Everyone has a story to tell and we encourage one another to tell them. We much prefer stories that are heartwarming, tales of success, love and laughter.
But life is not always neat and tidy, tied with a bow and made to look pretty.
In between those seasons of joy are interwoven seasons of hardship. There we can find struggles with finances, health crises, and relational hurts.
Sufferings – pains, hardships, or misfortunes. Torment, adversity, or discomfort.
Call it what you will, we all would seek to avoid suffering if we could. Yet Paul tells us we can look at these sufferings from a different angle:
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18, NKJV)
To put it simply,
Today’s sufferings – Tomorrow’s glory.
If we only look at today’s problems, we only see a small part of the story. The suffering we experience in the present tells more than just the pain we feel.
The present suffering also tells a story of perseverance, of pressing through in spite of wanting to give up. It tells of courage when fear was pressing in. It tells of a grit and determination to succeed when the odds were stacked a mile high against you.
My word for 2020 is “Savor”, and interestingly enough, one of the words related to savor is appreciate.
We need to come to the place we appreciate, or see the value in, our present sufferings:
“I believe that suffering is a part of the narrative, and that nothing really good gets built when everything’s easy.”
(Shauna Niequist)
Our lives are the smaller story inside of His grand story, but our stories do matter. Our stories can point others to Him. Our stories can magnify Him, illuminating His power and compassion at work in every situation.
Our present sufferings tell of a glory yet to be revealed,
for there is more yet to come!
I’m glad there is more to come! I don’t want to get stuck with the problems I have. 🙂
I saw a video once of a speaker with a long rope that trailed across and off the stage. The few inches of it that the speaker was holding was wrapped in red tape. He used it to illustrative that the wrapped part was time, and all the rest of the rope was eternity. Things that loom so large now are going to be seen so differently then.