I was excited to learn recently that a new revised edition of The Pleasures of God will be available soon along with a DVD and study guide. It is a tremendously helpful book in understanding what makes God happy.
Pastor John also reveals some of his own suffering in it, which has been a comfort to me in knowing my pastor understands what pain looks like as he continues to cling to Jesus.
For example, he offered this following the sudden, shocking death of his much-loved mother in an accident (emphases in bold are mine):
What was my comfort in those days? There were many. She suffered little. I had her for twenty-eight years as the best mother imaginable. She had known my wife and one of my children. She was now in heaven with Jesus. Her life was rich with good deeds and its good effects would last long after she was gone. And underneath all these comforts, supporting all my unanswered questions, and calming my heart, there was the confidence that God is in control and God is good.
I took no comfort from the prospect that God could not control the flight of a four-by-four. For me there was no consolation in haphazardness. Nor in giving Satan the upper hand. As I knelt by my bed and wept, having received the dreaded phone call from my brother-in-law, I never doubted that God was sovereign over this accident and that God was good. I do not need to explain everything. That he reigns and that he loves is enough for now.
John Piper, The Pleasures of God, pp. 74-5.
It is a reminder to me that suffering people are credible with other suffering people, even if the circumstance of the suffering is not the same. Let us use our suffering well, for the sake of other hurting people and to bring glory to Jesus.
[…] Knight writes about how God Uses My Pastor’s Hurts to Help Me. He shares how Pastor John Piper’s candor about his own suffering makes Pastor Piper credible […]