With Scarred Hearts

“For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God…But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps.” 1 Peter 2:19-21.

The scene is a place called Golgotha (The Place of the Skull) and the event is the crucifixion of Christ. He hangs on the cross between two criminals as He is ridiculed, mocked and beaten. He suffers not for anything He has done but for what we would do. He is at the height of suffering yet He reaches out to one of the criminals to minister, to serve and to save.

Over the past year I have been the recipient of this “serving in suffering” attitude of Christ. Many people have reached out from their own crucibles to soothe, to comfort and help heal. I have had mothers who reached out in their own pain of losing children. I have had daughters of deceased parents who extended their loving hand of comfort. I have had sisters who had to bid farewell to a sibling in their community of childhood playmates who served as spiritual sisters in my time of grief. God even used the pain and suffering of my 19 year old daughter as she reached out to me to bind up my broken heart three weeks after her boyfriend had been killed. These are the indwellings of Christ as one Body, one Member and one Church. These are the sufferings in which we share that the Bible speaks of consistently.

With Christ in us and in those surrounding us, we don’t just ache in suffering but we do as Christ did and extend that scarred hand and heart to other suffering hearts who accompany us in our pain. We not only endure but we conquer our graves and our hearts are resurrected through our fellowship in suffering.

Some seasons you will be asked to extend your scarred heart and some seasons you will receive and endure. We must embrace all seasons as “God works all things together for the good of those who loves Him.” These words are not empty words but promises fulfilled.