Devotion #3: Hope in Suffering
One of my favorite pastimes growing up was losing hours in the pages of the comic “Calvin and Hobbes.” If you know anything of the comic, you will remember that Calvin was constantly at odds with his father because he would often ask Calvin to do things that were slightly inconvenient in the name of saving money or teaching his son a lesson. Calvin’s father would always remind Calvin in these encounters that these types of things “build character.” In one of my favorite strips in the comic, Calvin looks to Hobbes and says, “You ever notice how building character is just a codeword for being miserable?” As hilarious as it is to view the world through the lens of a child who thinks that shoveling the driveway or keeping the thermostat at 68 degrees in the winter is the pinnacle of misery, we can often look at situations in our lives very similarly.
As Christians, we are told to expect there will be difficulties and tribulations. Yet, when God brings trials and struggles to help grow us and mold us, we can feel the urge to complain. Many Christians would say they desire to better represent Christ, and yet when the difficulties come, that will test us and allow learning opportunities, we can focus only on the negatives of the situation. Our passage for today addresses this exact struggle. Romans 5:3-4 says, “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” Paul is challenging us to reframe our understanding of suffering. Being part of the Lord’s flock comes with many blessings, but here we see that one of these blessings is hope in the face of disaster.
If you are the Lord’s, difficulties will arise. However, we cannot allow ourselves to be lost in those troubling times. Instead, we must challenge ourselves to learn how to best grow and draw near to the Lord during those times. The Bible makes it clear that for those who belong to God, He is working out all things for good (Romans 8:28). That means that we can rest in the understanding that God is using our hardship for His good. There is an immense hope and peace that comes with resting in the Lord when it feels like the situation is hopeless.
Additionally, to be a Christian is to recognize that our time here on Earth is but a blink in eternity. Regardless of how horrible our circumstance, or how helpless we feel, we can have hope for the future because a time is coming in which we will spend eternity in the presence of our Creator. The challenge I leave you with, is to go to God when life gets you down and spend time with the One who gives you rest.