Suffering

We keep being surprised by our own suffering, as if it were a stranger or an interloper within our world. But this shouldn't be so. Because even if suffering is a stranger in our world, we've been clearly instructed not to be so inhospitable as to reject it, and by no fewer than four apostles.

Peter:

1 Pet. 4:12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

Paul:

Rom. 8:17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

James:

James 1:2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds

and John:

1 John 3:13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.

Possibly we might add the writer to the Hebrews, assuming he is not one of the four already mentioned.

The crowning instruction comes from our Lord himself:

Mark 8:34 And he called to him the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

So we should embrace our suffering not as a stranger, but as a friend sent by our Saviour to help us on our way.