I've been sick in a minor way for a few days longer than I want to be, which helps me identify with and pray for those in our congregation that are sick in a major way for months or years longer than they had hoped and for others who are straddled with severe health challenges. Getting better sometimes seems to take a long time. And this truth spreads out past physical ailments. Emotional and psychological healing, for example, can also seem long and drawn out. Any Christian in pain, of course, has the Cross as enduring proof of God's empathy. Jesus knows what you're going through. The Cross is an experience that happened within a few hours. All the physical tortures of Christ were well contained within one 24-hour cycle, and yet by their most extreme nature, they seem endless. The type of burden we bear influences how long it feels like we're bearing it. One second of Christ's torture far exceeds a lifetime of pain for any other human being. We learn from Him about endurance.
1) To suffer with purpose is far better than to suffer without. Our purpose may not be tied to our suffering, more often it is tied to our recovery. We have something or someone to get better for, to get through this for.
2) Suffering in this life, even the worst, most protracted form of it, is temporary. It will not last. This is the promise of being in Christ. Whatever I'm going through, if I'm going through it with Christ, I really will go through it; I won't stay like this.
3) Suffering can change me for the better, if I seek this. It can have the opposite effect too. It's up to me.
4) Suffering withstood becomes new strength.
The Cross for us is the ultimate illustration and proof of Psalm 30:5b (KJV): "... weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."
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