Video Transcript: Suffering

Welcome back to mental health integration, week nine, part three. In this  section, we are going to be talking about our theology of suffering and how that  develops, and how that influences how we see God and how we see ourselves,  how these play together. Now, when we talk about a theology of suffering, this is one area that if you are not from the West, you're probably a lot in their shape  than we are, because in the West, we often have these ideas of prosperity, of  what we expect God to do, and often they are so far and above what God is  actually promising that we can be let down because God hasn't done this crazy  thing that he didn't promise in the first place. But we're going to take a look at a  number of Scripture passages. We're going to look through how those impact us and what we expect often, and then we're going to do some reflective work at  the end. So let's go ahead and jump in. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and  sisters, whenever you face many trials of many kinds, because you know that  the testing of their faith produces perseverance. This is one of the first lines of  the book of James, when James says, Consider it all joy whenever you face  trials. And this is where our theology of suffering begins, is you will face trials.  This isn't an if. This is just a when used to hear often that there are three places  in relationship to a trial. There is you're about to go into a trial, you're in a trial,  you just came out of a trial, and those are the only three places that you're ever  in. It's always one of the three, I have to say, being around mental health issues. The reason that we talk about them so as such big things is often this stress  tolerance window. Again, they are often above our stress tolerance window. So  it's much harder to be able to figure out what's going on with our theology of  suffering, or what we believe about ourselves, because it's overwhelming. It's  outside of that window. But that said, Consider it pure joy, my brothers,  whenever you face various kinds of trials, because you know that the testing of  your faith produces perseverance. I would also like to go back to the picture of  the dandelion that I that was my senior year of college. So at that point, I had  been stabilized with bipolar disorder for five and a half years. That is testament  itself. I was fairly new Christian at that point in time, but this was right there, right that the trials produce perseverance. It's a good thing. Pushing on further in  Romans 5:1-5, we read, therefore, since we have been justified through faith,  we have peace with God through our Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into the grace which we now stand. And we boast in the  hope of the glory of God, not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings,  because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance,  character and character, hope and hope does not put us to shame, because  God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who's  been given to us. So in this case, trials produce perseverance, perseverance,  character and character, hope and hope does not disappoint us. There is, once  again, this assumption you will face trials, and these trials will actually make you better, and that's why there's that picture of the hammer and the steel that when 

you actually hammer steel and fold it, it gets incredibly strong. It gets stronger  every time you fold it. And in some ways, we're the same way. When we go  through trials and perseverance, we get stronger. So we have to ask the  question, what is suffering a sign of we've just talked about how, in many ways,  suffering is actually what makes us strong, what makes us put together. If that  picture is a sword, the Japanese swordsmiths used to fold the steel on their  sword and then hammer it out, and then fold it and hammer it out, and fold it and hammer it out. And sometimes they would do that more than 1000 times. Before they even started building the blade, they would fold the steel 1000 times so that the steel would be so strong when the blade was made that. It. They can do  anything they needed with it. The blade would not be the thing that let them  down. Suffering is a sign of that strength being folded and grown. But what do  we believe here? We see that there might be something going on because there might be some disunity. Genesis 30:29-30, Jacob said to him, you know how I  worked for you and how your livestock have turned under my care. The Little  you had before I came had increased greatly, and Lord blessed you whenever I  had been, but now, when I when May I be do something for my own household,  oftentimes what we see is actually a belief that God's blessing is evidence of  God's presence, and God's presence is evidence of God's protection. So we see is, or assume, a lot of the time instead, is that if we're experiencing trials, we are not experiencing God's blessing, we're not experiencing God's presence, we're  not experiencing God's protection. We're not actually in the presence of God.  And that's, I think, where a lot of the theology that drives people away from the  church in places of suffering comes from is this belief that God blesses us, and if we're not experiencing God's blessing, then we're missing the evidence of  everything else that God is doing. We see the evidences of God blessing people throughout the Old Testament, right? This is Jacob, and this is him with his  father in law, Laban. And Jacob is taking care of the herds of Laban. And under  Jacob's care, they are just expanding. Laban had a few livestock, and now there are just so many. They are growing and growing and growing and growing the  herds are and that's because the Lord is blessing him. Go on just a little bit  further. The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered and he lived in the  house of his Egyptian master. When his master saw that the Lord was with him  and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did. Joseph found favor in  his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything that he owned from the time that he put  him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the  household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on  everything Potiphar had, both in the House and in the field. So Potiphar left  everything they had in Joseph's Care, and with Joseph in charge, he did not  concern himself with anything except the food that he ate. Once again, we see  this God blessing. We see someone who is walking with God. God is blessing 

