know me by His scars.

Living as a child of the Light is marked by many attributes – the greatest of these is love (I know, so original again). But two more manifest pieces of this life are joy and suffering.

Joy’s great, who doesn’t want joy? But suffering? Pretty sure we’d all be happy to take a pass on that one.

If this is a new topic, you’re probably ready to take several steps back and drop this – because who would choose suffering? And why??

It gets weirder though. Not just joy, not just suffering, but joy IN the suffering. And the suffering isn’t an if. It will come.

In his second letter to Timothy, Paul writes, ”In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” (3:12-13 NIV) And that we’re to “Join with [him] in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” (2:3 NIV)

So again, why? Why would anyone choose suffering. The answer is simple and takes us back to the greatest. Love. Jesus loved us. To the point that He willingly chose to be brutally tortured and murdered on a cross to once for all atone for the sins of mankind – to free us from our bondage to sin – to give eternal life to all who believe in Him and call upon His name.

”This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another… We love because He first loved us.” – 1 John 4:10-11, 19 NIV

He loved us first, so we love Him. And we extend that love to others, want to reflect His goodness in our lives, want to proclaim every good work He completes in us. (And He will complete it. He’s the Author and Finisher of our stories, and that’s a promise.)

This world may be in chaos, but that’s not where our hope lies. We have a sure hope in Jesus – a sure anchor to our souls. Not a maybe, not a possibly, but SURE. Certain. Not changing. Rooted. Solid.

”For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” – Romans 8:24-25 NIV

Even when our feelings lie to us (and they do that quite a bit, don’t they?), our God remains steadfast, faithful, true, and above all, good. We have reason to rejoice!

In Romans 8:18, Paul says: “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us.”

Take heart. Stand firm. “…the joy of the Lord is your strength!” (Nehemiah 8:10b NIV)

The best is yet to come!