Some time ago, my daughter was at the city park playing with some friends. Nothing noteworthy about that, except, in this particular instance, she had fallen off of a rock and broken her arm. My wife, who was very upset, called and asked me to go pick her up and take her to the hospital. Of course, I said yes, but first, I called a lawyer who specialized in playground injuries to see if I could sue the city and how much we might get.
Just kidding.
I drove to the playground and, after lovingly helping my daughter into the back-seat of the car, I drove her to the hospital and stayed by her bedside, comforting her throughout the examination and treatment.
That is how I remember it anyway.
She tells it a bit differently. She vividly remembers that in response to her excruciating pain, I said, “Rachel, it is going to hurt. There is nothing that can be done about it until we get to the hospital.”
I am not going to quibble over a few faulty sentence constructions, but I am sure I never said, as she has reported on many occasions over many years, “Suck it up.”
By the way, she was nine years old. OK, my parenting skills were still in the developmental stages.
A Life Punctuated by Affliction
There is always a subtle and deceptive belief among Christians that Jesus came to give us a pain-free ride to glory. That notion is belied by the lives of the Apostles, multitudes of believers throughout history, and the Lord Himself (Cf. Hebrews 11:36-40; 1 Peter 3:14; Philippians 1:29). Remember what the Apostle Peter told us, Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you… (1 Peter 4:12).
Pain, distress, hardship, impairment, and even agony, both mental and physical, are the very means by which we are brought into conformity with the life we are given—the life of Jesus Christ. Suffering and affliction are provisions of God’s grace, and necessary in the divinely directed process of bringing us to maturity, steadying us in our walk, strengthening us for more significant challenges, and grounding us on the firm foundation of faith (see 1 Peter 5:10).
Once you see that the Christian life is understood, deepened, and experienced in, through, and out of suffering and affliction, then you can find hope in the pain, and find the strength to stay in the fight. At every stage of the suffering and trials you face, you can experience genuine joy and peace—no matter the pain, no matter the difficulty.
So, it’s going to hurt. Suck it up.
Harper sends
For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:15-8 (NKJV)