Philippians 3:10
Grief among a Sea of Happy Faces
Contemporary Christianity has come to insist on a single-item diet—all praise all the time. Our faith culture insists that we praise God in every situation, regardless of how difficult the situation may be. The virtually unanimous thinking among contemporary Christians demands that we offer praise in any and every circumstance. If you do not feel like praising, do so anyway.
On the surface, the practice appears to reflect good discipline. The ability to acknowledge God’s sovereign care for us during difficult times is a mark of maturity. And praise reflects our faith.
The truth is more sinister. We do not know what to do with those who suffer. In the face of grief, most Christians either walk away or try to fix the problem. In the end, when complaint becomes outlawed and the only acceptable utterance is praise language, two changes take place.
One, the music becomes hollow. Praise degenerates to a denial of pain, a collection of voices from desperate Christians waiting for the Lord to acknowledge the praise that they offer. Like someone whistling in the dark, we keep repeating the mantra, “See, I’m praising!”
Two, the ones who suffer find themselves voiceless while they drown in a sea of happy faces.
The Reality of Suffering in the Christian Life
The truth is simpler. Suffering is real. Further, God uses it to accomplish things that endless praise could not.
In the previous segment, I wrote about the human losses that Paul had to accept from his previous life to gain Christ. On the human scale, all his “gains” involved human suffering and deprivation.
In his final statement about his life with Christ, Paul lists four goals for which he strives. Here is a breakdown of his goals as he states them in Philippians 3:10:
- “…that I may know him…
- “…and the power of his resurrection…
- “…and may share his sufferings…
- “…becoming like him in his death…”
For Paul, suffering is not just a compulsory component of life. It is something that he considers essential to his development as a Christian. Why?
Suffering tempers us. It builds maturity in a way that nothing else can. Here are a few of the ways that suffering deepens our walk with Christ.
Suffering’s Ability to deepen Personal Impact
Suffering sensitizes us to others’ needs. This fact alone should make us consider its value seriously. When the doctor tells us that our wife has cancer, none of us looks for the guy who has been the life of the party for the past five years. We look for the man who has endured similar difficulties, because we need someone who will stand beside us.
Show me someone who is generous to others, who listens to them when they are in pain, and who is willing to stand with his brothers, and I will show you a man who has learned empathy through suffering.
Suffering is such a critical life lesson that God required even Jesus to learn it. The author of Hebrews writes, “Although [Jesus] was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,” (Hebrews 5:8-9).
But wasn’t Jesus already perfect?
He was, as the Son of God. In this context, however, perfect means complete. Jesus’ suffering enabled him to share our experiences firsthand so that he could a sympathetic Savior.
When we suffer, we gain the same experiences. Those who have lived easy lives throw out answers. Those who have suffered offer compassion. We cannot minister effectively until we have learned how to offer compassion through suffering.
Suffering’s Ability to Focus our Hope on Future Glory
To be a believer is to live a future-oriented life. The Bible is clear throughout that nothing of any certainty exists on the earth for a Christian. The old chorus, “This World is not my Home,” is more than a cliché. It is the truth.
Romans 8:18-25 teaches that suffering defines our time on earth. Only when we realize that joy is incomplete during our lifetimes, can orient our true north toward our eternal hope. Paul calls this orientation, “hope for what we do not see” (Romans 8:25).
One of the fruits that comes from this orientation is steadiness. Believing that all good things must come to us during our lifetime only leads to frustration. Suffering prepares us for eternity. “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 5:4-5).
Suffering’s Ability to Produce Self-awareness
Several years ago, I worked with a man who had been brought up in what his group called “Word of Faith” theology. His training had convinced him that the primary purpose for Christ’s suffering was to eliminate all suffering his his believers. If they had enough faith, health, wealth, and productive life would be theirs.
He was one of the most obnoxious people I ever knew. No one could reason with him. No one could convince him from the Scriptures on any other view. He was so convinced that he had the final hold on biblical truth that he listened to no one. He remained unaware of his own contradictions.
On the other hand, the self-aware person is a breath of fresh air. One of my favorite biblical passages in this regard is Psalm 73, a meditation of Asaph, David’s chief musician. The psalm is a confession of a period during which the psalmist had fallen into jealousy over the successful wicked. He lays out his descent into his hellish world of envy with brutal honesty.
Only when Asaph stands at the brink of abandoning his faith altogether, does he realize the damage that he will wreak on the generation that follows him.
He begins to recognize God’s purpose during difficulties, and he begins to correct the direction in his thinking. Toward the end of the psalm, he makes this admission:
Psalm 73:21-22 (ESV)
21 When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
22 I was brutish and ignorant;
I was like a beast toward you.
Whenever I read this verse, I picture a wild animal threshing about in a cage, oblivious to the injuries it causes to itself.
It takes a real man to admit something this personal. This form of humility grows out of suffering.
Doug Knox