Suffering Leads To Hope

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Let’s Talk About Suffering

Hey, let’s talk about suffering… says no one ever! Yet, this week in Romans 5, we read that suffering is good. Because suffering ultimately leads to hope.

“But we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”

Romans 5:3-4 NIV

I shared this story this week when I taught on Romans, but felt I should share it here too. While in my worst days of Lyme Disease, I felt lost and confused. Prior to Lyme, I coached people to run marathons, led a Bible study, and started this blog.

My Hardest Day

One particular day that stands out to me the most was when it took everything I had to get to the kitchen. I laid in bed, knowing I needed to take my medications. My body hurt, and I felt weak. I did not know if I could make it on my own.

I got up and held on to the walls, furniture, and counter just to stay upright. Holding tight to the counter, I began taking my multitude of pills and then began the journey back down the hall to my bed. I got to the bed and collapsed on it.

The uncontrollable tears began. How had my body gone from running marathons to barely making it to the kitchen? Laying on the bed sobbing, I asked God why. I asked Him over and over how I had lost so much in a short amount of time. In a few months, my health had rapidly deteriorated. My husband lost his job, and we were quickly running out of money due to medical expenses. Everything felt like it was slipping through my fingers. Pleading to God, I said, “Lord, I need just a glimpse of my old life back.”

God Spoke

Within seconds, God responded, “But that is not who I want you to be.” Well, then the tears came for a whole new set of reasons. I already struggled with grief for what I had lost and now God said that He did not want me to go back there at all? This scared me, grieved me, but also brought a little hope.

The next few months of laying in bed I prayed for direction. I asked God if that is not who you want me to be, who do you want? No obvious answers came, but I still felt encouraged.

Encouragement From Friends

When I could get up and move more, some friend took me out for sushi. It felt so good to get out and be with friends. That evening they encouraged me to write my blog again, and I felt I might be strong enough and cognitive enough to do that. So I did.

For the next couple of years, I wrote sporadically, and then God led me to a writing group online. From the encouragement I received in that group, I have now written something every week for two and a half years. Plus, God started leading me to teach. Over the last year, I have taught online and in a couple of weeks I get to teach in person! This excites me one because I am honored to do it and second I am healthy enough to do it.

We often think when God calls us to do things, we will have a lightning bolt experience, and sometimes we do, but more often than not, it’s a process. God used this dreadful disease to reveal Himself in more ways than I could ever have imagined.

I remember one night listening to a podcast with Joni Erickson-Tada and she said, “There are days you just lay there, and it’s just you and God.” When I could do nothing and everyone else was living their life, that is exactly what it was, just me and God. And there is no other place I would rather be.

Paul’s Suffering

Paul did a lot of suffering. He shares in his second letter to the Corinthians “Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.” (2 Corintians 11:24-28 NIV)

As horrible as this sounds, this is nothing compared to the suffering Jesus did for each of us on the cross. Not only did He take on lashes, have a crown of thorns placed on His head, and hung on a cross, but also felt complete separation from God. He did it so we would not have to suffer the consequences of our sins. Jesus faced the ultimate punishment in our place, so we would never have to know what complete separation from God feels like.

In The Suffering, We Find Hope

Anyone who teaches that a believer’s life is all sunshine and rainbows is lying. John tells us in his gospel that in this world, we will find trouble. (John 16:33) But it’s in the suffering, in the trouble, that we find hope and assurance. It’s in these hard times where we seek God the most. In that seeking, He often reveals new things to us.