I Don’t Always Look On The Bright Side

Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. Romans 8:17

How do we share in the sufferings of Christ? Perhaps it is in our pain that we can fully know the miracle of God’s love. It is in our longing for relief, where we become united to God in an intimate posture, making us most known to ourselves. To know oneself, to truly see the humanness the One who makes all things whole created in us, is to begin to share in the glory of Christ.

I recently took a class at my church called “Discover Your Story and Calling.” One of the exercises we did in this class was to make a life map.

We wrote out the main events of our lives, going back to childhood, on yellow Post-its. Next, we identified the Post-its that represented times of suffering. Our leader then had us swap out the yellow Post-its that represented times of suffering for pink Post-its. Finally, we marked each occasion where we felt closest to God with a small cross in the corner.

Guess what? It was those pink Post-its moments, the times of suffering, when I felt closest to God.

What if we started to look at suffering as the place where God’s glory is already present? What if we shifted our focus away from cures and relief and the “what if, if only, and when?” And instead, we lingered in these precious moments, these pink Post-it moments, and basked in the glory of Christ?

I don’t always look on the bright side.

I have lived with some level of depression for as long as I can remember. Prayer warriors have prayed over me, pastors have rebuked the demons and I have confessed my sins. Yet the healing remains imperfect and undone. I still suffer.

Shame often follows behind me like a long shadow on a sunny day. Taunting me for not being “good enough” for God’s healing. Making me doubt my faith every time I refill a prescription. Rushing me out the door to visit yet another doctor seeking answers to the question that haunts me, “What is wrong with me that I cannot get control of my anxiety?”

K.J. Ramsey writes in THIS article from Christianity Today, “Shame happens when we largely treat suffering like a problem to fix rather than a story to tell.”

What if this suffering is the experience through which I most know God.

Making space to linger in the suffering and embrace the triune God who is fully present in a way that is so much easier for me to see, hear, and feel in my pain than in my places of wholeness; this is where I can know His presence. Where I can say, “For when I am weak, then I am strong!” The powerful message and story of Beautifully Broken! (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

I don’t always look on the bright side.  Guess what; I rarely find the words to write these devotions from a place of wholeness and happiness. It is in the tension of brokenness and longing to be made whole, where I find deep connection with God’s truth. It is in this sacred place of vulnerability and honesty with myself and God where my words become a testimony.

Your testimony as a picture of gospel and grace.

What if part of sharing the gospel of Christ was to share our grief, our sadness, and our suffering with one another?

K.J. Ramsey writes this about sharing our stories as part of the bigger picture of grace and the gospel:

“The gospel offers a better story than power, read not simply in black letters on white pages, but in the bodies of believers, words made flesh in the places of our powerlessness. The seeds of Christ’s life and resurrection are planted in the sowing of shared tears and the resonance that happens when one right brain communicates empathy to another. Grace rises and reaches toward us, not only in power but in the space of grief between us.”

How have your times of pain, grief, or suffering brought you closer to God? What part of your testimony do you feel like God wants to use to help others? Can you join me in rejoicing in our difficulties as an act of worship to the God who is most present in our weaknesses?

Heavenly Father, your grace is sufficient for me, for your power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. This is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. In Jesus’ name. Amen (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

Click HERE to read last week’s post on How to Pray the Scriptures.

The article: There’s No Shame When A Miracle Doesn’t Come by K.J. Ramsey can be found HERE.