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Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, May 14, 2023
by Dr. Kimberly Leetch, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: We may never understand suffering, but we can accept that suffering can lead to hope.
It seems sometimes people are consumed with the pursuit of happiness. We avoid suffering, we seek pleasure, and we place our hope in something better than this.
Paul took a step back. He acknowledged that we cannot be constantly in a state of hope and happiness. Sometimes we suffer. Sometimes we sin. But neither of those is pointless.
Suffering can produce endurance that can ultimately lead to hope. This is not to say that we should seek out suffering in order to force ourselves to strengthen our hope. We don’t need to seek out suffering—suffering will always find us. We must endure suffering, but we don’t need to remain there. We can move forward. God’s love offers us a pathway through. Even while we remain sinners, God’s love offers us a way out of suffering and the state of sin. God gave everything so that we might gain everything.
So, what do we say of suffering? We might try to find reason and meaning in suffering as a way to make sense of it all. But suffering may not be purposeful like that. Suffering is a natural part of living in a flawed world. We might do better to wonder what we do with suffering once it occurs than to try to anticipate its causes. We may never know why bad things happen. But we can look forward and rely on God’s love to see us through. We can become stronger, kinder, more faithful people through the experience of suffering. We can help others who are suffering with things we have already survived. We can’t avoid suffering, but we can use our suffering for a greater purpose.
