“We have patiently endured troubles, hardships, and difficulties. We have been beaten, jailed, and mobbed; we have been overworked and have gone without sleep or food…We are honored and disgraced; we are insulted and praised. We are treated as liars, yet we speak the truth; as unknown, yet we are known by all; as though we were dead, but, as you see, we live on. Although punished, we are not killed; although saddened, we are always glad; we seem poor, but we make many people rich; we seem to have nothing, yet we really possess everything.” (II Corinthians 6:4-10)
Thoughts… Suffering is relative. What you find discomforting I might find a piece of cake. What I whine about you might think is a walk in the park. But one thing is for certain: The challenges we go through because of our faith are nothing compared to what the Apostle Paul endured because of his.
Just reading through Paul’s list of experiences puts most of us modern day American Christians to shame. We complain when it is too hot in the church sanctuary. We would call it suffering if the sermon goes too long or the music is too loud. Our idea of persecution is if the doughnuts don’t show up on time in time for pre-service fellowship. We’re really kind of whimpy, aren’t we?
The first century Christians paid a real price to follow Jesus. So do a great percentage of believers around the world today. What Paul wrote about nearly two thousand years ago is happening today each and every day in Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, China and Russia. What Paul described is what these believers would say is just an ordinary day of following Jesus.
I recently spent several days in an orphanage in Africa. It is in what is perhaps the poorest nation on the planet, meaning that the children in this home are the poorest of the poor. Their parents have died from HIV-Aids or other diseases, or perhaps from starvation and malnutrition. These children were left to fend for themselves at ages as young as three or four. No one wants them, or can afford them even if they were wanted.
But now they have a hope and a future because of the good graces of the ministry that runs the orphanage. One the most moving experiences for me at the orphanage was listening to a choir of thirty or so of these boys. When they sang, joy oozed from their souls. When they sang about Jesus, and salvation, and heaven, you could tell from their faces that it meant a lot more to them than it does to me when I sing of those very things. What they were wearing was about the only earthly thing they possessed, yet I could tell that in truth, they were far richer than I, and most of the people here in America that I know. To paraphrase Paul, “they were sad, yet so very glad; poor, yet so very rich; they had nothing, yet they really possessed everything.”
When you meet believers who live under these kinds of harsh condition day in and day out, you realize that they have made one of faith’s greatest discoveries: When Jesus is all you really have, there you find that Jesus is all you really need.
We here in this land of plenty seem incapable of grasping that. I wouldn’t wish harsh conditions on anyone, but I do wish we would come to truly understand that when we have Jesus, we have everything we need. If we can grasp that, then bad, no matter how bad bad is, ain’t really so bad.
Prayer… Father, I am so grateful for the many blessings you have poured out in my life. Keep me from loving these gifts more than the Giver of the gifts. And keep me sensitive to my brothers and sisters around the world who go without and who suffer day in and day out for following you. Be near to them, O Lord, and grant them the incomparable joy of knowing that their lives and eternities are in your hand.
One More Thing… “You will never know that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.”
Please note: I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or off-topic.