The Suffering of Love
Does your life reflect a willingness to suffer in the service of Jesus?
I’ve been asking myself this question after reading a challenging article entitled “To Serve Is to Suffer,” written by a pastor in Sri Lanka, who argues that Christian suffering, while at times coming in the form of persecution, more frequently is found in the daily challenges of Christian ministry to others.
The author, Ajith Fernando, writes that while he in war-torn Sri Lanka has experienced persecution and even has seen a colleague brutally killed, the greatest source of pain for him has been his ministry. Loving and discipling people is messy, inefficient, at times frustrating, and even heartbreaking. “Whether you live in the East or the West,” he writes, “you will suffer pain if you are committed to people.”
This is exactly what Scripture tells us to expect. We are called to love one another as Christ has loved us, and that love is a cross-shaped, suffering love. Pauldisplayed what this looks like: in his ministry to others he regularly suffered anxiety, exhaustion, confusion, and sleepless nights, and he saw all of this as part of his participating in Christ’s sufferings. And because Christ was with him in these hardships, the place of suffering became for him the place of joy.
But it seems that we in the West do not fully grasp this. We expect ministry to others to line up perfectly with our gifts, to be fulfilling, and even to be neatly contained, so that it doesn’t exhaust us or take us away from other important things. Fernando writes, “I get the strong feeling that many in the West think struggling with tiredness from overwork is evidence of disobedience to God. My contention is that it is wrong if one gets sick from overwork through drivenness and insecurity. But we may have to endure tiredness when we, like Paul, are servants of people.”
These words ring true to me. I have to wonder, in what ways am I turning a deaf ear to God’s call because I want to avoid suffering? How have I removed myself from the joy that comes in the suffering of love?
If you have a chance, read the article. I’d love to hear your reflections.
