![]() When suffering leads to endurance within me it comes after a long period of introspection, when I go deep inside and see what really matters, when I strip away the ridiculous and meaningless obsessions of my psyche and focus more on what endures to eternity, namely beauty, love, truth, justice and community. The former makes my pain an instructor to the pain of others and the latter calls attention to me and my sorrow, it must be worse than yours. The latter is a self-centeredness, a calling attention to my pain and privileging my hurt over and above any and all suffering. The former reminds you of your mortality, your frailty, your common bond with others, it deepens your empathy and places yet another claim upon you that we all need each other. Yes we all know people who focus entirely on the negative and we know this kind of obsession leads to a lifelessness no one wants accompany.īut there is a difference between acknowledging the pain and wrapping the pain around you like a martyr. I do this because trying to avoid it or be distracted from it keeps me in this fantasy that suffering is not real, that I can will it away with “positive thoughts” and energy. What I do with my own suffering and the awareness of others’ suffering is to let it seep into my bones and sit with it a spell. I am never in a mood or mindset to tell another her/his suffering is going to produce endurance, character, hope or that God’s presence or lack thereof will never disappoint. And to be clear, suffering in others hurts and hurts a lot. Sometimes, many times, suffering just hurts, a lot. I am not convinced that all suffering produces endurance or that suffering always improves our character or that suffering leads to hope or that suffering never disappoints us. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.
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