When faith and suffering meet

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. Romans 8:18

When I was a teenage Christian one of my favourite hymns had a chorus which went like this: "At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light,/ And the burden of my heart rolled away,/ It was there by faith I received my sight,/ And now I am happy all the day".

We used to sing it with great enthusiasm, and it wasn't until I was quite a bit older that the troubling thought occurred to me that there was in fact a problem with it - it simply wasn't true, not that last line, anyway.

Oh yes, it was good to be a Christian, and to know that God loved me and was concerned for me. But I simply wasn't always "happy all the day", and, so far as I could see, neither were most other Christians I knew.

There's a much newer song that contains these words: "And in his presence our problems disappear". I have the same problem here - it makes knowing God seem a bit like having a magic wand waved over us. Putting it simply, it's too good to be true.

Please don't get me wrong. In certain respects these songs are fine. They view the world very positively, and with real faith. But when you really stop and think, you realise that they claim too much; they are just not true to life, even committed Christian life.

Which is why I like what Paul says in Romans 8:18. There is a great blend of realism on the one hand and faith on the other.

First, the realism... 

Paul recognises that life contains its problems and hardships. He speaks quite matter-of-factly about “our present sufferings”. And he knew what he was talking about. He had been thrown into various prisons, flogged and beaten, lied about and despised. Just read your way through Acts again, or take a sober look at 2 Corinthians 6:3-10.

Most of us modern, comfortable, western Christians know virtually nothing of sufferings in comparison with this. Certainly, we do have various things to put up with, some of them very severe - sickness, unemployment, money worries, family problems, you name it. But these are things we share with everybody, Christians or not; they are part of the lot of humankind. Sufferings for the sake of Christ are virtually unknown to us. So I think Paul can speak with authority on this subject.

Second, faith...

The great thing is that against this sombre backdrop Paul also has a wonderful vision of "the glory that will be revealed in us". (Note, by the way, those words “in us”; not just “to us”. It’s as if the glory is actually going to be part of us, and us part of it.)

What does “glory” mean here? - well, that would take too long to go into. But, we can be sure, it will be good, good beyond all our imaginings and expectations.

And - the point Paul is making here - it will put into perspective all the sorrows and troubles of this earthly life; they won't be "worth comparing" with it. In 2 Corinthians 4:17 Paul expresses the same truth even more strikingly when he describes them as “light and momentary troubles” (yes, really!) and says that they will “achieve for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”

I heard recently of a woman who, on three separate occasions in her life, had suffered with cancer. When asked how she felt about her ill-fortune she replied, “There’s nothing there the resurrection won’t put right!” She didn’t try to deny the reality of what had happened to her - but she had the faith to put it in the perspective of eternal glory.

Is this just "pie in the sky when we die"? No. It's the straight truth.

God is going ultimately to bring his created order to perfection, and we who trust in Christ are going to be part of that perfection. May that thought comfort us when we feel overwhelmed by our "present sufferings".

And may we use this wonderful vision to spur us on to fight against every form of human suffering - not just our own, but even more the sufferings of those who have it far worse than we do.

Lord, I do sometimes find life very hard and painful. I do sometimes find things getting on top of me. May I never be guilty of pretending what I don't feel. But help me to keep in mind the promise of glory to come, and so to maintain a cheerful, optimistic and faith-filled approach to life. Amen.