God and Suffering : Loneliness

His wife, Lillian, was faced with a choice—to sit back, nurse her grief, and feel that at age seventy-three, she could enjoy retirement—or continue to publish the manuscripts that she and Edwin had worked on for so many years. After prayer and deliberation, she chose the latter course and continued to write and compile books until the age of ninety.

Loneliness was the first book to be completed after her husband’s death. Often, sitting at her typewriter, the tears would roll down her cheeks and splash onto the keyboard as she wrote about those who went through great periods of loneliness, for she herself, was sharing in their experiences. Her partner of forty-five years was no longer there by her side and her personal loneliness was intense. This is why this book and its successor, Frustration, carry with them a particular blessing to the reader. Every word written came from the heart.

This book covers many aspects of loneliness–bereavement, through which Lillian was then passing, being just one of them. Listen to the words of Clara Simpson, a poetess, whose husband died as a result of a terrible accident:

“Oh, has He planned it right when darkness falls,

And all one’s world which looked so fair and bright

Has faded out of sight, and sorrow reigns?

He’s planned it right.”

“God is able to use you,” Clara writes, “according to His power and not according to your weakness.” And so, in the midst of her grief, she penned poems that have comforted and inspired many. Read the following, then be encouraged that while, at times, the words “God and suffering” may seem an enigma to you in your sorrow, He does know your grief and He does care:

“Oh Father, do You know when hearts are aching:

When summer days have fled and north winds blow,

Skies heavy, gray, and oh so dark and lonely?

‘My child, I know.’

“Oh Father, do You care when days are empty,

Empty of all that made this world so fair—

When blessings once so precious, now have faded?

‘My child, I care.’

“Oh Father, must we trust when ties are broken,

When loves of earth once strong and deep have gone,

And strange, unwelcome things beset our pathway?

My child, trust on.’

‘Father, I will believe; oh, keep me faithful

Through life’s long day till setting of the sun;

And may I hear when dawns the eternal morning,

‘My child, well done.’”

–Used by permission—Joyful News, Cliff College

(Loneliness, page70)