Present Sufferings

             I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.  For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. (Romans 8:18-25)

Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. (John 12:24)

Undoubtedly, you’ve heard the story at some point. If a person helps a butterfly e-close (emerge from its chrysalis) or a bird free itself from its egg, the butterfly or bird is likely to die because they need the struggle to live. In John 12:24, Jesus shares the same idea. Seeds must fall to the ground and “die” before they can sprout and the plant they were meant to be can grow.

You might not be aware of a book by C. S. Lewis called The Great Divorce. In it, people from Hell take a day trip (by bus) to the border of heaven. One of the problems they discover is that the grass, rain, and rocks are harder, more solid, or more real than they are. They can be cut by the grass. One man tries to take a golden apple home but discovers even a weightlifter would be hard pressed to move one. The ghosts are told that they must become more real, and that they will, over time, if they endure. That’s not the major point of the story, and it’s only a story, but what if we are like caterpillars, birds, seeds, or “ghosts” that must endure struggle or “die” to become some butterflies, birds, plants, or real people?  What if “just any old struggle” can’t do what’s necessary, but only certain struggles, successfully completed?

As I was praying over my current topic of God as Father, one of the ideas that came to mind was that fathers discipline themselves and their children. This doesn’t mean being abusive. Fathers refuse to go to a child, pick her up and carry her across the room because it’s better that she learns to walk. God could make everything all right all the time, but it would require that the father/Father not do what is best for the child, which would violate God’s principles and should violate the father’s.  And why couldn’t God have made us all perfect, so that there is no need to struggle or endure? Because that would reveal Him as being unwilling or unable to suffer with our weaknesses, failures, and sin and as thinking us not worthy of that struggle. It would also deprive us of becoming worthy of His struggles.  I don’t mean this to suggest that we earn salvation or worthiness. But it’s more like a master mechanic who buys a junker car and works on it. The car doesn’t do anything, but if it remains a hung of junk, it’s not worthy of him. It’s only worthy of him when he has made the effort to make it so. It’s the same with a father. If he walks away and the child becomes great, he is not worthy of the child. But if he has raised the child to be the best the child can be, then the child is worthy of him, and he of the child. That’s the glory revealed in us. Now, if I can just remember that.