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What Cross-Cultural workers Ought to Know about Suffering
The list could go on and on. How could it
be that faithful cross-cultural workers could suffer so much
physically, emotionally, financially, and so forth? They have
been faithful in their service. It seems like God just does
not care. Where is God anyway? God rewards his children,
doesn’t he? Does he keep his promises? What’s going on?
The problem is that we have many “Christian”
cultural beliefs that are not true.
Again this list could go on and on. A
much longer list appears in the comments of Job’s “friends” in
chapters 4-37. Job’s comments in those chapters showed that he
did not understand what was going on, but he was sure his friends
did not know either. Let us look at what Jesus himself told
those who were following him. What did Jesus say?
When his disciples asked Jesus what it would be
like for His people near the end of time, Jesus listed much
suffering (Matthew 24, John 15-16).
Jesus went on to tell the disciples that he
told them about these things so that when they actually came they
would remember that he had warned them (John 16:4). We should
not be surprised when we suffer. More specifically, he told his twelve disciples
what it would be like when they went out to serve. He told
them they would experience the following (Matthew 10):
What happened to Paul?
Cross-cultural workers today experience similar
suffering, although they are more likely to be in airplane crashes
than shipwrecks. Do we have to suffer?
During his first term of cross-cultural
service, to encourage and strengthen people, Paul told them, “We
must suffer…” (Acts 14:22). Why would we have to suffer?
Sometimes suffering is the only way to reach a particular goal.
For example, most people have experienced getting a sliver in their
hand or foot. This frequently happens during childhood, and
children often want to leave the splinter in rather than suffering
as the parents remove it. However, the parents know that if the splinter
remains, it will become infected and may turn into a serious
problem. The parents also know that the only way to get the
splinter out is to dig it out. Assuming that the parents do
not take every splinter to a physician where anesthesia is
available, removing the splinter causes some suffering as it is
removed. Why would anyone rejoice in suffering?
The answer is in the “know that” phrase which
is in italics in the paragraph above. When you “know that”
your suffering is the way to develop particular traits, you can
rejoice as you consider the goal. James wrote that we should “consider it pure
joy” when we face trials because we know that this leads to
perseverance, which then leads to maturity (James 1:2-4). It
is not that we enjoy the suffering, but we rejoice because we know
that we are moving toward maturity. Romans 5:3-4 states, “Not only so, but we also
rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces
perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”
Again, our joy comes not from the suffering itself, but we rejoice
because we know that we are moving toward character and hope. It also helps to know that we are not alone in
our suffering. Peter, a third culture kid, tells us to stand
firm “because you know that your brothers throughout the world are
undergoing the same kind of sufferings” (1 Peter 5:9). You are
not alone, Christians all over the world experience similar
sufferings as they develop perseverance, character, hope and
maturity. Does suffering always lead to perseverance, character, hope and
maturity?
It can lead to these characteristics, but it
does not always do so. Suffering may result in people becoming
either better or bitter, depending on how they respond to it.
The writer of Hebrews points out that God, our heavenly father,
disciplines (not punishes) us like our earthly parents do (Hebrews
12). Just as people differ in their response to their parent’s
discipline when they are children, so do people differ in their
response to God’s discipline when they are adults. The writer of Hebrews encourages us to endure
hardship as discipline and notes that everyone experiences
discipline. Our earthly parents do what seems best to them,
but our heavenly father does what is best for us. “God
disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No
discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on,
however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace” (Hebrews
12:10-11). Each of us chooses whether or not to accept
God’s discipline gracefully (Psalm 119:71) to develop perseverance,
character, hope, maturity, righteousness, and peace or to reject his
discipline and become bitter toward him and about life in general.
We choose whether to become better or to become bitter.
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As
you think about some of your fellow cross-cultural workers, you
realize that many of them are suffering greatly.
How
do I respond while suffering?