Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval.”
NL Daily Devotion for Saturday, July 23, 2022
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
God does not approve suffering. It’s not like God stands back when you’re being wrongly abused saying, “Way to go!” In Christ, God fully emptied Godself and shared our place 100%. God does not approve suffering. God stands with us, sharing our place, and suffers with us.
At the same time, God calls us to engage in place-sharing with others, creating safe and loving space for them to process and address their suffering. And God calls us to action in behalf of the suffering to stand up to those who inflict it and demand change.
There are so many people who are suffering unjustly in my country, at the hands of police violence, a so-called justice system that disproportionately penalizes some people over others, from unjust laws that discriminate against women, BIPOC folks, LGBTQ+ folks, and from the general abuses of the white supremacy that seems to drive all of this. We simply cannot stand by and say, “You’re being abused for doing what is right—good on you!” God is right in there getting their hands dirty. So should we be.
When have I gotten in trouble or suffered because of something I did right?