Relevant Servants

Challenges to our faith come in all shapes and sizes. None of them should be taken lightly. If we have been faithful through a little tribulation we are more likely to be faithful through much. "But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere" (2 Corinthians 2:14).

There are exceedingly hard places that we come to in life that are sometimes overwhelming, and even excruciatingly painful, to our spiritual and emotional well-being. Yet if we are Christians, we are a people whose faith is deeply rooted in God and His word (John 8:31-32). That means our lives have relevance in the presence because we are neither looking to nor living in the past. To the contrary, as Christians we are living for and looking to the future, always reaching for what is ahead. It also means I don't always know the "why's" of suffering or the "what if's" of tragedies. Yet what I do know is that the apostle Paul's earnest expectation, even in the midst of such immense and overwhelming suffering, could not be compared to the glory that awaits us as Christians (Romans 8:18; Philippians 3:12-13).

Neither shall we who profess to be Christians, dare to live in a smug self-righteous manner, as if we are above the kind of suffering and pain that others are going through, even when it is at their own hands. All suffering by its very nature, whatever shape and size, is consequential. However, not all suffering is the consequence of the individual sufferer's choice. We live in a world where sin abounds. That is another way of saying we live in a world where people are truly fighting and struggling with their own demons of which we may be unaware. Sin always involves consequences that cannot be controlled. Or if you prefer, sin always has unintended consequences for both the perpetrator and even some innocent by-standers. God is always the innocent who suffers for our sins, regardless of how WE calculate sin!

Even as Christians, it may be difficult at times to imagine the hope that is before us because of our present difficulties and pains. However, the reality of our hope is not found in our suffering but through our suffering by faith that focuses not on the seen but the unseen. "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

There are hearts hurting today in the most unimaginable way. I don't know all of them but I know some of them. What then, is my responsibility as a Christian? As Jesus came and entered into our suffering to show us the way to be at home and at peace with God, so must I, as a follower of Christ, enter into their suffering. I can give them nothing more, or any thing better, for assuaging their grief than pointing the way home to God. I do this by simply loving and serving without judgment in their hour (days) of greatest need and desperation. May God help us to be His kind of servant, relevant to the real needs of others pointing the way to heaven!