Following Jesus

"The Hiding Place," is a movie about Corrie Ten Boom and her Christian family imprisoned in Ravensbruck for hiding Jews in their home during WWII. As Corrie's sister, Betsy, is dying she says that "there is no pit so deep, that God is not deeper still." The true story of these Dutch sisters is inspiring to those of us who wrestle with the concept of suffering and God's place in all of it.

As the prisoners around them are questioning how God could allow the torture they're experiencing Betsy says that there is much about God we will never understand. But she says that God is good and he uses suffering to bring about obedience. Now that's a word we never hear anymore: obedience.

We would rather hear the words, comfort or happiness or goodness. We want all the warm fuzzies that God is supposed to provide without any of the work that goes along with it. Religion like that is not lived with heart or deeply held conviction. For it's a self-centered, what can I get out of it type of worship. Jesus says, "Come, follow me."

Can you imagine Jesus looking at you and saying, "Come, follow me?" What did he mean? As a boy Jesus grew up near the temple, learning the word by heart. He learned his father's trade. He walked in the desert for 40 days struggling with the devil, going without food. He traveled the country with 12 unruly, self-centered sinners talking about His father to everyone he met. One of them betrayed him and he died a gruesome death alone, outcast by even his Father God.


If we are to be followers of Jesus we must be prepared to suffer. We have no right to be angry when things we don't understand happen to us. We have no right to question God. We shouldn't be surprised when we are treated poorly at work or when the biopsy comes back negative. Or when our best friend dies before her daughter gets married. God is not in our lives to make our lives easy. Our sinful perspective is all about right here and right now.

What if that cancer is creating for us a treasure in heaven or making us more like Jesus? What if that accident that paralyzes us is making us ready for our home? Our home with Jesus in his world, not the world that we see now. How does 70-90 years compare with an infinite number of years with Jesus? As my grandson says, that's more than I can count.

I have been abandoned, lonely, persecuted, abused, poor and rich. I have been through times of intense temptation and isolation. Important relationships have been disappointments that have left me stunned and empty. During those times I was focused on myself and my misery. I would spend whole days, several days stewing about these circumstances expecting blessings instead of suffering. I did not follow Jesus. I complained and whined. And I was miserable.

When Jesus suffered he put obedience to his Father first. He suffered because he chose to obey his Father and he suffered for us. He suffered for the joy that was in the future, for the glory that it would bring to his Father and to you and I. He lives in us to bring us back to him so that we might enjoy him forever for his glory. Whatever is for His glory is for our glory, too. What if the only way to enjoy him forever is to suffer as he did?

I'm not living this every minute of every day. I still get too caught up in this world. But when I'm going through trials or when I'm old and frail or blind, I want this truth to be so much a part of who I am that my friends and family will see the joy in my heart because I will know that "this slight and 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."