The day this issue on suffering went to press, an 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit Japan, sending a huge wave along the country’s coastal regions. We who confess faith in a loving God who is mighty to save receive this disastrous news as particularly troubling as we await rising death tolls.
Easier to comprehend, but closer to home, is the suffering that colours our own lives, whether because of our own choices, or choices others make, or just because.
Our hope in a world of darkness is lodged in the events celebrated at Easter, and the season of spring offers an analogy for the new life we experience. In our MB family, spring is also the season of provincial conventions; you’ll find our reporting on the Ontario and Manitoba events in the People and Events section.
The feature articles in this month’s Herald – including a panel discussion from Highland MB Church in Abbotsford, B.C., and Congolese MB leader Nzuzi Mukawa’s Celebration 2010 plenary address – offer some hopeful, life-giving ways in which we might understand who we are, and how our experiences of suffering relate to God and our world.
While this issue certainly isn’t the last word on suffering, we trust that, as you read, you will see “the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining” (1 John 2:8).
—J Janzen
