Lisa Barry: Do you ever hear non-Christians smugly declare their unbelief in God? They reason that if there were a living God, He would never allow the kind of suffering that takes place in this world. Those of us who are believers try to counter that reasoning with Bible verses or personal experience. But the truth of the matter is that when most of us encounter suffering, we wrestle with the same kind of question. All this week on Gateway to Joy, we?re going on the road with Elisabeth Elliot to the Billy Graham Conference Center, where she is addressing a group of men and women. Stay with us as we begin Day One of a three-week series entitled CROWNED BECAUSE HE SUFFERED. That?s next on Gateway to Joy. Here?s Elisabeth.

Elisabeth Elliot: C. S. Lewis, when he was asked to write a book on the subject of pain, the book became the one that was entitled THE PROBLEM OF PAIN. In his preface, he said, "I was asked leave to be allowed to write it anonymously, since if I were to say what I really thought about pain, I should be forced to make statements of such apparent fortitude that they would become ridiculous if anyone knew who made them."

I would echo what he says. I will be making some statements of great fortitude, but they would become ridiculous if you really knew anything about the person who is talking to you tonight. We live in a world drenched with tears.

I think of my friend, Judy Squire, a very radiant Christian who lives in California. I was sitting in a prayer meeting one evening in a circle. There was a group of us that were going to be having a seminar. I looked across the circle and there was a lady sitting in a wheelchair. I thought there was something rather funny about her legs. I couldn?t quite tell exactly what it was. They looked fairly normal.

But later on that day, I saw her walking around with crutches. And then a third time, I found her sitting in the wheelchair with no legs. Well, being the very nosey person that I can very often be, I just went straight up to her and asked, "Tell me about your legs." She laughed and she said, "Well, I don?t have any! You must have noticed that." And she told me that she was born with no legs. Well, Judy Squire is just a radiant, wonderful Christian woman.

Then I think of my friend Julie Reynolds. I was speaking from a platform and happened to look down right below the pulpit. Here was a strange steel contraption with a radiant face looking up from it. But I could hardly figure out where in the world the rest of that person was. This contraption was about that high and about four feet square. Here was this radiant face looking at me, Julie Reynolds, born that way. I couldn?t for the life of me imagine where all the vital organs could possibly be in such a tiny little person. Another one who loves God, and yet surely has had to deal with pain that very few of us know anything about.

Of course, I don?t know who all is in my audience. I know that there is one lady over here with a wheelchair. I?ve noticed that so far. Jesus Christ was crowned because He suffered. If He had to suffer?if He could not evade that tremendous thing?how can any of us suppose that we shall be exempt?

I think of the suffering of animals. That breaks my heart. I had a wonderful little Scottish terrier named MacDuff. MacDuff was a daily reminder to me of God, because I would look down at that little square face with those pointy ears and that little beard and those bright, bright eyes and I would think, "God made that little animal. He thought of that. He graciously gave that little animal to me."

Well, MacDuff got cancer and he died. And my second husband got cancer and he died. Terrible things that God permits to go on. He is asking you and me, "Will you love Me? Will you trust Me? Will you praise Me?"

In Dostoyevski?s great Russian novel, the brothers Karamazov, one of the brothers says to his brother, "I hasten to give back my entrance ticket. It?s not God that I don?t accept, only I most respectfully return my ticket. Tell me yourself, I challenge you, answer. Imagine that you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the object of making men happy in the end, giving them peace and rest at last, but that it was essential and inevitable to torture to death only one tiny creature. Would you consent to be the architect on those conditions? Tell me. Tell me the truth."

When my daughter was about two years old, I guess I taught her to sing "Jesus Loves Me." I think it was before she reached the age of three that she posed a question, which I knew would be coming. "Did Jesus love my Daddy?" I said, "Yes. Jesus loved your Daddy just as much as He loves you." "Well, then why did He let Indians kill Him?" Of course, that?s the next question.

I had also taught her to sing "Jesus Loves Me" and "God Will Take Care of You." What do we do in the face of the unanswerable? God is asking us to trust Him. Is there an answer? Let?s look at Hebrews 2:5-9.

"It is not to angels that He has subjected the world to come about which we are speaking, but there is a place where someone has testified, ?What is man, that You are mindful of him? The son of man that You care for him? You made him a little lower than the angels. You crowned him with glory and honor and put everything under his feet.?

In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him." So we have to remember that everything that happens somehow fits into God?s pattern for good, which is Romans 8:28. Nothing is not subject.

"Yet at present, we do not see everything subject to him, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because He suffered death." Crowned with glory and honor because He suffered death. "So that by the grace of God, He might taste death for everyone."

Now that?s an answer. It may not satisfy any of us in our darkest times. But if we can just focus our eyes on Jesus Christ and remember that He bore our sins and our iniquities. He was reviled. He was hated. He took upon Himself what one poet wrote as "desperate tides of a whole world?s anguish, forced through the channels of a single heart."

So now for outlines for all of you who like to have a neat outline, I?ll give you three of them. Number one, the necessity. Number two, a gift. Number three, the presence of God.

Suffering is necessary. There is no getting around it. I will give you what I consider a very simple definition. It?s not one that?s going to particularly satisfy you, but I don?t know a better one. Suffering means having what you don?t want or wanting what you don?t have. Now if you can think of anything which would not fall under one of those two headings, I would like to hear about it.

Very often we think of suffering as a rather dramatic, perhaps even heroic, notion. But there are a whole lot of things that are very far from dramatic or heroic?just tiny little things that cut across our human preferences.

My second husband, who was a philosopher and a theologian, he used to say, "When the will of God cuts across the will of man, somebody has to die." So having what you don?t want or wanting what you don?t have.

There is a world to be redeemed from pain, which can only be redeemed through pain. A world to be redeemed from pain that can only be redeemed through pain. Someone has said that it is part of the plot of a love story. The suffering?the necessity of suffering?is part of the plot of a love story.

John 3:16 says, "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." He gave His Son. What did it mean for the Father to relinquish that Son?

Now the conditions of discipleship are stringent and unequivocally clear. Jesus said, "If you want to be My disciple, there are three things you have to do." Mind you, you don?t have to be His disciple if you don?t want to be. When Jesus was traveling the lanes of Galilee, there were plenty of other rabbis, itinerant rabbis. But Jesus said, "If you want to be My disciple, you must give up your right to yourself."

Giving up your right to yourself has got to be the most difficult thing that God asks of any of us. That?s why He put it first. By the time we have given up our right to ourselves, we are well on our way to knowing Jesus Christ.

But the second thing, of course, means terrible suffering. Take up the cross. What do we suppose the cross is going to be? In what form do we expect the cross will be presented to us in today?s world? Do you think of something dramatic?

In the introduction, the death of the five American missionaries in 1956 was mentioned. Now that is thought of by very many people as being very heroic and very dramatic that these men did that. But those five men, I can assure you?I knew one of them quite well?that he had no idea of doing anything heroic or dramatic. I?m sure none of them had.

Most of us would probably think, "Oh, well. I don?t suppose anything like that is going to happen to me, so what in the world has it got to do with giving up my right to myself and taking up the cross?" Well, because the cross will be presented to you, very likely, according to John H. Newman, in the form of small duties which are distasteful to you. The taking up the cross is the faithful carrying out of small duties which are distasteful to you.

Lisa Barry: That?s a good reminder, isn?t it? Following Christ means doing so, no matter where the road leads or what tasks are assigned. If you?re faced with a situation right now that is threatening your will to go on, then let me recommend a book that Elisabeth has written called A PATH THROUGH SUFFERING. It will help you arm yourself with the truth about suffering and why you can trust God?s leading.

The cost of the book is $14.50. To order, you can send that, along with your request, to Gateway to Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, Nebraska, 68501. Or call toll-free: 1-800-759-4JOY. You can also find us on the Internet at gatewaytojoy.org. Gateway to Joy is a listener-supported production of Back to the Bible.

Be with us again when Elisabeth talks about the necessity of suffering. That?s next time on Gateway to Joy.