There is beauty in suffering

16 The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt.2 In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”
4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. 5 On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.” Exodus 16

I was thinking tonight how there is beauty in our suffering. I just finished the final session of the shoulder to shoulder ministry at our church. It had been a ministry I felt a calling for as early as 5 years ago. At the time I still had some work to do in my own suffering and decided to put it off until God's timing. 

The verse from Exodus 16 came to mind as I dwelt on God's goodness. God had used Moses and Aaron to rescue the Israelits out of the hands of Pharaoh, but quickly they forgot where they had come from and were grumbling once again. They were in the desert, but they were not yet in the promise land. They remembered only the meat they got while in slavery, but failed to remember the suffering they received. This verse is perfect for all of us that suffer because we learned that God will give you just enough to get through your suffering each day.

Grief and loss can have terrible ramifications on our lives. Through our suffering each of us comes to a cross road in life. We  can decide to lean into God and allow Him to guide us through the muck and mire of whatever physical or emotional pain we are enduring, or we can reject God and allow bitterness to consumer our life.

I chose to work through my suffering by leaning into God by placing one foot in front of the other and trusting that He would get me through each day. I trusted Him by moving forward each Sabbath day and honoring God with our families presence in Church. I knew as a believer that when the day comes and death envelops my life I would awake in heaven singing praises to God in heaven and by golly I ought to practice the skill of worship while still alive.

When the final class ended I had this incredible inner peace as though I have found a ministry God wants me to be part of. I actually looked forward to submitting my application for this ministry and going through the interview process. I got Holy ghost goose bumps as I shared my faith journey of grief with another member at the close of class. As I shared each chapter of my grief I could see God's powerful presence of how He walked with our family in perhaps the worse crisis of our family's life.

That is the way suffering is and that was how I saw beauty in my suffering. If you are at a cross roads of your suffering I would encourage you to lean into God and let him lead you through the suffering. When you do I promise you that God will reveal to you how your suffering will lead you to a stronger faith in Christ and out of your suffering many may come to know the Creator of the universe, the lover of their souls.