“It’s not all about you”

I have been suffering with “gardener’s” elbow, for the past month or so. In my zeal to get ready for summer and to provide the longest possible growing season for my garden, I labored for long hours in May to dig, plant, and mulch. I guess I overdid it because my right arm aches at the elbow. It hurts the worst first thing in the morning, and on some days it is tenderer than others. When I make a motion that irritates it, I know it immediately.

This weekend, I was complaining about the pain to my husband, and I told him that I didn’t think I would be able to do any work around the house. The pain, although it isn’t severe, affects my whole attitude and energy level. It brings to mind Paul’s words “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it” (1 Cor 12: 26a)

In today’s Luther Seminary God Pause, Pastor Jill Bergman writes about the suffering of Job and asks the question, "why do people suffer?"

She writes, “Sometimes when we suffer, we allow our suffering to define us. We make our pain our identity. We become the center of our own universe. When this happens, we are separated from God and lost in chaos with nothing to hold us steady.”

The gospel text this week is from Mark 4, the story of Jesus calming the storm. When the winds start to whip around the boat in which Jesus and his disciples are crossing the sea, they cry out to him, “Don’t you care that we are perishing?” They can’t do anything to help themselves because of their fear of impending trouble, possibly even of their death. They’re in danger and it’s all about them.

Pastor Jill reminds us that even in our pain and suffering, it’s not all about us. God’s words to Job, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding,” (Job 38:4) sound harsh, but they remind us that someone greater than our self, Someone greater than our suffering, is at work through our crisis. God will care for us, and God promises us something more than this momentary affliction. It is God who will save us from the storm. We are not our own best hope.