I heard someone say in a podcast recently that “I don’t believe we can ever know any more of God than we are willing to know of ourselves. Any flight into fear is a flight away from God.” That really made me think. I had already been pondering why I go to pretty significant lengths to avoid pain and suffering. It seems I’d rather endure a mild, continual discomfort, than to really go at a conflict and duke it out. I mean, who doesn’t avoid pain if they can? We all do! But just because we all do it, doesn’t mean it’s right. What if my fear of addressing pain is keeping me from the freedom that God intends for me? What if I would just turn around and confront the fear and pain, and sit in the ugliness of it all? Jesus is very willing to meet me in that space. Wouldn’t I learn something more about myself if I examine the pain, and couldn’t I then perceive what God is trying to work in me? If I allow it, wouldn’t I know Him more fully and experience greater freedom? Consider the potential: suffer, learn, grow, know.
In our “Got Questions?” teaching series, our pastoral team has been tackling some tough questions (e.g., why does God allow bad things to happen to good people? Why does God heal sometimes and not others?) We’ve learned that there is so much more to these questions than what appears on the surface. These discussions have kept me pondering. As a parent, if I sheltered my child so much from the world that he or she never had the opportunity to suffer a disappointment or a negative experience, it wouldn’t really teach them anything about growing up. It wouldn’t allow them to develop into a resilient person. The truth is that without any kind of hardship or growing pain, there is no opportunity to mature.
Romans 5:3-5 says, “…we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” There it is in black and white: suffer (feel the pain), learn (persevere in following Jesus no matter the cost), grow (let God shape your character through sanctification), know [Jesus, our hope of glory]! We are enthusiastically invited to know the hope and freedom in Jesus Christ through His Holy Spirit, and to know God more fully! It isn’t easy, and it costs us something (okay, everything). Jesus is worth it, and the freedom gained is worth it. And best of all, we never have to pursue this alone. We have Christ and our community to help us every step of the way.