Romans 8:18-25: Each Gap, Each Groaning Is A Signal Fire For Hope

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. - Romans 8:18-25

Suffering is meant to teach us. First, it teaches that we have something in common with everything else. We are frustrated and the whole world is frustrated. It isn't working the way it should be. We aren't working the way we should be.  Things aren't going the way they should be going. We can watch things happen and we have an innate sense about what ought to happen. But it doesn't-and we are frustrated. That is true of the world and it is true of our inner selves and even our own paths. We try hard and it fails, or we don't exert full effort and it still succeeds. We want to discipline ourselves but we still do-again and again-what we wish we didn't do. But Paul says that this frustration is pointing us forward to the day when we are liberated from "bondage to decay" and brought into the freedom and glory of children of God.

Why does God do this to us? To me? To teach us how to hope. If everything just worked out all right. then we would never learn the key lesson that we are dependent on God. We would just assume that everything would work out as it ought just as a part of the way the universe worked and never look up to the God who created that universe. So when things don't work out right, we "groan inwardly" and "eagerly await"-the two sides of the coin that is hope. 

It teaches us a second lesson: patience. There is a gap between the mess that we and the world are in and the resolution the mess and we don't know how big that gap is. The not knowing, along with the gap, is the training ground for patience.

Each gap, each groaning- they are signal fires to draw our focus to hope in God's goodness.