Recently a close friend of mine was going through some very difficult times. She was in the throws of deep depression and has physical ailments on top of it. It came to a breaking point when she hit rock bottom and was loading up on prescription medicines and sleeping pills which were only making things worse. She experienced excruciating headaches. She was in tears when I spoke to her. I knew the place she was in because I was there once before. I knew how hopeless she felt.
I found myself asking God to let me take on some of her suffering. I said I would do it but requested that it not interfere with my duties as a mother and wife. Consequently or coincidently I started to feel depressed and got a migraine. In reality, I could have just been feeling depressed because I was worried about my friend and the migraine certainly wasn't out of the ordinary for me. I wondered if God actually answered my prayer or not but realized it didn't matter. I could still offer it up as a sacrifice. No matter what the cause of suffering and no matter how minor it is, it need not be wasted. If we offer it up to God, it will be used either as temporal punishment, reparation for sinners, or as a way to alleviate the suffering of another human being. Most importantly it is a way to bring us closer to Him. Thankfully, my friend took the advice of her closest friend and is in psychotherapy right now and doing much better.
Our society teaches that we must avoid suffering at all costs and that we must maximize our happiness. Christianity goes opposite of this and says we must take up our cross and follow Him. We must unite our suffering with Christ. We can use our suffering for a purpose because no matter how much money we have our how much stuff we have we will eventually experience great suffering. I'm a wimp when it comes to hard times. I'm quick to wallow in self pity and give up. But I know God expects more from me. He expects purpose driven suffering.
1 comment:
Love that idea - purpose driven suffering. Speaking for myself, I think a lot of physical and mental suffering we experience is brought on by chemical imbalances in our bodies that call on us to engage in behaviors that are not good for us, such as getting into the habit of popping a pill rather than getting to the bottom of our difficulties. I hope your friend does well and I will add her to my prayer intentions.
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