Learning to Rejoice in Suffering Produces Maturity

It’s not easy—none of it.

It is not easy when your family adopts a child who has a damaged brain.

It is not easy when you are 13 and your brother is rushed 3 hours away to a hospital and your parents are gone for 12 days, leaving you with responsibilities that are incredibly difficult for a thirteen-year-old to handle.

It is not easy when a church rises up against your family―the pastor’s family—and forces you from your comfortable life and into an eight-month period of unemployment and moving around.

Life is not easy.

You have your problems as well—chronic illness, eating disorders, addictions, broken homes, suicidal thoughts, never-ending depression, etc. No one is exempt from suffering/trials. The main—and only—question is this: “What will be your reaction to these trials?”

Suffering essentially produces one of two results in us: bitterness or maturity. How we react to trials determines the outcome of our suffering. If we simply endure these trials or begrudge them, we miss a valuable opportunity for spiritual growth. We all do this in varying ways, but we must strive to remember that suffering plays a vital part in our progression of maturity.

Joy in the midst of suffering is a sign of real maturity.

This is what I’m going for.

Suffering is an amazing opportunity to grow in maturity, and I want to utilize that and grow.

As Chip Ingram put it,

“Your Circumstances + Your Perspective = Your Experience”

If you notice, the only factor that we can change in this equation is our perspective (which, in turn, changes our experience). But why change our perspective?

Aren’t pain and suffering pretty cut-and-dried; they’re just awful, right?

Well, I think it is time that our perspective on suffering shifts drastically so that we can learn how to benefit from trials. The following three things will hopefully help change your perspective on suffering as they have changed mine.

1. Suffering is never pointless.

There is a plan and a purpose for every trial that you go through. It is never just meaningless pain, although it may feel that way sometimes. We must view hardships as opportunities for spiritual growth. Two years ago was one of the hardest times of my life. Each day brought further uncertainty and fear.

I could have responded in bitterness, which is what I wanted to do at times, but through that trial I learned to trust in God even through the most uncertain of times. That sounds so cliché, but it became so true to me. Psalm 63:8a became my cry, “My soul clings to you.”

2. Through God-given strength we can determine the outcome of our hardships.

You will mess up. You won’t always react correctly to trials.

Pray for strength to not only endure suffering, but also to find JOY in it. Nobody likes having to learn things the hard way, but things learned through bad circumstances tend to be the things that stick with us the most. Pray for strength to view trials in the right way.

3. Learning from suffering does not mean absence of trials, it means having a proper understanding and perspective on hardships.

If you learn a lesson once, it does not mean that God won’t teach it to you again. God knows that we are human and that we so easily forget. No matter how much we read what Scripture has to say about suffering, no matter how much we read from different writers about suffering, we still may react the wrong way to trials.

Stay humble and teachable; look to God when in the valley.

The last thing that I want to mention is joy.

We who experience trials should strive toward becoming “joy experts.” Joy does not mean that you must have a smile on your face 24/7; it means that you are thankful for what God has given you and you trust Him to use this trial to strengthen you.

Imagine having joy in the darkest valley! Joy is an outward manifestation and rich understanding of Christ’s unending love for us. The psalmists experienced terrible tribulation, but again and again they praise the name of God—they choose joy! That is my challenge to you today.

My little brother has a condition called FASD, which means that his brain cannot function at the level that the brain of a child his age should function. He gets angry easily, needs constant redirection, and cannot “act his age”. This makes life extremely hard, but it has helped to teach me one of the most important lessons that I’ve ever learned—how to dance in the rain.

“All suffering is intended to train us to fix our eyes on the true God.” – Edward T. Welch

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