Status Updates From The Deepest Place: Sufferin...

“Only Jesus can transform suffering into hope in the way that he does through the activity and power of the Holy Spirit and through his body of followers.”

“The tree needs tending— long years of it. And tending involves nourishing the tree, pruning the tree, and allowing for the tree to undergo non-catastrophic hardship in order for it to develop durability that will further enable it to produce fruit. Fruit that will last.”

“…the journey of persevering includes lamenting those things that I regret, whether my behavior or my losses, things I have done or left undone. This lament includes my naming what is real about my life and how I feel toward God in the process, with all of my longings and griefs, joys and rage, shame and confidence.”

“Paul’s reflection that suffering produces perseverance does not assume that each individual would have to figure out how to do that on their own. Rather, the community would, through their vulnerable life together, make perseverance a matter of practice for the community.”

“…it is in the practice of perseverance that we begin to see God take advantage of the way that he has made our minds for healing and for the formation of character and hope.”

“The mitigation of pain requires its reduction. But the mitigation of suffering can take place even if the pain itself does not change.”

Not sure how I feel about this one.

“One role that the questions play is to protect me from the way my suffering actually feels.”

“When much of our lives has been committed to protecting ourselves from the God we believe has betrayed us dis, left us, or at the very least simply never shown up, it is not easy to create new brain-cell firing patterns—neural networks—that are durable enough to carry our experiential belief that we are loved.”

“If we are securely attached to Jesus, then ultimately, we live in a safe world.”