“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
….No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.“
Romans 8:35, 37-39
–
OCTOBER 7, 2024
Rejoice in suffering. How do we do that? On a human level, this idea makes no sense at all.
For many years, I wrestled with trying to fit these two things together: rejoicing and suffering. As a teenager I was annoyed by how cheerful people were in church, how happy the songs were, how everything was so positive. I remember thinking, Don’t these Christians know how much pain and suffering is in the world? Why aren’t we all crying?
For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved to read. As I got older, I turned to books with stories that showed the world as it was. At church, everything felt glossed over, unreal. Suffering is real. Pain is real. But rejoicing? How can you?
When someone spoke about pain, I could connect with them. I know what pain feels like. I know what loneliness and anxiety and sadness and despair and guilt and shame feel like. I know their smell, taste, uniqueness. But rejoicing felt like something I couldn’t ever quite see or know. It didn’t feel tangible.
I also felt a bit rebellious against a command to rejoice. If I were to rejoice, that would mean taking a pause from grieving everything painful happening every day in the world. I didn’t want to give up grieving. I didn’t want to act like everything was okay, therefore we can rejoice. In my mind, rejoicing was for when everything was good, peaceful, complete, and restored. How can I rejoice when we have so very, very far to go?
Even though I turned my life over to Christ when I was a pre-teen, I don’t think I started understanding what it meant to rejoice until my 40s.
This week we are reflecting on Acts 5:12-42. I encourage you to read through the entire passage several times and ask the Holy Spirit to open your ears, to grace us with understanding on how to rejoice in suffering.
Questions for reflection and discussion:
- What does the word rejoice mean to you?
- What kinds of events, situations, people, etc. cause you to rejoice?
- Have you every struggled to rejoice? If so, why?
Church Reading Plan: Ezekiel 40; Psalm 91