Suffering

In case anyone noticed, I just figured out that I have a title line here.....blonde moment !!!  LOL

Phil 3:10-11  I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, become like Him in His death, and so somehow, to attain the resurrection from the dead.

Could it be that suffering, all suffering, from the mundane daily irritations to the unimaginable persecution for His names sake, brings me into unity with Christ's own suffering on the Cross.  Does all suffering bring me to the point of sharing His sufferings?

As I was reading "One Thousand Gifts"  Ann V. talked about something called the ugly-beautiful, that "dark can give birth to life; suffering can deliver grace."  She gave examples of new life coming from a dark womb, the beginning of the universe, darkness until God spoke the light into existence, and wheat crops, the seeds pushing up through the dark earth to reach their new stalks into the sunlight. And so this all got me to thinking and meditating on the verse she used, Phil. 3:10-11.  And the good Lord, just came and sat right down for a little visit and chat on suffering.

Suffering...we all hate it.  No one wants to go through it.  Lord, let it be easy, don't let it hurt.  But everyone knows as a rule, we get closest to our God, and learn some of our most valuable and precious lessons in the school of suffering.

But it's more than that.  Suffering is where we can be truly united with Jesus.  In Gethsemane Jesus laid down His own will, His own self interest.  Suffering.

On the Cross, He took all our sins, pain, sickness and separation.  Suffering.

When I suffer for my sinfulness, my bad choices, it unites us as You suffered for my sinfulness as well.

When my flesh suffers because I deny it, I am identifying with Your suffering in the Garden.

When I suffer illness, You too, took that to the Cross.  You suffered pain.

When people hurt me, that burden as well You carried.  You too had been hurt and betrayed by strangers, friends, the unjust and the justified.

In order to experience the resurrection, You had to go to the Cross.  In order to experience the power of Your resurrection, I must be united to You in the suffering.  Resurrection can only shine through the dark night of suffering.  Without a death, there is not resurrection.

And knowing this, that suffering brings new birth, that dark and dead gives way to light and life, should I not then give thanks for it?  If indeed, suffering unifies me with Christ, transforms death to resurrection then I must give thanks for it, even welcome it and it's transforming work.  UGH!!  Really Lord ????

Hebrews 12:11  No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.  Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.  

This is not an easy thing, this giving thanks for the ugly-beautiful, the suffering-resurrection.  But if I can just start looking at suffering as a friend rather than an intruding enemy bent on my demise (or just to drive me crazy!)...might I not be more at peace during the storms, less likely to lash out at the common annoyances that permeate daily living. Can I tie them all the Christ and the Cross, binding myself there as well? Something to think about.  Something to pray about.

Thank You Lord for even in the worst of things You bring about resurrection. Please help me to not fight against this process, but to embrace and give thanks for ALL things.

Eph. 5:20...always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  

1 Thess. 5:18...give thanks in all circmstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.