Suffer Well

What things do you do well?  Yes, we learned from our parents not to brag, and that’s good advice, but each of us need to know the tasks in which we excel.  The hard part [for me] is distinguishing between the things I do well and the things I do well without.

 

How well do you suffer?  Now, this is something we don't care to think about, but a true-born child of God must consider it.  Why?  Because the reality of life is that suffering is part of living.  Some of our suffering comes from poor choices or bad decisions, but not all.  Regardless of why or what, we suffer!  We are reminded in Hebrews 5:8, “Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered.” Our attitude toward discomfort, inconvenience, and difficulty is way off. Charles Spurgeon asks, "Must Christ pass through seas of His own blood to win the crown, and are we to walk to heaven dryshod in silver slippers?" How we choose to respond to suffering is huge!  We can wring our hands, whine and cry, or fall off into the abyss, which is expected of those who have no hope.  Because of Christ, in and out of suffering, we are to be different: "Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world." (Ephesians 2:12).  Furthermore, "... we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." (Romans 5:3-5).  If this doesn't shame us when suffering triggers grumbling or pouting when things don't go our way, I don't know what will. Among the things we conclude we do well, let suffering well be included in the list.  Maybe we should begin with a foot-stompin' refusal to allow defeat to rule when it’s our time to suffer.  Yes, let us suffer well.