When we go through difficult times, we often search for a reason why. We all have knee jerk reactions: it’s this person’s fault, the universe is against me, it’s all my fault. But these knee jerk reactions aren’t always helpful.
I had someone recently ask me this: is every negative situation we experience due to us abandoning God? Is it because of our sin? Basically: is my suffering always my fault?
The short answer to this is no. Every negative situation is not our own fault. We like short answers because they are simple and don’t require us to think very much.
But we can't simplistically explain away every aspect of our suffering due to our own sin. Yes, sometimes we experience consequences of our sin and that can be awful. But sometimes we are sinned against and it has nothing to do with what we've done (as in abuse). There are also broken structures in our world that create suffering. Sometimes these structures are filled with well meaning people, but the system is broken and harms people (as in aspects of the prison and rehabilitation system).
There is also a better answer, a longer answer, though. To start this longer answer, here’s a question for the original question: how did this brokenness get into our world? Who is ultimately responsible? The Bible teaches that we (as in the human race, all of us) brought our brokenness into this world. And all of us are born into this brokenness. So while we are not responsible for every aspect of suffering in our personal lives, we, generally, are held responsible for our failures as humans. This is something our hyper-individualised Western cultures can easily overlook. Being human means having to deal with that one way or another.
This is where Jesus comes in and rescues us. We brought the brokenness in and we don’t have the capacity to solve the problem. Nor do we have the desire to be this kind of change as often as we should. Jesus, however, takes on all of our brokenness and destroys it. He puts it to death. We will still experience suffering because this world is not yet fully healed. Jesus is leading this world towards wholeness but it’s not there yet. So suffering is still part off the human experience. But Jesus enables those who follow Him to go through suffering in a different way. He also removes the power of sin in our lives so that we can inflict less harm on people than we have before.
Ultimately, one day, He will lead us into a place where all things will be new. This is the new mission that Jesus rescues us to. He invites us to be a part of remaking this broken world, and He starts with us.
Let me also emphasise for people who have been victims of abuse: regardless of your own actions, you are not responsible for your abusers' actions. You don't need to carry their guilt or shame, though often that comes alongside the abuse as well. You are not damaged goods because you are more than your abuse. You need a loving community of people who will patiently walk with you through the difficulty of life.
This is one reason the church exists: to be a family of people who are stumbling towards faith together. People who have suffered and have inflicted suffering, who are living out a new identity that allows them to thrive even in a world full of suffering.
If you would like to join in with our church in Chorlton, we’d love to be that family for you.