Paul writes: 'For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.' Suffering is participation in Jesus's suffering.
I'm a cancer survivor. For months I was terrified. But I found something strange in my suffering: I felt closer to Jesus than ever. His suffering became real to me. I understood his anguish in Gethsemane. My comfort came through the recognition that Jesus suffered too, and he's here in my suffering now.
Paul isn't romanticizing suffering. He's not saying suffering is good. He's saying that when you suffer, you have opportunity to know Jesus in a deeper way. And that knowledge of Jesus brings its own comfort. Not comfort that removes the suffering, but comfort in the midst of it.
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