A few days ago, I wrote a tribute to the late Chuck Girard, and it included a heartfelt tribute from his daughter, podcaster and Christian apologist Alisa Childers. As she is wont to do, Childers explored the theological impression that seeing her dad’s last days left on her, and it’s worth exploring here today.
Childers said that the primary scripture passage that came to mind for her as her dad was slowly passing away was 2 Corinthians 1:3-11 (emphasis added):
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.
“The affliction, the suffering: This is something everybody, I think, has to make, they have to reckon with, especially as a Christian,” she said. “What do you do with suffering? What do you do with what seems to us to be pointless suffering? Suffering we can't in the moment make any meaning out of.”
Childers brings it back to the Apostle Paul’s acknowledgement of the “God who raises the dead.” Of course, we know as believers that Paul is talking about Jesus.
“It is a reality in history,” she said. “Jesus Christ of Nazareth died, was buried, and His body was raised back to life. And because of that, every miracle in the Bible is not just possible, but easy.”
Related: Sunday Thoughts: From Suffering to Hope
She alluded to another passage that Paul wrote to the Corinthian church: "And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied" 1 Corinthians 15:17-19 (ESV).
“He proved it true with his resurrection,” Childers said. “And that's what we as Christians hope, have the hope for, is that even in the moments, those last moments that might seem meaningless suffering, the hope of eternity, the hope of knowing that one day my dad will be raised from the dead. There, the dead in Christ shall rise first, as it's promised in scripture.”
“So we have a great hope to know that even if the suffering we endure in this world does not seem to have any purpose for us, there's a purpose that God knows,” she added.
That’s as powerful and true a thing to remember for Childers, who lost her father a couple of weeks ago, as it is for me five years after my father passed away. The God we hope in will raise His people from the dead, just as He will raise us from the dead someday.
That’s a comfort that we can trust in even in the midst of suffering. He loves us and has our best interests at heart.
When suffering feels pointless and grief seems unbearable, God’s Word reminds us of a greater hope: the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That truth sustained Alisa Childers as she watched her father, Chuck Girard, finish his race, and it’s the same hope that steadies us in our own seasons of affliction.
At PJ Media, we don’t just report the headlines of politics and culture — we also point to the deeper truths that anchor us when the world shakes. That’s why our VIP members matter so much. Your support helps us keep telling stories that speak to both the mind and the heart.
Join us as a PJ Media VIP today and stand with writers who won’t shy away from faith, hope, and truth. Use the promo code FIGHT for 60% off — because even in suffering, we cling to the God who raises the dead.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member