him. In this case, he is a servant of Potiphar in the Egyptian and we see  Potiphar's wealth just grow. His household is just it's doing so well, and that we  see as evidence of God's blessing. Put another way we see it in the Psalms, he  turned rivers into a desert, flowing springs into thirsty ground, the fruitful land  into a salt waste because of the wickedness of those who lived there, he turned  the desert into pools of water. He parched the ground into flowing springs. And  he brought the hungry to live, and they found in the city, where they kept subtle.  They sowed fields and planted vineyards that yielded fruitful harvests. He  blessed them, and their numbers greatly increased, and he did not let their  herds diminish. And here we see this juxtaposition between the poor on between those who are not faithful. On this side they are wicked. And because of that, the rivers turned a thirsty ground, their land, it perishes. And then we see the faithful on this other side, and they go into the land, and everything they have is  blessed. They plant vineyards, and those vineyards have fruitful harvests. They  plant fields, and those fields have fruitful harvests. They grow their city, and they experience the abundance of the land because they are in God's blessing,  because they're acting rightly and righteously. And so we end up with this idea  that what is wrong if we're not experiencing God's blessing? Right? Being with  God means having plenty in this, oftentimes even throughout the narrative. So  what happens if we don't have plenty? Does that mean that there's something  wrong? Does that mean there's that we're doing something wrong? Because  obviously, if we don't have plenty, or if we feeling afflicted, or if we're even under  the rule of another nation or another group of people, we're not experiencing  God's blessing, we must have done something wrong. If I do something right  and I'm righteous and I have God's blessing, then good things happen, right?  But what does the Bible say about that Hebrews 11 is as clear as it could be.  And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak,  Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets who, all  through faith, conquered kingdoms, administered justice and gained what was  promised, who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the furry of the flames and  escaped the edge of the sword, whose weakness was turned into strength and  became powerful in battle and routed foreign enemies. Women received back  their dead, raised to life. So here we see this success. We see this continual  blessing. Look at what God did through all of these people who are faithful to  God. And then the narrative suddenly turns. In the same breath. They said, there were others who were tortured, refused to be a relief, refused to be released so  they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging and  even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning. They were  sawed in two. They were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins  and goat skins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated. The world was not worthy  of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and holes in  the ground. They were commended for their faith, yet none of them received 

