St Valentine’s Secret
‘I’m not innocent,’ St. Valentine whispers.
‘Oh, come on, Valentine! You’re such a good man!’
‘Only one Innocent ever suffered,’ replies Valentine.
The rantings of arm-chair philosophers differ markedly from the
findings of people with the deepest experience of both God and
suffering. Valentine knew the power of God’s love and comfort
in the midst of severe suffering. Such depth of experience does not
come cheaply and cannot be passed on by words alone. Intense experience
and intimacy with God is a common price. For nearly 2,000 years
Valentine’s experience has been reproduced by the torment of thousands
of Christian martyrs who have agonised in triumph, rejoicing in
the goodness of God.
By the laws of aerodynamics
bumble-bees cannot fly, it was once claimed . But people who know
bumble-bees could not be hoodwinked. A scientific explanation
might elude them, but they know bumble-bees fly. Similarly, people
like Valentine who really know God, even those who have suffered
as much as is humanly possible, know what they know: God’s love
is as mind-boggling as his power. Gaining insight in this matter
might not be scientifically satisfying, but it is truth proven
by cold reality.
‘When you know God,’ breathed a Nazi concentration camp inmate, ‘you don’t need to know why.’ The hearts of thousands leap in agreement.
No clever argument, however, and no supposed spiritual experience
can hide one unavoidable fact: a holy, all-powerful God would yearn to wipe
out every cause of pain. And if he eradicated everyone who has
ever caused pain by selfishness, cheating, lying, gossiping or
hurtful remarks, who would be left?
‘Suffering is God’s fault!’ we sneer, conveniently forgetting
times our anger, greed and lies hurt others. We spurn God’s
laws, hurt each other, and then have the audacity
to blame God for the resulting disaster. Naturally, there
is a degree of hurt we deem excusable, and for some suspicious
reason the hurt we have inflicted happens to fall within the standard
we arbitrarily set. It is like failing an exam and then moving
the pass mark to make our score look good. A holy God could not
be partner to such hypocrisy. To wipe out some people who cause
suffering and spare you and me would make God guilty of gross
injustice.
All suffering can be
tracked back to human wrong-doing - not necessarily the action
of anyone presently alive, but to someone’s deliberate disregard
of God and his ways. And why didn’t God strike that person dead
before others could be hurt? Because to be fair he should do the
same to you and me.
Only a maniac or an ego-maniac would dare demand justice from
God. We have each added to humanity’s pain.
Yet humanity can boast one perfect Person. And he suffered. He appeared as the uniquely perfect human who preached impossibly high standards, claimed they were God’s requirements and actually lived them. Turning the cheek, loving his enemies, just as he had preached, Jesus yielded to abuse and torture, somehow absorbing within his mangled body the horrific consequences of all humanity’s sin. Yet our only Innocent gladly suffered the injustice to free the guilty from suffering eternal justice. In this cataclysmic exchange, the Innocent and the guilty traded places, making it spiritually legal for his suffering to end your suffering. As incredible as it seems, this has ushered us to the brink of a new world where the longing deep within us will be met - deceit, abuse, and hurtful actions will be swallowed by goodness; misery will dissolve in endless joy.
But temporary earthly pain continues for a wonderful reason. A paradise of harmony, trust, openness and love would quickly spoil if just one of its citizens acted remotely like we presently behave. To enter a perfect world without shattering its perfection, would require a personality transformation more radical than ever seen on earth. Through Jesus’ intervention, God can perform this miracle and make us fit for such a world, but he won’t abuse us by forcing a personality change upon us against our will. We must be willing to let God take our pet sins from us and let him, in his unlimited wisdom and love, rule every part of our lives.
Humanity quivers on the brink of extinction,
mesmerised by sin like serpent’s prey. Each moment that God suppresses his
explosive urge to extinguish evil, is a moment in which billions
of us have yet another chance to come to our senses and let Jesus
deliver us from our infatuation with sin. But the end of this
period of grace is hurtling toward us. Soon all suffering will
cease. All wrongdoing will be destroyed, along with everyone still
caught in its deadly embrace.
Many of us would go to any lengths - even to accusing our Judge
of injustice - in an unconscious attempt to push the spotlight
away from the recesses of a dirty conscience. If only we could
smear God, narrowing the gap between his perfection and our shabby
behaviour, we’d feel better.
It would be the height of hypocrisy to dare criticise God for
not always interfering when tragedy looms. Time after time we
have each proved by our actions that we don’t want his love and
wisdom cramping our style.
But there must be a Day of reckoning. All evil must be removed. Even the self-righteous have been demanding it for millennia, though they have no idea what they are asking. Our response before that awesome moment will determine whether we’ll be around to enjoy an evil-free environment.
You Can Find Love: What your Fantasies Reveal
How to repond to God’s love
More about suffering
Who was St Valentine?
Valentine Cards
Click
the icon, or E-mail by the method of your choice to netburst@net-burst.net