I couldn’t get that man out of my head. The profundity of his objections to an easy faith echoed in my soul:
“You say your God is your life, because your life is good. Look at us. We are here in one of the poorest and most dangerous areas of the capital, homeless here on the street at 11pm, accepting hot soup from complete strangers. We have lived lives of suffering. Who are you to talk to us about a God that heals? About a God that saves? What do you know of such things?”
A few weeks later, in the comfort of my third floor apartment, I sat down to listen to a John Piper sermon on YouTube (“How Our Suffering Glorifies God” watch it, read it, or both—it’s worth every word.) I couldn't help but think of how relevant it was to that conversation on the street.
Think back to the times when you have hidden most under the shelter of the Almighty God, YHWH. Do you think of happy times, or do you think of the times when the peace you felt was unreasonable—a peace that passes all understanding? The times I have felt God’s presence most in my life have been in times of utter darkness, desperate pleas, and intense suffering. On the other hand, the times I feel farthest from God are the times when I am trying to shield my heart from suffering and pain, both in my own life and in the lives of those around me. This is how it is meant to be. If you question that, read the Bible. Jesus never guarantees us prosperity. He guarantees us suffering.
If we are living as if it’s about this life, Paul says “we are of all men most to be pitied.” What does our prosperity say to the weary multitudes? That our God is a God for the happy, the rich, the carefree? Or that the Kingdom of God belongs to the poor in spirit? That our treasure is on earth? Or that we count everything else as rubbish, that we may gain Christ?
If you are not experiencing any suffering at all, ask God to awaken your heart to the suffering of the atheist on the street corner. Plead that you might really understand what he is suffering, and really mourn with them. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
OK, so we suffer. Can we therefore boast in our suffering? Do I tell you all my sad stories so that you can feel like you’re not the only one? Is that the answer? No.
No, because we will always find someone whose suffering is greater than ours. We can’t sit around comparing our sufferings to demonstrate that the Christian walk is valid.
To the itinerant in Panama City: I’m 99% sure I’ve suffered less than you have. But the suffering I have experienced has meaning, because there is One who gave it meaning through the ultimate sacrifice.
In the beginning, and in the end, we must turn to the CROSS. We must IDENTIFY with the cross in the deepest part of our souls. We must not boast in anything, no riches nor treasure nor earthly gain, nothing except the cross of Christ. We must pursue Christ, that we may know Him and the fellowship of His suffering, being made like Him in His death. We must remember that it isn’t about us: we have died, and our lives our hidden with Christ in God.
God’s supreme purpose in creating the universe is to display the greatness of the glory of his grace supremely through the suffering of His Son. That’s yesterday. Today, the summons: will you join the Son in displaying the supreme satisfaction of the glory of the grace, in joining Him in the Calvary Road of suffering… because there’s no other way the world is going to see the supreme glory Christ until we break free from the Disneyland of America and begin to live lifestyles of missionary sacrifice, that looks to the world like our treasure is on heaven and not on the earth. –John Piper
Acts 5:41: “They left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to suffer.”
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