Suffering for Cheeses

Creative highschool kids who are suffering for promoting their love for Jesus are outsmarting their persecutors by wearing “I love Cheeses” shirts which “when spoken, is almost undistinguishable from ‘I love Jesus’. Read more...

When I think of Suffering for being a Christian I have one of two responses. I can laugh or cry. The joke above is my typical response, a nervous attempt at laughter motivated by personal conviction at my extremely comfortable life. The other option is sadness that some suffer and that my life as a Christ-follower does not warrant such suffering. Am I doing something wrong, I often wonder?

If you want to read some Scripture about how to suffer as a Christian, you want to spend some time in 1 Peter. Peter wrote to Christians who are spread abroad in hostile foreign lands and as a result faced some agonizingly tough times. And what I read, shocks and floors me.

It reads in 4:12 “do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you.” Do not be surprised….are you serious! That’s not me. I am completely surprised… stumped… shocked when an ounce of difficulty comes to me. ‘But what about my rights’, I protest. ‘I don’t deserve this’, I retort. I know I shouldn’t be, but I am.

In the next verse he says, “rejoice” when we suffer. Again I my hand goes up…you can’t be talking about me. I don’t take joy when my rights are constrained, when my freedom is curtailed or when my happiness is impinged upon by others. Can you see that not only do I not suffer, but I struggle even with the idea. I should rejoice, but I can’t.

My only hope is for God to help me “not be surprised” and “rejoice” in suffering for His name. I can’t, but he can. So if I press into him and identify with him, “working out my salvation” through faith in him. Then he, through me, can accept and rejoice in suffering for Him. God help me.