Today, I received the following e-mail from a dear friend and with his permission I would like to share with you his thoughts on suffering. Jim wrote this e-mail after coming back from visiting his new granddaughter with his wife Shelley...
In spite of problems we had a very good weekend enjoying our new baby. At one point I needed to go out to the store and I turned on a Christian radion station, quite by accident (no such thing in life!). It was a well known speaker and in the course of my twenty minutes or so with him he made a lot of points but one stood out. He said: "ALL suffering is redemptive!" As I have been ill now almost six years, suffering (the word) has acquired a new meaning for me, and I have attempted to discover what it means from a biblical point of view. WHEN you are suffering academic answers do little to help us understand. But that phrase as he used it ("ALL suffering is redemptive!") was very significant.
For me, pain simply HURTS and I don't like it, much less do I dwell on the thought and REJOICE in the fact that I'm in that situation. For me I just want to ESCAPE THE PAIN and the situation. Some time back I was studying 1 Peter and the whole theme of the book is "suffering" and presents to us the Christ who is the prototype of suffering. He showed us the way to suffer, and we know WHY He suffered and the book goes further and says that since the Christ suffered we also should expect it and IN our suffering realize DEEPLY WITHIN ourselves that ALL our suffering has redemptive value and just as WE are healed by the suffering of our Lord, so, in our redemptive suffering, God will somehow use OUR suffering to heal others just as He used the suffering of His Son to heal us. In a sense, AS we suffer, it's as if we're crawling up on the cross alongside our Savior and suffering with Him. Scripture definitely teaches that we are chosen to do and be many things, but ONE of the things we're chosen to is to suffer with our Savior.
IF we are hurting deeply, but we KNOW deep down within ourselves that SOMEHOW that suffering is, in some mysterious way, maybe softening the suffering of our Savior on the cross, would that suffering then have any more meaning to us? I think so.
In some ways what I say is heresy, and I know it. On the other hand this issue of suffering is so deep, so complex and so mysterious, but I KNOW the scripture teaches that we have the PRIVILEGE of sharing in Christ's suffering. If we suffer not then we shall reign not with Him.
That's heavy thinking for a Monday morning. Have a good week as we share our journey with the One Who led the way.
Love you all..
Jim
Well said Jim, thank you for allowing me to share these words of wisdom with others.
