This is a strange outlook on suffering. Pain, affliction, loss and sorrow are rarely things that I consider good or am thankful for. They are usually what I try to avoid. Our culture is no different. Suffering is usually feared, not valued or held in high regard as King David did.
David's outlook on pain was very different than ours. He viewed everything in life, suffering included, as an opportunity to know God more, and cherished it for what it was. He found the hard times and the desperate times were especially good at creating in him the utter dependency and yearning for God's ways that he desired and knew God desired of him.
Many Godly men since David have suffered and even died for their faith. All Jesus' disciples, with the exception of one, were tortured and killed, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was imprisoned and hung by the Nazis for his belief in Jesus' teaching, John Bunyan was imprisoned for 12 years because of his preaching, and Martin Luther was tried and made an outlaw. The list goes on to thousands who have died more recently in different countries around the world for their belief in a God that the world doesn't know or understand.
How about you? What have your experiences with suffering been like lately? In John 16:33, Jesus specifically says, "In this life you will have troubles." He also tells his disciples in Matthew 10:22, "All men will hate you because of me." Trials and suffering are not a possibility for the follower of Jesus, they are a reality. And a beautiful reality indeed.
By no means should we go in search of hardship or pain, but neither should we fear or avoid it when it comes. Rather we can trust in the God who brings all things into our life "for the good of His glory" (Romans 8:28). The prophet Jeremiah also understood this difficult truth when he wrote in Lamentations 3:37-38, "Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it? Is it not from the mouth of the most high that both calamities and good things come?"
Does bringing calamity and hardship upon the very people whom he claims to love make God out to be cruel and harsh? Not at all. Think about your mom and dad. What if they never disciplined you or protected you from anything that might be tough, hard, or at which you might have failed? Would you have grown or amounted to anything? Highly unlikely. Sure, you can say that your parents didn't intentionally bring suffering on you because many times you brought it on your self, but your parents and God are different when it comes to knowing all things. Since God does knows all things, past present and future, we say that both good and evil come from him. Evil is not created by God but he allows it to exist for the time being as a consequence for man seeking to make his own way and uses even the result of our disobedience to accomplish his perfect purpose in our lives.
Do you see how suffering can be a blessing? Like hunger or thirst, it sharpens our senses to be satisfied by God and his word in ways that we could not have otherwise.
Listen to what Paul had to say to the church of his day about the topic of suffering: "It has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him." (Philippians 1:29) Wow how different is that mentality from the one held by most of us who sit it comfortable church chairs, drinking our coffee on Sundays?
During the reign of the Roman Empire following Jesus' death, early Christians were heavily persecuted for their new found beliefs. As city cemeteries began to fill, and the persecution of believers increased, followers of Christ were forced to find new places to bury their frequent martyrs. They dug over six hundred miles of below ground catacomb tunnels which became a safe place for burial and for secret meetings of the early church. When archeologists rediscovered the hidden graves hundreds of years later, they found one symbol, the ichthus, scattered throughout all six hundred miles. The"Christian Fish" as it is know today, is an acrostic which stands for "Jesus Christ, God's son, the Savior" and reminded the earlier followers whose example they should follow, even in the face of great suffering. Today the ichthus is no longer a symbol of steadfast devotion to the faith, instead it's a sign of status on the bumpers and windshields of nice cars nationwide. Wow how Christianity has changed.
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