Wednesday, January 6, 2010

...on the notion that we might face suffering...

....and I didn’t get very far into the sermon either….

The premise is that a large part of sharing in suffering includes being there, not saying much. But there also has to be a strong foundation to stand on, for if it crumbles, hugs become vapid, anemic, cliché….

I am thinking about suffering today and the “not-rightness” of it.

As I think of praying, I think, of course, of healing, of deliverance, of protection, of removal of the affliction…. but also - to endure it well, to see Jesus as the ever-increasing treasure, for strengthened faith and ingrafting in Jesus, for faith not to fail, for all the fruits that the suffering of the redeemed should bear…..

I keep coming to this conclusion that is mixed - very bitter, very sweet… that things don’t necessarily get better here, though we want them to. That there really is a consummation of all our godly hopes, dreams, desires - a rightness - not of what we think we want, but what we were truly made to want… for what we were truly made to be.

This seems so cliché and yet…

Come, Lord Jesus, Come!