I had one of those "epiphanal" moments last night. In Starbucks. While waiting for my pumpkin spice latte. (Another reason I love autumn.)
There were 3 young men sitting at a table near the shelf of clearance items and I couldn't help but overhear their conversation while I was looking for some bargain Christmas gifts. Probably college students--really nice-looking guys...dressed in their Abercrombie and Aeropostale shirts and obviously not-cheap jeans, hair appropriately "un"-styled, funky glasses, fresh-faced, really sweet, innocent, unspoiled-by-the-world countenances. They truly looked just plain NICE and "boy-next-door-ish". They'd been having a bible study and were talking about what to study for next week.
The leader told them to read 1 Peter 4, because it talked about suffering for Christ and was "really cool"...and important to understand how, as believers, we have to suffer for the cause of Christ.
I realize that any of those young men might have some dark, painful things hidden behind those well-scrubbed fresh, innocent faces, but...it made me really stop and think about what "suffering" really is.
When I REALLY stop to think about genuine suffering, I think of the "night commuter"children in Darfur who've left their homes and families to avoid the genocide ravaging their country. I think of the people starving in the displacement camps in Northern Uganda. I think of the thousands of families still living in 20-foot FEMA trailers 2 years post-Katrina, wondering if they'll ever have a "normal" life again. I think of First Nations people living in absolute squalor and abject poverty on desolate reservations in the middle of the so-called "greatest country in the world". I think of a teenager who's been abused and abandoned by a mom incapable of loving even her own children.
I can't really equate "suffering" with sitting at Starbucks, venti latte in hand. Most of us only think we "suffer". Myself included.
1 Peter 4:12Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. 13But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. 14If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. 15If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. 16However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. 17For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18And, "If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?" 19So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
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3 comments:
Oh, Dena, how accurate you are!
I have to play devil's advocate a little here.
First, I totally hear you and understand your point and fully agree with you. Compared to what people suffer around the world (and even compared to the poverty and abuse suffered by so many here in the US), we have hardly tasted suffering. What right do we have to count ourselves and our trials equal to those of people who certainly have suffered far, far greater?
But in this (as well as many other spiritual principles in the Bible), I'm not sure it's necessarily on the mark to draw application or relevance for ourselves solely in respect to how we compare to others.
As spoiled Americans, most of us probably spend way too much time interpreting spiritual things from this extreme--"everything's all about me," ignorance and indifference to what "real suffering" others around the globe know on a daily basis, etc. But I do think it's possible to err on the other extreme, too--viewing everything with a wide-angle lens. I think at this other extreme we run the risk of missing God's individual call for our lives, right here in our small worlds and tiny circles of influence. If the me-centered extreme can breed selfishness and a distorted view of the world, I think the others-centered extreme (wow, it feels blasphemous to call that a potential danger, but bear with me) can maybe bring a convenient distraction from the personal things, the small and "insignificant in the grand scheme of things" things that God may have his finger on in our individual lives right now. While we're asking "but what about them?" God may be asking, "Yes, but what about you?"
As well, when it comes to suffering, I know that I've been greatly encouraged in some difficult circumstances when my friends have suggested that what I'm experiencing is perhaps a 1 Peter type of suffering (a conclusion that feels presumptuous and whiny to draw about your own circumstances). It's encouraging because it draws me back to the reality that God is real and personal and cares about even me, even this, and that the words of hope he offers are for me too, not just for the Chinese Christians or blood diamond children in Africa.
Hey Dena did you talk to them?
On a side note, I am not a pumpkin fan.
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