What is the meaning of suffering? Sometimes we don’t get to know until after we suffer.
Some time ago a friend from college lost his infant daughter. The implosion to his family was utterly devastating and I could not begin to fathom the emotional content of that moment. I can’t even imagine what it would mean to lose my children. In the months that followed he went through what could only be described as a roller coaster ride through death. Where his daughter had actually died, my friend was still alive, waking up each day without the resolve to continue with life.
But then hope set in. My friend had literally hundred of people surrounding him with messages and thoughts, food and shelter. Much of this experience happened on Facebook and it was obvious that it meant so much to him. Every day he cried and learned to put one foot in front of the other. Although my friend cries less, he has learned to return to somewhat of a normal sense of life. He has made it through death.
And then tragedy stuck my friend’s friend in similar fashion. Suddenly my friend was the one doing the comforting. He had made it through and now providence was asking him to show another the way through. No one could relate better to the suffering. My friend had to be courage for his friend.
As I ponder the cross I often recognize that Jesus called us towards it so we could discover we could make it through death. We needed a story that included the reality that life was possible on the other side. But the only way to get there was to actually go through death. The suffering is temporal but very real. And when we’ve made it to the other side, we now had a story that changed everything. We now understood that it was possible. And at some point we needed to remember that others needed help making it through. So we needed to go back to the spaces of suffering and stand with others in those moment.
Who is God asking you to show the way through?
