What is our role in suffering?
By Keith Goad February 20, 2009
This blog is based upon a meditation of I Pet 3, my self-loathing, the blessing others’ suffering has brought to my own life, and John Chrysostom.
One of the key questions when suffering is asking if my suffering is for some sin in my life or for doing wickedness. If you are suffering in prison for tax fraud, its suffering for the sin committed. Another key question is how others are related to my suffering. We rarely suffer in isolation. This could mean that another party is causing my suffering or that another party is suffering with me. In the latter case it is sad that it is often those closest to us that bring about suffering (family, church) and in the latter case it is glorious when those closest to us are suffering with us (family, church). Now, I am writing to those whose suffering is not not due to their own sin. Disclaimer: making the judgment that I have not sinned to bring about suffering is hard and I need others to help me with it.
So, for those who can have good reason to recognize their suffering is either for acting righteously or just because someone else is acting wickedly. These two are actually usually related because sinners respond to righteousness with sin apart from the Holy Spirit moving in their life. What to do when in the midst of suffering?
1. Ask if there are sinful actions that could be the source of your suffering or if any motivations are sinful. Okay, I have already said it, but the repetition is intentional. This is a question you never stop asking.
2. Do not try to escape the suffering or tough time if it is not based upon your own sin. If it is, then repent. If it is not your sin, then the God who works all things for your good is actually doing so even though you do are not yet realizing it (yet). Real spiritual growth is only seen by us in retrospect when we can look back a year or two from the experience and see what fools we were and how we are slightly less foolish now. If you try to escape the suffering you are going to miss out on becoming less of a fool and God’s great blessing, and most likely just increase your suffering. God uses your tough times to build you and the church up. Endure!
3. Realize that the only matter that is within your realm of control is your own virtue. The wrong you are suffering is out of your control, but the way you respond to it is your responsibility and duty. You are to bless those who curse (I Pet 3:8-9) and love your enemy (Matt 5:43ff). That is what makes Christians different and the remarkable thing about it is God blesses and loves those who do this (of course he loves them fist because they are seen in the blood of Christ who did this preeminently). The pattern has been set by Christ (Rom 8:31ff and I Pet 3:18ff). Our spirituality, virtue, and character is what is being tested and purified by God. We must focus on what God wants to change within us instead of how our circumstances need to change in order for us to be happy, faithful, or content. I like what Chrysostom says when in exile, “no one who is wronged is wronged by another, but experiences this injury at his own hands.” Johnny C. is not even considering being exiled as a true wrong suffered. The only real wrong suffered is that we do by our own hands when we choose not to submit to the suffering and curse. Only we can truly wrong ourselves by not being obedient. This is a radical way to live.
4. Pray for God to open your eyes to the blessing that is at hand so that you can actually enjoy the suffering. This sounds perverse, but if you can get here (and I am not, but I thank God my wife bears fruit of this lifestyle and heavenly perspective) you will enjoy contentment and a life blessed with heavenly rewards. To be able to see God’s fruit because of obedience in suffering while suffering is a rare jewel (I am stealing words from Jeremiah Burroughs here, Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment). It can only be accomplished by seeking to know God on a higher level than your present circumstances and in the cross where God’s own suffering brought about the greatest blessing for God’s prized possession. This means we pray for God’s suffering to end in his timing, that he accomplishes what he desires with it, and that our wills would somehow be aligned with him in the suffering.
An additional point to the church, at these times the local church has the greatest opportunity to act like who they are–the body of Christ. By wrapping their arms around the suffering and lifting them up, and pointing them to the head who is able to give wisdom because he is the wisdom of God.