Have you ever heard that song before? If you have, then you might also be familiar with the next line: take up your cross and follow Me. The song quotes Jesus in Matthew 16: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). 

All too often, human beings try to avoid suffering. It is in our very nature to avoid threats and look out for ourselves. And most of the time, this isn’t a bad thing. But when our entire lives start to hinge around comfort–around never having any form of suffering–we are at risk not only of making comfort an idol, but of paying too much attention to the wrong thing.

Christians were never called to avoid suffering. We were called to take up our cross and follow after Jesus. Most people spend their lives trying to avoid suffering. Christians are the only ones who have ever realized that it has a meaning and a purpose. So what are the purposes of suffering? And what do we do when it inevitably comes along?

Take Up Your Cross

Or, more accurately, learn to accept the fact that you will have a cross to bear. We cannot make much headway in discovering the purposes of suffering if we do not first recognize that it is a part of life we can’t avoid. No matter how much wealth we have, no matter what we may do to avoid it, no Christian can live without suffering in this life. 

If we are Christ’s disciples, suffering will be a direct result of following Him. Humans killed Jesus because we were in love with the world. We wanted to do things our own way, without God telling us what to do. Now, as Christians strive to become more and more like Jesus, to follow Him completely and walk His way, people are going to turn on us as well. We will be persecuted, and we will have problems in this life. Christianity is not the pathway out of our problems, but the hope that we, with God’s grace, can continue on despite them.

So, accept the fact that you will have suffering in this life. If we are truly trying to follow Christ, sooner or later we will have suffering. As you start to see suffering appear in your life, turn your eyes to God, take up your cross, and follow Jesus. 

Offer It Up, Buttercup

Am I the only person here who has heard this phrase? Yes? Alright, explanation time. Think about it this way: when Jesus died to save the world, He did so by offering Himself as a sacrifice to the Father. (Hebrews 9:14, Hebrews 10:12-14). He suffered and died so that we could be saved. His suffering and death were sacrifices offered up to save our souls. So, as imitators of Christ, called to live like Him and follow after Him, we can also offer up our own sufferings for the sake of others. “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions of the sake of his body, which is the church” (Colossians 1:24). 

Paul himself united his sufferings with Christ’s. He didn’t try and run from his pain–he offered it up to the Father for the good of those around Him. We can do the same. It’s as simple as saying “Father, I offer this up for my sibling” when you have a headache, or “Lord, I offer this up for the homeless” next time you feel like you’re hanging on to your last threads of sanity. We should not, of course, intentionally seek out suffering, but when it comes our way, we can offer it up to help others. Suffering doesn’t have to be pointless. We can use it to love, just as Christ called us to.

Use It For Holiness

We can also use suffering to focus our minds on Heaven. It is so easy for humans to become focused solely on our present lives when things are comfortable. We either forget or don’t want to think about the fact that Earth isn’t our eternal home. When things are going well, it actually becomes more agreeable for us to ignore our life after death. But then, when suffering comes along, we immediately begrudge it and sink into anger. We look for every possible excuse to make it go away, and we fixate on it endlessly. Don’t misunderstand me, we should not be seeking out suffering or making ourselves needless martyrs. But we also cannot risk becoming so focused on the trials of the journey that we forget the destination. We cannot allow comfort to become an idol in our lives.  

So, the next time that suffering comes along, try and reorient your mind towards God. This life is not the end, and where you’re going is infinitely better then where you are. You just have to keep walking with God through the pain and allow Him to work through it. Offer it up. Allow Him to make you holier for the pain you’re going through. Ask Him to give you the grace and the strength to bear your suffering as He would have you do. 

The Purpose

God has a reason for everything He does or allows. Suffering can not only be offered up for others, but it can help us grow in personal holiness. We simply need to be willing to give God room to work through our sufferings instead of fixating on them so much that we completely squeeze Him out. 

Suffering has a purpose. Once we can accept that, we can see the possibilities that we have to grow and to love others through our sufferings. Jesus loved others even through His Passion and Crucifixion. You are His Disciple. What will you do?