Lately I have been asking myself what it means to be a follower of Jesus, a true disciple. One of the themes that keeps coming back to me is the idea of suffering and perseverance. Not just suffering, but living in the fullness of God's joy and peace in the midst of suffering. We as Western Christians and the Western Church have had it relatively easy for so long, that we believe that the gospel somehow teaches that we have a right to an easy life and all of our desires. Because our perspective on suffering is somewhat limited we tend to forget that we are blessed so that we can bless others. What would it look like if we as the church lived in a gospel that was filled with grace, peace, joy, and love in the midst of suffering? If we are not seeing suffering in our lives, is it because we have chosen a path that is devoid of risk and that does nothing to challenge the kingdom of Satan or to push back against the darkness with the Light of Christ?
Oswald Chambers spends a lot of time talking to the idea of living waters and the river that flows out from our heart (John 7:37-38). We are not the source and we are not the termination of this river, yet it flows from our heart. We believe more easily that our faith is about a river that flows to us to bring its blessing on us. I think this is why it strikes me so poignantly that we should be giving thanks for our trials and giving thanks for our suffering. Our God is sovereign and we are not. When we admit that God is over all things, good and bad, and that he uses them for His good purposes we can step back from our trials, big or small, and give up our desire to be blessed by God as our primary purpose in our faith walk. When I admit that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not about me being blessed, then I can turn my life more fully over to the work of the Holy Spirit to be used to bless the Nations and my neighbors.
There is a recent CNN article on "Almost Christian Youth" that shows that a whole generation sees faith as "moralistic therapeutic deism" and that God wants them to feel good and do good. This view has abandoned the message of the gospel that tells us to take up our crosses and follow Jesus and to die to ourselves each day. When these young people do come upon hardship in their lives, they abandon their faith as if it had promised a life filled with goodness and happiness all of our days and has reneged on those promises. Peter gives a clear call to the hard pressed and persecuted Christian Church in 1 Peter 1 to rejoice in their inheritance of salvation, imperishable and unfading even though they are grieved by various trials. Now the trials of our lives probably don't amount to being turned into a human torch or lion food to entertain the Romans as was the case during the time of Peter's writing, but many of us see trial of other kinds in our lives. Without trial in our lives, we risk the danger of a shallow character and that is where the Arabic Proverb "All sunshine makes a desert" comes in. Think about what you are wishing for in your heart when you say that you want money and possessions and an easy life. What would all sunshine look like in your own life? You may not see the blessing that God has worked in your life through the hardship you have seen, but He works His good will in and for His people.
My friend Brynn is in Uganda helping to make a film for the Village of Hope. She has posted some good thoughts on this subject lately. Pursue Justice is the latest. She is seeing that our comfort leads to risk aversion that ultimately robs us of a life marked by faith. I want to add that by not giving thanks for every circumstance that we face and through every challenge and blessing, we risk living a bland and fruitless life that dishonors the sacrifice of the holy and blameless Lamb of God. We are called to more than comfort and the American dream of the pursuit of happiness. We are called to sacrifice our self-love and self-worship so that God can be glorified and so that we can be made Holy in His strength.
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