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2nd Corinthians 4:(17) For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,(18) as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
A Thought about Suffering Print E-mail
Written by Keith Hester   
Friday, 06 March 2009 16:15
 A few hours after my grandson was born he temporarily stopped breathing.  He was quickly rushed to NICU to be cared for as one whose life was in danger.  For the first time I had to suffer in a way I had never suffered before.  I saw my son and his wife suffer for their child.  In the past I was always the suffering parent but now my son was the suffering parent.  But now we both suffered for our child.  He suffered with his new born son who was in danger and I suffered because I knew by experience how hard this was for my son.  I knew that most likely for the first time in his life he was feeling something more painful perhaps than anything he had ever known.  I would have given most anything to make my sons pain go away and I know he would have given most anything to make his sons danger disappear.

 

 

I learned afresh some of the things that can be beneficial about suffering. Suffering is good when it strips all props and crutches away from us.  This is one of those necessary things that suffering can accomplish like nothing else.  So many things that were important to me suddenly meant nothing at all. Suffering has a distinct ability to take us straight to what really matters.  This is a place that we should definitely spend much more time than we usually do.  The shallow things we have been irritated or worried about are quickly revealed as having been unworthy of the place they were given.  Things we wanted so badly now pale in comparison.

 

 

There must be something very significant about a parent watching their child suffer in this way.  I thought of how God watched Jesus suffer with those whom He had adopted as His children.  God certainly makes the idea of a Father allowing his Son to suffer and experiencing the pain with Him something very meaningful.  It seems that God did not suffer because He had to but because He chose to for the meaning found in it.  I still don't fully grasp all the ways in which God suffering for us and with us by watching His Son suffer fit together, but this experience with my son certainly grabbed my attention.

 

 

Jesus said where I am there will my servants be also.  He leads us to embrace the painful things of our lives as worthy of our greatest attention instead of our greatest escape.  Jesus did not seek suffering for the sake of suffering, but when it came He did not turn away from it as something without value and meaning.  A painful time in life does not equate to a wasted time unless we make it worthless.
This is the way to give God the widest opening to reduce and minimize the suffering in your life.  Live in the places that suffering would take you even when
you are not suffering. 

 

Be where He would be if He had your life to live. 

Last Updated on Thursday, 12 March 2009 07:15