The Joy in Suffering

There is joy in suffering. Now I admit this is very hard to explain. It is very hard to understand but the light of God’s joy shines even in the midst of the darkness of suffering. You read through the Bible you will find this was the common experience of every disciple. Paul said in II Cor. 7:4, “I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation. James said, “My friends, count it all joy when you fall into various trials.” Joy can swim in the stormy waves of suffering long after happiness has drowned. You see, joy cannot be taken from you by what happens to you. But joy can be taken from you by how you respond to what happens to you.

It is often possible for persons to be more clear-eyed in disaster than in prosperity. Isn’t it remarkable that some of the noblest literature of the ancient Hebrew was produced during the Babylonian captivity? Isn’t it remarkable that Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, often called the noblest speech ever made in America, came in the darkness of the Civil War? There is something about dark times that can inspire our most profound thoughts on the really important questions about life. The Apostle Paul expressed his firm belief in this reality in his letter to the Romans, “We rejoice in our suffering because suffering produces perseverance and perseverance produces character and character produces hope, and hope doesn’t disappoint us.” (Romans 5:2-5)

 

 

Psychologist Erich Fromm says that people are distinguished by whether they are death-oriented or life-oriented. But the roots of the difference are more than psychological. They spring from that deep level of our being where we decide either to adjust as comfortably as possible to things as they are (death-oriented) or to work as wholeheartedly as possible for things as they ought to be (life-oriented). We can take a lesson in this from nature. We have seen cocoons hanging from trees and bushes in the spring. The cocoon provides protection for a wormy creature which is in process of maturing into a butterfly. The beauty and grace of a butterfly is wondrous to behold, but full maturity does not come without a struggle. Biologists have discovered that the struggle to break through the cocoon of old life into new life is absolutely necessary for the butterfly’s survival. Without the struggle, the butterfly would die in the cocoon. Without the struggle, the tiny wing-muscles would not develop the strength required to fly free.
 

This world can take many things away from you. It can take not only your most precious possessions; it can also take your dearest relationships. But there is one possession it cannot take from you, and that is eternal life. There is one relationship it cannot take away from you and this is your relationship to Jesus Christ.

Go with God,

Pastor Qualley