I think I may have mentioned a time or 40,
that I would prefer life to be easy.
I would like every day to be like Valentines
filled with chocolate and love.
But so often life seems to be hard and filled with struggle
and there is no chocolate to be found.
(Well, there is always chocolate in my house but I mean other people)
I was talking to a friend the other day when
she said something that struck me as so very true.
She said,
"You know, everyone in the world
is trying their hardest to get away from suffering
and those of us who follow Jesus are trying to
embrace it so that we can be more like him."
And I said,
"What are we thinking?"
And she said,
"No kidding."
And since that conversation I have been thinking a bit
about suffering and Christ and the fellowship of suffering
for him and with him and I think I don't want it.
In fact, whenever suffering comes my way,
I am utterly surprised by it and I try rid myself of it as soon as possible.
Because I am not good with pain or hard things.
Like when I had post partum my thoughts were not,
"This is painful, Lord...how can I identify with you in this?"
And I definitely did not say,
"Goody goody gumdrops! The fellowship of Christ's suffering."
I was more like,
"Jesus, I have lost my mind and if YOU wouldn't mind,
I would like to trade this life for one where I live in Hawaii
and sip fancy drinks by the pool. My life hurts too much."
If you are alive, which could be doubtful some days, you have suffered.
I have yet to meet a single person who says,
"I have never experienced an ounce of suffering."
And if I did, I would throw things at them.
But I had the thought that Jesus is not so interested in us being
comfortable as he is interested in our hearts becoming like his.
And his heart is broken. For humanity. For all of his kids.
All that being said, now that we have all agreed that suffering
is terrible and who wants it, for goodness sake,
I thought you might want to check out
what BooMama is doing right now.
She is in Uganda right now getting her heart broken.
Jesus is outright breaking her heart for those
babies who are hungry and orphaned and who don't have any crayons.
And crazy as it may sound, it is beautiful to read about the love
that being born out of her being surrounded by suffering.
She is in the midst of Jesus' kids, loving them.
And even though it is rocking her world, she is walking it out.
The fellowship of Christ's suffering.
3 comments:
I, too, want to run away from suffering. It is just too much at times. Thank you for reminding me that this is Jesus' way. I forget. My heart is breaking by just reading BooMama's blog. I am a daily reader of Boomama'a blog. In fact, that is where I found your blog. I always enjoy your posts. They are always thought provoking! Thanks!
Well said.
I'm no BooMama, and actually I've got it pretty good. Like you, my struggles are with writing. Sometimes it's great, and people are touched by my words. So then I'm afraid that I'll go back to doing this for my own glory instead of God's and I pray, "Keep me humble." Then God will outdo himself answering my prayer and I'll cry uncle. I'm not keen on suffering. But where else can humility come from?
Post a Comment