Stuff to know

Friday, April 18, 2014

How to suffer well


It is a Good Friday, Indeed. This morning I was a bit umm... unawake. Have any

 of you caught on to the fact that I’m not really a morning chick? Anyway since 

it was taking me a while to get it together, I decide to sip coffee a bit longer and 

read a devotional in my inbox from Sheloves.


 It spoke of heaving our burdens on to the Cross. The author was writing from 

an abandon concentration camp, where there were unimaginable burdens. One 

sentence in particular caught my attention. She wrote " And even here , in my 

own life , when I don’t suffer well, and I don’t give thanks.. This place is 

marked by His holy fire too."  That phrase “suffer well” stayed with me. 
No one wants to suffer. 

Yet it’s inevitable if you’re a believer or not. Everyone has a certain amount of suffering in life. As believers we can actually expect a certain amount of suffering just because we choose Jesus. We are also called to enter into someone else’s suffering. I know crazy right? But true. "Bear one another's burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ." Galatians 6:2 There are times when you are not suffering and entering the suffering of someone else can ease theirs. This is how Jesus lived. He didn’t offer advice and walk away. He didn’t give you “the answer” and arrogantly walk off hoping you’d get “right” with God. No He showed you.  He came and entered our suffering. Stepped down form heaven’s throne to hang out with the sinning, stinky, obstinate people of earth. He lived and walked among this imperfect world. He experienced temptation and physical pain. He got tired, He had his heart broken, and He was hungry, dirty and homeless. And in all this He loved by demonstration. He entered into our life and loved us.  And he didn’t leave it there.  


He decided He loved us so much that He wanted to be together with us always. In order to do that He had to enter a suffering and carry a burden that as meant for us. He didn’t just share it, He took that whole mess. We may experience pain and suffering here on earth in which He shares that suffering with us, alongside us.  He is present. But the suffering of the Cross paid our guilt and the price for our sins, all of them. We are not going to share that burden. We are going to be exempt from it because He took it ALL, all by Himself. He didn’t just enter into our suffering, He opted us out. There is no merger or buy out in the history of humanity that is that good.With that Good News, with that freedom we can freely enter into another’s suffering as so fulfill the law of Christ. As we have been loved, let us so love

We have some friends that our middle daughter babysits for that have a child with leukemia. Those two words in the same sentence child and leukemia give me shudders just like they do you. But this family is a shining example of how to “suffer well”. They have chosen the route of giving all trust to God. They refuse to have anything but life spoken over them. They ask for prayers and extend the privilege of entering into their suffering to watch God act. You can follow their story on Facebook at Warrior Shepard.