Suffering is suffering

In faith circles, we tell a story. It’s a well-known story. It goes like this: Something was really hard/impossible/painful/traumatic. I prayed about it. And the Lord saved me from my troubles. God sprinkled the magic fairy dust on my troubles and they magically disappeared.

But the problem is, it just doesn’t work that way. The New Testament I read talks about that very difficult word: “Suffering.“

The New Testament is clear on where a faith journey leads. How can we get it so wrong? That path leads to suffering, pruning, and death. If you are serious about following Jesus and sticking with him, you will suffer.

But concerning suffering, surely you know by now that there are all kinds of suffering in life. The discomfort of dental pain and the treachery of betrayal. And that little voice of doubt tells you that suffering like Jesus would have to be something so big as dying on a cross. But I think his life was marked by all kinds of suffering, too. When He entered his public ministry, he left his profession. His profession gave him an identity and a place in the world. When he moved into ministry, he said

"Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head". Matthew 8:20. Surely this lack of permanence and place in the world caused Jesus discomfort from what he had known.

Spurgeon wrote that anything that turns you to prayer, consider it a blessing. But the original premise of this assumption can be true. It is suffering that drives us to pray. And if it feels like suffering, consider it suffering. And if it feels like suffering, why do we look at it like an accident? If it’s an accident, it looks like you’re here alone. But what if this suffering is choreographed by Heaven? Tough thought. In the same paragraph, Spurgeon wrote, “Anything that He does, accept it.”

If it feels like suffering, maybe it’s suffering. Suffering is suffering.