back what had been promised since God had planned something better for us,  so that only together with us would they be made perfect in the same breath.  The author of Hebrews turns and says, there were these others, and they were  mistreated. They were killed and they the world was not worthy of them. So here we see this breakdown. Faithfulness does not necessarily mean God's blessing, because of God's presence and His protection. In this case, faithfulness meant  subjugation to Roman rule and death. But it did not mean that people were  acting any less rightly. It did not mean that God was not with them. It just meant  that their life was in a different space. And so when we build out a theology of  suffering, we have to say, yes, there will be suffering. There will be this. I am  about to go into suffering. I am in suffering. I'm coming out of suffering. These  are the three spaces I'm going to live a lot of my life in. And then there is further,  this idea that and this suffering is going to do work in me. Is going to have trials  that produce perseverance and character and hope, and that is not going to  disappoint. I want to jump over to Hebrews 2 for just a moment, but we do see  Jesus, who is made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with  glory and honor because he suffered death so that by the grace of God, he  might taste death for everyone and bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists should be  made the pioneer of their salvation, perfect through what He suffered, both the  one Who makes people holy, and those who are made holy are from the same  family, so Jesus is not ashamed to call them blood brothers and sisters. When  we develop our theology of suffering, I think we should probably look at Jesus,  who, as God Himself, suffered on behalf of us and in this section even says that  salvation the Pioneer their perfect salvation through what He suffered, that his  suffering is actually the entrance to everything good, to the Spirit of God, to the  kingdom of God, he brings that through his own suffering. And so in Hebrews 11  when they say the world was not worthy of them. I'm not saying the kingdom is  coming through them, but I am saying that suffering is a natural part of what we  go through in life, and if God didn't spare his own Son, he's not going to spare  us. We may have seasons of blessing where things are moving right and where  they are incredible. That's beautiful. And we may also experience trials, and  that's okay. Our job is to lean in and see what God is doing in the midst of that.  Because who we are as people doesn't change. Who God is as God doesn't  change. And while we might say, well, this is we're not seeing God's blessings or not seeing his his presence or his provision or his protection, what we can say is that God is God, and we are still us. We're still his beloved sons and daughters,  and God is still God. So we can go to him and say, What do you want to do?  What is my role in this? And hold on to that relationship to ourselves as beloved  sons and daughters, and know that this is going somehow to be used for good,  if we can be in a place where there's stress tolerance window, or we can say  that and also know that God is going to continue to pour great things in and 

through us. Finally, blessing often comes after suffering. So this idea that  blessing means .God's presence and provision and protection. What if it  happens sometimes backwards of that, we talked about how Jacob was blessed and how Joseph was blessed. But in both of those situations, Jacob and  Joseph, both of those were temporary in the in Jacob's position, he was looking  over the herds of Laban. Laban's herds increase greatly, and Laban is just  loving it. And Laban starts spending every dime that he is making in the profit of  his business, and he has promised Jacob that Jacob will walk away with the  livestock that are spotted or striped. And Jacob ends up having to run away from Laban because Laban is just continually saying, No, I'm not going to let you go.  Jacob runs away, and then he is in a place where he has a lot and then he finds  out he's going to meet his brother Esau. And his brother, Esau, has 400 armed  men with him, and he believes, oh, I'm gonna get killed. He offers gifts to Esau,  and what ends up happening is Esau says, I don't want your gifts. Jacob says,  take it anyway. So he does. And then Jacob resettles, and he is blessed. In the  case of Joseph, this story takes a couple right terms that are so different,  because Joseph is overseeing Potiphars house, and it's growing and growing  and being blessed. And then Potiphar's wife, tries to seduce Joseph, and then  accuses him of rape after he tries to push her away. And because of that,  Joseph is thrown in prison by Potiphar. He experiences suffering trial, all of  those blessings are gone. This wasn't his stuff in the first place. He has no stuff,  and now he's in prison in a foreign land, and that's when he has his visions, and  that's when he's promoted to hand of Pharaoh, or second to Pharaoh, and that's when he rules the entire land of Egypt, and helps the entire land of Egypt avoid  the scarce, scarce times that are coming up ahead. And he is blessed  immensely, and is able to bless others. And sometimes, our experience of that  goes through, the blessing comes after, not during, and we want it during. I want to do a little bit of reflection now on this. What are the ramifications of your  relationship to suffering now, whatever your theology is that is okay. We want to  continue this idea in this class, that whatever you believe, the truth of that thing  is right, right, not necessarily that it's correct, but the truth of that thing is actually what leads to healing. So that truth of that thing, where you're at with it, that's  right where you need to be. So whatever your relationship is, the suffering, write  that down, and then take some additional time to write. What are the  ramifications of that, where that brought you away from God or towards God?  What does that mean for your other relationships, and how you. Believe about  them. What do you believe about your own capacity, and what do you believe  that that does to you? And then I just want you to sit on that for a little bit and  know that no matter what you're going through, what trials you're going through,  God is still with you in it that we have a high priest who is not unable to be with  us in our suffering. Thank you, and I'll see you in the next session.