by Pastor Douglas Brauner

…God Is Exalted

Permit me to vent for a moment, and in that venting, hopefully encourage those of you who endure pain.

It’s been five weeks since I had my back fused from L3-S1. Going into this surgery, I knew that my recovery would take a long time, but I was in denial of what I would endure. Would I go through the surgery again? Yes, without question. The pain that I faced for years is gone, but for now, surgical pain, losing sleep, constant fatigue, and managing meds have taken its place.

My usual goal in these kinds of situations is to figure out what I need to do to get better. I’m doing what the surgeon said to do and avoid the things he said not to do. I check in with his nurse on a weekly basis to make sure I’m not going crazy and that what I’m experiencing is “normal,” often asking what else I need to do.

Then I hear the words of the psalmist that I have so often read, even to those who are suffering.

“Stop your striving and recognize that I am God. I will be exalted over the nations! I will be exalted over the earth!”
Psalm 46:10 New English Translation

“Be still” is probably the way you memorized this passage, but the force of the Hebrew word is to stop striving. These boats on River Avon in Bath, England are at rest, perfectly still in the water. I hear God’s call in my struggles to stop and know that he is God, to be intimate with the fact that nothing has changed in my relationship with him, to rest in the river of his grace.

It’s hard to stop striving. It’s hard to trust the God who did it all for me in Jesus. Maybe what needs to change is my perspective of suffering. I find God’s promise interesting. He doesn’t promise that the pain will go away, but that he will be exalted (not me). In the end, my struggles are not about me, but about the God who stands above the pain having faced pain on his cross.

Copyright Family of Christ Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado