Suffering, Sovereignty & the Wal-Mart Bargain Bin

I wanted to take my wife to Minneapolis this weekend for the Suffering & Sovereignty of God conference sponsored by Desiring God. Because we have a boy that is still nursing, that didn’t seem to be too relaxing for her. So we stayed home and had a date last night. After our dessert and coffee, we strolled through Wal-Mart (how romantic) enjoying having a sitter watch our boys. While perusing their bargain book bin, I stumbled across a J. I. Packer daily devotional that I had not heard of—Knowing and Doing the Will of God: Daily Devotions for Every Day of the Year. It contains daily excerpts from Packer’s writings, compiled by LaVonne Neff. Each month focuses on a different topic:

January: God guides those who want to do his will.
February: God reveals his will in holy Scripture.
March: God wills to rescue us from sin and death.
April: God unites us in community to do his will.
May: God answers prayer within his sovereign will.
June: God wills us to love and serve others.
July: God wills us to enjoy and care for his created world.
August: God wills us to be holy.
September: God wills us to be like Christ.
October: God’s will is not constant comfort and worldly success.
November: God wills us to grow in grace and joy.
December: God wills to live eternally with us.

While thinking of the conference on suffering that we are missing, I opened up to today's devotional thought:

"Suffering must be valued. Does that thought startle you? It should not. The world, of course, does not find value in suffering. It has no reason to. But Christians are in a different position, for the Bible assures us that God sanctifies our suffering to good ends. We are not to pretend, out of stoical pride, that we feel no pain or distress. Equally, however, we are not spend all our time brooding on how we suffer, for that is sinful self-absorption. In any case, there are more important things to do. Our task is to take suffering in stride, not as if it is a pleasure (it isn’t), but in the knowledge that God will not let it overwhelm us."

From Rediscovering Holiness, 254-255

I guess, in God’s sovereignty, I got to learn something about suffering after all. (Not that I wouldn’t mind being up north.)

By the way, for those wanting to follow the conference, see the excellent live blogging here.