it to do something about it.

"For He does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men." (Lamentations 3:33, NIV)

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