Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.

• 1 Thessalonians 1:6

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

• James 1:2-3

Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.

• 1 Peter 3:13-18

“For the second time I am experiencing Holy Week here [in prison]. Internally I must resist when I read in letters statements that speak of my ‘suffering.’ That strikes me as a profanation. One must not dramatize these things. Whether I ‘suffer’ more than most people generally do today seems to me more than questionable. Naturally, many things are dreadful, but is that not true everywhere? Earlier I often marveled at how silently the Catholics pass over these cases. But is that supposed to show greater strength? Perhaps they know better from their history what real suffering and martyrdom are. I believe, for example, that ‘suffering’ definitely also includes bodily suffering. We like to emphasize spiritual suffering, but precisely this is what Christ is supposed to have taken away, and I find nothing about it in the New Testament or in the early Christian acts of the martyrs. Yet there is probably a big difference between whether the ‘church suffers’ and whether this or that happens to one of its servants. I believe that much needs to be corrected here; indeed, speaking frankly, I am often almost ashamed of how much we have spoken of our own suffering. No, suffering must be something completely different; it must have a completely different dimension from what I have experienced thus far.”

• Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I Want to Live These Days with You (devotion for March 5, devotions compiled from his writings)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer would eventually hang from the gallows.  I think even he would consider that suffering, but only for a moment when he woke up and saw Jesus smiling at him.

It is a strange coincidence here that he mentions Holy Week.  He was arrested and imprisoned on 5 April 1943.  Easter was 25 April that year.  A year later, when this was written, Easter was 9 April.  The following year, Easter was 1 April, and he died on 9 April.  His last words were “This is the end- for me the beginning of life.”  So, with his resignation to his death, was it suffering even then?

But I have heard people say that they have had a lot of suffering in their lives.  Yet, the only specifics that they can come up with is that all four grandparents died a prolonged death from cancer.  Really?  There is some suffering when you see a loved one suffering, but people die.  That is a given.  We can die quickly or it can take a long time and be painful.  But the person saying this did not do the type of suffering that their grandparents suffered.

As I write this, I have re-tweaked my chronic neck pain, but as long as I do not have to move my neck, I am fine.  I have a headache and digestive issues.  I could say all three of those combined is suffering, but there are a lot of people with greater pain.  Okay, I think the headache is sinus related.  So?

Notice that I did not say migraine.  Will the 8 billion people on planet earth add a perfectly good word to their lexicon…  Okay, after you add lexicon, your list of used words.  Why 8 billion people?  Because there is slightly more than 8 billion people on earth and some of us have not claimed to have a migraine, at least once.  Add “headache.”  There are a variety of headaches.  They are not all migraine headaches.  And I read a study not long ago that said that the two greatest dodges to get out of work for a day were lower back pain (soft tissue) and migraines.  No one can deny you do not have those pains, but after a while, the boss is going to get tired of the absenteeism and hire someone else to do your job.  And when you claim a migraine to dodge going to church or do something else that you do not want to do, and when the family, worried for your health, returns an hour later and you are perky and ready to go to lunch somewhere, after a while, no one buys the migraine dodge anymore.  All this said, migraines do exist, and some people have them on a chronic basis.

But it is as if some people these days cannot handle the slightest of pains.

And Bonhoeffer knew the depravations of the German people.  He knew of the constant bombings.  He wrote about them, but what could he do?  Others went to the bomb shelters, but he was in a prison cell.

But then, Bonhoeffer mentions different types of suffering, and I think the key here, the one that is worthy to mention is suffering for righteousness sake.

Bonhoeffer was in prison for being part of a group that was trying to find a way of getting rid of Hitler in order to request peace.  He was a political prisoner.  If he had gone to trial, it might have been left as guilt by association, for at most, he carried messages from one person to another.

But is my headache due to my righteousness?  No. I already admitted that it might be due to sinuses and unless the doctor thinks there is an infection, he probably will not even see me.  And all those legitimate migraines out there cannot claim due to righteousness either.

But the 1 Peter 3 Scripture above speaks of slander.  I remember a Peanuts cartoon strip with Lucy hearing people calling her names.  The middle frame is her turning around and yelling that sticks and stones could break her bones, but words will never hurt her.  The last frame has her bowled over as everyone started throwing sticks and stones.  But knowing the acerbic and often nasty (never vulgar) mouth of Lucy, did she deserve it?  As Peter states, what is the use of suffering for something you deserved by not being good?

So, even when we are being righteous and they attack us due to us being good, there could be slander or we could be hung from the gallows.  And in between there are many inventive ways of someone causing us to suffer.  And oddly, everyone of us would rank those sufferings differently.  My wife could handle a lot of physical pain with no problem.  The worst thing that you could ever do to my wife was to cut off communication.  She loved communicating.  Until she passed away, the worst thing you could do to me would be to make my wife suffer, so cutting off communications with her was high on my list.

But I saw a television news report that said that the Christian churches in P. R. China had to sing the song that praises to the Communist government (a song to that effect) before they sang the Doxology so that praising the government was forced to be first in their minds.  And any pastor who had an offering plate or an offering box would be arrested and held indefinitely for “fraudulent commerce.”  That is suffering for righteousness sake, but the more they are persecuted, the faster that the church grows.

So, what constitutes suffering?  Why not praise God regardless of whether your pain is called suffering?  If it helps the church to grow, bring it on.  If it causes you to not praise God, study the Scriptures more.  My wife hated to miss church due to her physical suffering, and she always had a smile on her face when we went to church, no matter how much pain she was in.  And since then, I have seen many people who can barely walk, or cannot walk at all (the church has a variety of wheelchairs, including my wife’s brand new one bought just before she passed away), but they are in church almost every Sunday.  But then, the lady with the green hair has a crick in her neck, and you don’t see her for three weeks.  Not picking on ladies with green hair, just trying to pick a color that there may only be one of in the church.

It does not matter what your pain threshold is.  Do you praise God and count every trial a Joy?

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.