Thought of the Day 05.28.09

The Bible teaches us that suffering is one of the key ways we come to understand our Savior and gain intimacy with Him. Yet, because we commonly think of suffering as being imposed upon us from without, we easily overlook the suffering we experience in having our strong desires thwarted as we obey Christian morality.

See, pain is caused any time reality and our desires don’t match. A loved one dying, an investment failing, and even a sports team losing all follow this pattern. But the suffering of obedience is different because it’s self-imposed. Unlike the pain caused when a tornado strikes, which you had no power to stop, the pain threatened when morality strikes can be difficult to endure precisely because you do have the power to stop it.

But if we begin from the premise that God allows suffering for our benefit, it becomes possible to see the suffering of desire denial as a gift from Him, too…a gift which He generously allows us to inflict upon ourselves.