suffering

Suffering.

Sooner or later, one way or another, to some extent or another, we all suffer.

We don't enjoy it. And we don't understand it. We're not always sure what to make of it.

The why-is-this-happening-to-me line of thinking kicks in from the start. Especially with those who have offered up their lives to Jesus Christ and sought to serve their Lord. You'd expect that they of all people would get, if not exactly a 'special' deal, at least a fair deal.

So why is it that good Christian folk still suffer?

1. Suffering can be the discipline of the Lord. I start with this, not because it's the most common reason for the illness or pain or the trial we're having to bear, but because, for sensitive souls, this is where they tend to start.

I'm suffering, therefore I must have done something wrong. I'm being punished by God.

That's what I term Sound of Music theology (you know the bit where Lisa, I think, enjoying the thrill of her first teenage love, sings that song and concludes - ".. so somewhere in my youth, or childhood, I must have done something good ..").

It's very simplistic, has a grain of truth about it which gives it credibility, but can often simply add to the pain and the struggle being borne.

Our suffering can be attritbutable to that, certainly. It can be the means that God uses to discipline his child. He is the righteous God, after all, and like any wise and loving father, he will discipline his children when they step out of line and get things wrong.

But in many ways, this form of 'discipline' is something of a last resort. It was C S Lewis, I think, who used to say that pain is God's megaphone - the only way, sometimes, that he can make his voice heard in the face of our stubborn resistance.

Most times, though, the suffering Christians endure is not attributable to this. That was the mistake that Job's four pals all made: you're suffering - you must have done something bad.

Which was a load of nonsense in his case.

Search your heart and life, certainly. Acknowledge any sin before the Lord, for sure. Repent and put things right if things are wrong.

But don't lash yourself unecessarily, and recognise instead that there are other reasons why you may be suffering.

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2. Suffering can be a 'sanctifying' experience in our lives. This is akin to the no-pain-no-gain principle which athletes understand.

It's not the Lord who causes or sends the suffering. But he allows it - and does so because he is able to turn it to good and make it work for our growth in grace.

This is a pretty constant theme through the pastoral letters of the New Testament, picking up on the conviction which poor old Job first expressed when he cried out defiantly - "when he has tried me I shall come forth as gold".

Suffering of one sort or another is likened to a furnace through which much that is merely 'dross' in our lives is burnt off: and we come forth as 'gold'. Suffering, in other words, does something to us.

It strengthens us. It softens us.

It makes us more resilient and at the same time more compassionate.

It draws us closer to God. It gives us a deepening sense and experience of his presence and his love.

There was a girl I remember from years ago - a lovely Christian girl - who passed through a dark and difficult time. I wouldn't wish what I've been through on my worst enemy, she said: but I wouldn't have missed it for anything.

It did something to her. It changed her. It deepened her knowledge of God. It fashioned her likeness to Christ. It made her fit for service.

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3. Suffering can be part of the cost of serving Christ. We follow a crucified Saviour, after all. And we're called to take up our cross and share with him in his redemptive work in the world of today.

Paul once wrote some remarkable words along these lines. "I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church." [Col.1.24]

That's pretty daring, the way he puts it. What is still lacking in Christ's afflictions... If you didn't know better you'd figure he was saying there was something incomplete about the costly death of Jesus.

I hope you do know better! Because he's not saying that, of course. But he is saying that the pattern of Jesus' life and ministry is replicated in the lives of his people, and that to good effect.

As the resurrecting power of God was released through the crucifixion of his Son, so that same healing and renewing power is released through the lives of his people as they share, too, in a multitude of different ways in the suffering which he bore.

"For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you."

Our suffering becomes redemptive in Christ. Sometimes you need to cling onto that with everything you've got.

You resolved to follow Jesus. You count it your privilege to share in his work. You asked that he would glorify himself in and through your life.

More often than not, our suffering is related to such prayers. Not so much a punishment as a purifying privilege and ministry.