FINDING JOY IN SUFFERING

FINDING JOY IN SUFFERING


I don't know anyone
Who likes to SUFFER


I certainly don't-
Do you?


BUT Jesus found JOY
in suffering
Because he was offering
HIS LIFE up for others-
FOR US


And I think that
That is the ONLY WAY-
We can find JOY in it=
Is offering up ourselves-
OUR sufferings for others


Saint Paul wrote:
“Brothers and sister:
NOW I rejoice
In my suffering
For your sake


And in my flesh
I am filling up
What is lacking


In the afflictions of Christ
On behalf
Of his body-
Which is the CHURCH
….....” Colossians 1:24


FIND joy in suffering
OFFER it up for God
Offer it up for others
And a UNIFIED CHURCH in Christ Jesus


The world tells us
Our goal in life
Should be happiness


And we find that happiness
In money and materialism-
In sex-and in having a perfect body


NOTHING could be
Further from the truth
For All these kinds of happiness
Are fleeting


We can only find true happiness-
TRUE JOY=in FINDING GOD
In finding Jesus


Nowhere else


“You make known to me
The PATH OF LIFE


You fill me with JOY
In your presence


With eternal pleasures
At your right hand” Psalm 16:11


“The prospect
Of the righteous is JOY


But the HOPES of the wicked
Come to nothing” Proverbs 10:28


A few hundred years later
Saint Francis of Assisi
Came along


He spoke to
His companion=Brother Leo


“PERFECT JOY-is-upon
REACHING their destination-


IS to be rejected-called names-beaten
and tossed aside


And to bear it all
And be JOINED
With the sufferings of Christ”


That would be PERFECT JOY
For Saint Francis


A bit extreme
To say the least


BUT we should ALWAYS
Offer up our sufferings to God
For the sake of others


I have always done so=SINCE
Being besieged by intense
Chronic pain since the age of 22


“NOW if we are children-
Then we are heirs-
Heirs of God
And co-heirs of Christ


IF indeed
We share in his sufferings
In order


That we may also
SHARE in his glory” Romans 8:17


UNITE your sufferings
With God and Jesus
For the sake of OTHERS


There is NO other way
TO FIND JOY IN SUFFERING


In Jesus' name


Robert P. Wallman
7-16-16




Ps INSPIRED by an article in LIVING FAITH MAGAZINE by Amy Welborn









And 11-8-17