Distinctly Suffering, Ever Perceiving

When you feel as though you are the only one in the world, in fact, the only one throughout time that is going through what you are going through, suffering what you are suffering, and hurting to the extent you are hurting…and you feel as though nobody can completely understand or appreciate the complexities of your problem and the depth of your desperation; just know one thing...You are absolutely, one hundred percent correct.

Nobody is, and nobody ever has distinctly suffered in the way you are right now in this moment. Nobody has been granted the gift of distinctly suffering with Christ, in Christ, on the cross, in the Holy Spirit...in the way you are now. Do not let anyone ever take that away from you. Do not let anyone ever tell you that you are not the only one going through what you are going through! These people lack understanding! And unknowingly they rob you of the right to hurt. They rob you of the journey to experience Christ at new, untold depths through the avenue of distinctly suffering.

Minimizing your suffering robs you of the opportunity to experience His love, His comfort, His hope, His healing, His restoration and most importantly, His heart. At times, His heart…the untold depths of His heart…can only be found through suffering with Him and embracing Him at the cross. Your loss is no light matter...no light affliction. Be affirmed in your pain that it is real...it hurts...it is breath-stealing...but also be affirmed that in this breath-stealing journey through loss....the incarnation of Christ in you and with you… and Christ on the cross...is there to be breath-reviving...breath-giving and glory revealing.

There are times when I feel I don’t even want to attempt to fully explain suffering that I have
experienced in the past or even suffering I am currently bearing because I fear the listener might be tempted to minimize my struggle; therefore robbing me of the sacredness of what is happening to me in the moment. This is where it takes a true man or woman of God. This is where it takes a true Christ-embracing, burden-bearer to join in the holiness of your journey. 

It takes a very special person to enter into or even desire to enter into sharing with you a few moments of your pilgrimage. It takes a man or a woman of true wisdom and Godly insight to recognize that we as Christ-followers were appointed to suffer. It takes a person of experienced desert-dwelling to be able to recognize the brother or sister's sacred thirst and to be able to gently point the way to live-giving water. It takes someone of deep understanding to recognize disorienting loss in another and to be able to offer the mystery of embracing the cross and perceiving His glory...through the groaning...through the agony.

Many times there is no explanation for our suffering. It just sucks. It's just plain horrible. But He is not. And His purposes are not. He is good...really good...really perfect. We just cannot see.

Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. 1 Corinth 13:12 NLT

What an amazing promise...what hope this brings.

Doesn’t this bring to rest, at least, a few questions...clear up a little confusion?

A few days ago I dropped my IPhone and shattered the glass. I haven't replaced it yet and it’s proving to be quite a challenge to see clearly through all the cracks. It's actually quite frustrating trying to maneuver the screen to make out certain words and numbers. It’s not totally shattered...just enough to still be functional but in definite need...to see clearly. I’m currently writing this entry on my broken phone, struggling in my attempt to see through the shattered puzzling pieces.

We see imperfectly! Did you get that? We see imperfectly! Our knowledge of life and God and how things work...how the cosmos work...is partial and incomplete! The events that are taking place in our lives are like puzzling reflections in a mirror! They don't always make sense. Things don't always work out like we think they should. The prosperity gospel is a farce!  The only victory we can claim is the fact that our lives have been transformed and translated into His Kingdom of light...and we have been invited to walk by faith! We can't see. We can't see clearly! We can't walk by sight! We walk in the mysterious realm of faith!

Distinctly suffering, ever perceiving. Things are not as they seem. Jesus suffered completely. We have been invited to perceive, to grow, to experience, to allow life and truth and faith to unfold until we know completely as we are known. I have found my God, my Father, my Lord Jesus Christ in the heights of joy and in the depths of agony, in great moments of enlightenment through His word and through frustrating moments of confusion.

I would trade away none of it…for in so doing I would trade away the surpassing greatness of the knowledge of Christ.

United with Him in suffering; encountering Him in glory.