Satan began by questioning what God said and the truth of who He was. All the serpent needed to do was begin to shift the woman’s thinking about God, a little at a time. The serpent also knew that if Eve began rewriting what she knew to be true in her own mind without going back to the original Source, he could lead her wherever he wanted. He uses the same tactic when you’re watching someone else suffer. He knows that if he can keep you asking questions without ever directing them back to the Lord, you’ll loosen your grip on what’s true.
Midway through a baby shower I attended earlier this summer, the momma-to-be walked to my table with a coat hanger filled with clothespins. She got the attention of those sitting nearby and began explaining the rules of the game: the goal was for each one of us to take hold of all twenty-something clothespins that were clipped to the hanger, unclipping them one at a time using only one hand and without letting any pieces fall to the ground.
Once the rules were explained and all questions answered, the women who were preparing to play took off their jewelry, set down their phones, and began stretching their fingers. As each one angled and her hands to unclip and grip as many clothespins as she could, the rest of us watched her progress and counted along.
With each passing round, there came an unspoken moment when everyone at the table knew that she had reached her limit. It didn’t matter how many clothespins a woman was holding at the time—she could have successfully grabbed six, twelve, or twenty-two clothespins—but if she showed signs of losing control, if her fingers started to shake, then we knew it was only a matter of seconds before all she was holding clattered to the table.
When it happened, those of us watching couldn’t help but laugh. The final pieces seemed to fall in slow motion, and the pictures were priceless—a little goofy, but representing a fun afternoon.
The Breaking Point
Have you noticed how we can often sense when a woman is reaching her limit in other areas of life? You’ve seen the friend or family member who already seems to be carrying more than anyone else you know. She’s been struggling over challenges in her marriage, or she’s been battling a chronic health issue for decades, or she’s been working a demanding job while juggling responsibilities as a single mom. Then she’s handed something else, another overwhelming and painful challenge, and you know instantly this could be her breaking point.
News clips capture these moments often. They call your attention to the woman standing in front of her home in the hours before a hurricane is predicted to hit her already poverty-stricken island. Before the new storm arrives, you feel the seeming injustice of her circumstances deep in your chest. It’s a thirty-second clip on your screen, but you suspect that if one more drop of rain falls on her roof, you’ll watch her whole world crumble. The thought is enough to surface questions: how could this happen on top of everything else she’s already experienced? Hasn’t this woman suffered enough?
When Sympathy Skews Your View of God
For the last decade, I’ve wanted to write to her: the woman overwhelmed by suffering, who feels herself crumbling under the weight of all that’s on her shoulders. But recently, I’ve been paying more and more attention to the woman watching from the other side of the television and the other side of the table. Her faith is also formed as she witnesses someone else’s suffering—her faith will either be forged by the reality of a sovereign and good God or be weakened one storm at a time.