One of the main ways we move from abstract knowledge about God to a personal encounter with him as a living reality is through the furnace of affliction. —Timothy Keller
Experiential knowing through cuts and bruises is the great teacher. Theoretics are no match for the pain of real-life challenges.
Suffering is an inevitable part of service. Even though we know suffering produces growth, we rarely welcome it as part of the journey. Pain hurts—literally. Pain forces us to confront our limits, shattering any illusions of self-sufficiency and beckoning us to turn to God. It strips us of our pride and leads us to the cross, to humility, to an unshakable conviction that we cannot do it on our own.
Many have experienced God’s nearness when in pain. C. S. Lewis said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”21 — Peter Greer, Gift of Disillusionment
More than that, pain has the potential to focus our minds and open our hearts. It brings us into closer solidarity with those who are hurting and allows us to spot others’ needs more easily. As Charles Spurgeon reflected, “I am certain that I never did grow in grace one-half so much anywhere as I have upon the bed of pain.”
David Brooks, columnist for the New York Times, writes, “When people look forward, when they plan their lives, they say, ‘How can I plan . . . [to] make me happy?’ . . . But when people look backward at the things that made them who they are, they usually don’t talk about moments when they were happy. They usually talk about moments of suffering or healing. So, we plan for happiness, but we’re formed by suffering.”23
How might we plan for suffering? ie. courthouse, doctors office. Confronting worst case scenarios in advance as active adventures into death and the mastery of negative outcomes. Simualtion is not just being thankful for dreams, but being thankful for the most painful circumstances before they’ve ever happend — so that no fear or future anxiety can get in the way of the trained warrior.
In Jeremiah 17, both the stunted shrub and the deep-rooted tree experience heat and drought. For us, too, it’s not a question of if heat and droughts will come. Instead, the question is, When they come, are we connected to Jesus, the Source of Life?
If we focus only on the first part of Jesus’ promise—“Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows”—we fall into despair. Yet if we focus only on the second part—“I have overcome the world”—we slip into triumphalism or unrealistic idealism. Leaders who endure through suffering are those who hold on to both the pain and the presence.
Moral philosopher John Macmurray lectured on holding in tension the promise of suffering and the promise of presence. “The maxim of illusory religion runs: ‘Fear not; trust in God and He will see that none of the things you fear will happen to you’; that of real religion on the contrary is ‘Fear not; the things that you are afraid of are quite likely to happen to you, but they are nothing to be afraid of.’”26 There are many reasons to despair, but there’s an even more compelling reason to cling to hope. It’s grounded in a trust not based in our circumstances but in the character of our God.
Application
What would it look like to embrace suffering in our lives with enduring hope as Jesus modeled for us?
Facing our worst case scenarios of suffering, headache and fear — as a practice. Not waiting to suffering, but walking toward suffering as the key to expansion and soul alchemisation.
How can we use our own suffering to better serve those who are hurting and in need?
To be of service, is it’s own use case / phase. Unlocking this liberated, value based, generous of spirit context is a whole other form of personal growth.