Elisabeth Elliot: I speak to you today as one who has walked the valley of the shadow of death. But I speak as one who knows that it has never been alone. We don't go through that valley alone.

Lisa Barry: If there's one pervasive feeling when we go through a tragedy, it's that of isolation. Never mind that there are people by our side or several good-intentioned friends stopping by. When tragedy strikes, we find ourselves clamoring for a supernatural stability that goes beyond

human relationships. Today Elisabeth Elliot talks about God's involvement in our suffering next on Gateway To Joy.

Elisabeth Elliot: "You are loved with an everlasting love." That's what the Bible says. "And underneath are the everlasting arms." This is your friend Elisabeth Elliot, talking with you today on the subject of suffering, because it is a big subject and it's one that I'm continually questioned about.

Why do bad things happen to good people? And I think it's an equally valid question to ask, "Why do good things happen to bad people?'' Do you ever think about that one? Much worse things have happened to much better folks is a good rule for us to remember. Most of us at some point have probably asked that silly little question, ''Why me?" Well, the next time you're tempted to say "Why me?" when something bad happens, why not just add to that-remember, much worse things have happened to much better folks.

I had a letter from one of my listeners who had met a lady in the supermarket. And I thought that this was really a lovely little story, so I'll read this to you. She said, "The Lord has led me to write to you my story going into a supermarket many years ago. The Lord spoke to me to speak to this elderly lady pushing her wagon ahead of me. She had beautiful white hair, and I said, "Lord, I can't do that."

I obeyed. She cried and went all to pieces. She had just lost her husband, and one son (a minister in Ohio) had just left that morning, and the older son (working for the government) had just left that morning also. And her husband always went shopping with her and she was alone this time and didn't have a pencil and paper. We went over to the counter, got a pencil and paper and exchanged addresses and phone numbers. She was and is a wonderful Christian. I have called her now for several years at 10:00 every Sunday night, if she is home and if I'm going to be at home. She has traveled almost around the world. She is an Armenian woman who was in the Holocaust and a wonderful Christian who lives alone in her eighties.

Oh, the joy of the Lord that we share together! I look back over my life and wonder how many times the Lord has spoken to me to do things and I haven't obeyed. This morning He spoke, and I had to obey. I receive so much spiritual food from your messages."

Well, I do thank you for that letter and thank all of you who do write to us. But there's a woman who herself had known suffering and was in the right place at the right time and obeyed the voice of the Lord to speak to that dear lady who just needed a word of comfort. We all need a word of comfort at times, don't we? And sometimes we're afraid to give it. Wasn't it a good thing that she wasn't afraid?

So each time this question of the mystery of suffering, the whys, touch us personally, we face a choice between faith which accepts and unbelief which refuses to accept and thus resents and becomes bitter. I speak to you today as one who has walked the valley of the shadow of death. But I speak as one who knows that it has never been alone. We don't go through that valley alone. Some of us are never aware of the fact that the Shepherd is with us.

One of the reasons that I do this program Gateway To Joy is to just remind you that you're never alone, that the Shepherd is there. He waits for you to put your hand in His. He waits for you to look up in trust and just follow Him. He wants to be our refuge.

Is there anybody out there listening to me today who has a need? Anyone from whose life the bottom seems to have dropped out? Are you wondering where to turn? Are you wondering whether God is there? Whether He listens? Whether He cares for you? Are you asking Him, ''Lord, do You love me or not? Are You listening to my prayers?" Do you feel sometimes as though you're just adrift in chaos?

I speak to you as one who has more than once desperately needed a refuge. And there's only one faculty by which we can lay hold of that mystery of suffering. It's the faculty of faith. And faith, as someone has said, "is the fulcrum of moral and spiritual balance." The bottom has dropped out of my world more than once. Now what exactly was going on? Where was I to turn? To God? Is He God or is He not? That was the great question that I had to face when I lost all of my first year's work when I was a missionary in the western jungle of Ecuador. Either God is up there and He's still got the whole world in His hands or He's not.

Am I adrift in chaos? Or is the Word true that tells me that I am individual, created, called, loved and purposefully placed in an ordered universe--a universe designed and created and completely under the control of a loving God? The everlasting arms are there.

That's why I repeat that verse so often on these programs. ''Underneath are the everlasting arms." He's not going to let you go. He absolutely will not let you go. But He asks you to trust Him. He asks you to let your weight down, as it were. It doesn't do you any good not to let your weight down when you go up in a plane, does it? Those wings are either going to hold you up or they aren't.

It helps me in times of bewilderment and sorrow to go to some of the simplest words, such as "I am the Good Shepherd." My Lord chose that description of Himself and He doesn't change. He was, He is and He always will be my Shepherd. The Word fits my need because I'm a sheep, helpless, bleating, wayward, lost. He can't forget one for whom He lays down His life. And you know, I do bank everything on that.

Now in the back of my book A PATH THROUGH SUFFERING, I have an appendix--a summary of reasons for suffering. How often we are tempted to say, and we hear people say, "Well, you know, we just don't really understand these things that happen. We just don't know why God allows such things."

Well, that's true in a measure, but you know God has given us four categories of reasons for suffering, at least 28 reasons, and more than 50 scriptures which explain--and these are all in the appendix to my book A PATH THROUGH SUFFERING.

And under the first category, which is that we suffer for our own sake, the first reason given under that is that we may learn who God is. For example, Psalm 46:1: "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.'' How can you ever find out the truth of that statement-that God is my refuge and strength-unless I've needed a refuge or I'm conscious of my weakness? When I need a refuge, when I'm conscious of my weakness, I can look at that verse, I can open my Bible to Psalm 46:1, and I can take my stand on those words. "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."

Am I speaking to someone in trouble today? Try God. Just try God. He is up there, you know. You remember that King Nebuchadnezzar in the Book of Daniel was driven away from the people and lived like an animal and had to eat grass until he acknowledged who God is. What God wants to do is to reveal Himself to every one of us. As C. S. Lewis put it, "God whispers to us in our iovs, speaks to us in our conscience, and shouts to us in our pain." God is calling you. God is waiting to reveal Himself to you as your refuge and strength.

In II Corinthians 1:8,9, Paul says, "We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death, but [now get this] this happened that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril and He will deliver us. On Him we have set our hope that He will continue to deliver as you help us by your prayers."

The apostle Paul was probably miles ahead of most of us spiritually, but he needed to learn just what he says here--not to rely on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.

Now you understand at least one of the reasons for suffering, don't you? God bless you.

Lisa Barry: If you're someone going through a very difficult time right now, I hope the things that Elisabeth said today were a comfort to you. And even though there are no words that can make your pain vanish, by crying out to God you'll begin an inner healing that goes deeper than the pain.

There's a book I'd like to tell you about that deals with this subject at great length. It's called A PATH THROUGH SUFFERING written by Elisabeth Elliot. It won't give you trite little exercises to try to get your mind off your problems, but it will target your fiercest questions. And we all know in the midst of tragedy we have more questions than we do answers. This is a classic, in my opinion.

To order this book, you can write to us. The cost of the book is $14. That price includes shipping and handling. Here's our address: Gateway To Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, Nebraska, 68501. Or our toll-free number is 1-800-759-4JOY. That's 1-800-759-4569.

I know this is a subject that touches many people, and so I'd like to encourage you to tell a friend you know to tune into these broadcasts this week and next. Tragedies are often turning points for many people, so if you know someone who could use some help, turn them here. Gateway To Joy has been a production of Back to the Bible.

This is Lisa Barry, inviting you to be with us again tomorrow for another Gateway To Joy.