I was away last week at a conference with a bunch of pastors and their families. Wednesday afternoon was “free time”, so me and a friend and a “new friend” checked out Pebble Beach, Carmel by the Sea, and Cannery Row in Monterey, CA. Some good sight seeing, some amazing white sand, and some wonderful food made for a great few hours together. And, as happens with “new friends”, during the afternoon we found ourselves telling our stories. And as good pastors are prone to do, probing questions were asked. One of which took me down a path that was, frankly, still kind of painful. That conversation came to mind as I read in the Psalms this morning.

Your hands have made and fashioned me;
       give me understanding that I may learn Your commandments.
Those who fear You shall see me and rejoice,
       because I have hoped in Your word.
I know, O LORD, that Your rules are righteous,
       and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.
Let Your steadfast love comfort me
       according to Your promise to Your servant.

(Psalm 119:73-76 ESV)

Your hands have made and fashioned me . . . You have afflicted me . . . Let Your steadfast love comfort me . . . That’s what I’m chewing on this morning.

I don’t think we’re meant to forgive and forget. Forgive? For sure. Forget? I’m not so certain. Though Jesus forgave, though ascended to the right hand of power, forever He will be recognized as “a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain” and worshiped as “the Lamb who was slain” (Rev. 5:8, 12). The scars forever a part of His story. Us too, I think. Though we forgive, trauma will always be part of our tale to be told.

But it should be more than just a saga of sorrow. It should be the story of a God who made me, a God who afflicted me, and a God whose steadfast love comforted me. Comforted me then and continues to comfort me now.

As was the case with my “new friend”, though telling the story stirred embers of hurt and bitterness, it also reminded me that a sovereign God is ultimately the Author of all our stories of affliction so that He might work the perfect work of forming Christ in us — that “we may share His holiness” and know “the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Heb. 12:10-11). And in feeling the affliction afresh, so too we know afresh the unfailing comfort of His steadfast love.

Our stories — even our stories of affliction — are our stories. Sourced in the faithfulness of the One who created us. Founded that we might experience the reality of His steadfast love. Remembered that we might know the unfailing love of God continually.

This too, by His grace and for His glory.