Suffering

I hope everyone had a blessed Easter Day and Holy Week. As you can surmise from the previous posts, this weekend was filled with illness. Illness which I unfortunately have plenty of experience with. So my sympathy is very high.

While not connected with the above, this weekend has been full of thoughts on suffering. What is suffering? Have I experienced suffering?

There is nothing profound that I can write on this subject. The life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus was truly profound. There is nothing more profound.

My running thought has been about my experience with suffering. I am not sure that I truly have. I think I experienced suffering second hand while I watched the birth of our daughter, or was that pain? I think I have seen suffering as the hungry people of Central America stand at the fence and wave at the plane as we taxi to takeoff, or was that poverty?

I have been deeply saddened by loss of different kinds, been let down, been betrayed. Have I suffered? I think maybe I am quick to mislabel discomfort as suffering. Am I saying that suffering can not be temporary? I don't think that is true.

I think I instantly think of Jesus "suffering" on the Cross, still "suffering" for my sin nature. I will never be called to be crucified and die for the sin of mankind, that debt has already been paid. But do/will I turn to the cross when I am suffering? or will I try to fix? I know that I can't, but He can, and I hope I let Him.

There have been times in my life that turned me to God. Loosing my job 1 month before having Lakyn was tough, but it was easy/comforting to put my trust in God. Same with other times. When have I not turned to Him? At first I think of my life prior to salvation, but when I really think about it, it is far more often than I would like to admit. How about those times I choose to not make time to pray and/or study the word. What about the times I don't give God a chance... instead I decide a situation is one in which God most likely can not work. I laugh when I shouldn't laugh. Look and what I shouldn't see. Speak unsalty words that are without praise. Betray you, avoid you, not seek you.

What a humbling time of the year. What an amazing time of the year. How great is our God! He truly suffered for you and me, born with a sentence to die.

Lord, guide me through this life and continue to teach me and show me ways that I can be a living sacrafice. Thank you for sending your Son down to dwell with us, like us, and then to die on the Cross for my sin.