Suffering is No Fun

I preached a message on suffering last Sunday and found that I am much more passionate about the topic than I first thought. My initial reaction to the text (1 Peter 3 and 4) and it's presentation of suffering "in accordance to God's will" was, "OK, I'm over my head here. I've lived a blessed life, by most standards, so what can I say about suffering?" Henri Nouwen, in his book The Wounded Healer, stated, "The great illusion of leadership is to think that man can be led out of the desert by someone who has never been there." That's where I believed I was, trying to lead people from the desert of suffering when I had not suffered (been there) much myself. However that changed as I started to unravel the mystery of suffering. Oh, I have a long ways to go before I fully understand it; probably never will in fact, but I can honestly say that I get it a little more than I did. In our suffering we are driven to the cross, as Joni Eareclson-Tada puts it, where we find a suffering savior that we can relate to and find our hope in because at the cross we can hear Jesus say, "Come unto me and I will give your rest." I also believe that in our suffering we are also driven to the empty tomb where we discover that suffering does have a happy ending. If we will allow ourselves to come to the cross and the tomb even as we suffer we shall be changed. As Peter said (1 Peter 3:14), "...even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed." That blessing may be seeing others who are suffering given hope by seeing our willingness to allow our suffering to change us into an instrument of God's grace. Let me close this with a quote from John Piper, "I've never heard anyone say the really deep lessons of life have come in times of ease and comfort. But, I have heard many saints say every significant advance I've ever made in grasping the depth of God's love and growing deep with Him, have come through suffering." Carry on, brothers and sisters, even while you know that suffering is no fun, for you are being changed into something glorious.