Straight talk

"Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all" (Psalm 34:19).

Are you the type who would rather the dentist be straight with you or lie to you?

I am shaken when I think about M. Terrible things have happened to her, though she loves and serves the Lord like few others. I told you about the car accident in a post last month: A woman ran a stop sign at high speed, and as a result M's arm was severed in two places, tethered to her body only by connective skin tissue.

The car immediately behind M's happened to be driven by a trauma nurse, a good Samaritan who stemmed the bleeding and saved M's life. Neighbors poured out of houses and brought towels and whatever else the nurse barked orders for. M never lost consciousness and was screaming. The nurse told her she needed to calm down, so M started praying out loud, "Jesus help me, Jesus help me. . . ." Immediately there was a peace.

Seven months later, the arm is unusable and the pain is off the charts and round the clock, medication merely lowering the volume a bit. M feels freedom from pain for a nanosecond before she falls asleep at night, but she is grateful for that nanosecond.

The woman who broadsided M is now suing her.

Suffering, rescue. Suffering, rescue. The story is messy and defies a tidy moral or summary. One cannot say it is a happy story, but one cannot call it unmitigated disaster, either. It is mitigated at every point: horrible accident---but a trauma nurse on the scene. Oozing blood---but the peace of Christ showing up for the asking. Unbearable suffering---but she is bearing it. Unrelenting pain---but split-second relief before sleep that M relishes. The sentence of death---but she is alive to tell me over coffee. A life irrevocably altered---but a built-in testimony for a lifetime too, a natural springboard to spiritual conversations with everyone from her professional colleagues to the supermarket cashier.

This is reality. Do we want it straight or candy-coated? Conversion as a ticket to smooth sailing is not reality. Expect trouble; expect deliverance from trouble. Both hitchhikers are down the road a piece. Psalm 34:19 should be branded on our foreheads the minute we get saved. At least God made a point of telling Barnabas (who I presume told Paul) straight away after Saul's conversion: "I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name" (Acts 9:16).

I don't understand it one bit. (And if it weren't for the Cross, I don't even know how I could receive it.) I don't know how God's holy heart can stand to see M in torment on the tarmac, and yet love her so much. But both things are true, and the sheer mystery of the juxtaposition convinces me that there are things very momentous afoot behind the sensate curtain of reality, a power play of cosmic proportions.

Whatever Satan was trying to accomplish on the sixth day of July in 2009 near Tom's River, N.J., was scuttled. The demons were routed that day, and manifest evidence was given of God's judgment that M is counted worthy of the kingdom of God (2 Thessalonians 1:4-5). M herself will one day, new body intact, be able to say with holy laughter that the sufferings of this nanosecond's journey were not worthy to be compared to the glory that awaited.

To hear commentaries by Andrée Seu, click here.