Suffering is often followed or accompanied by shame. Shame might be one of the hardest to bear. My suffering may not be for the gospel but not giving up on it or enduring it with God’s grace is my offering to him.
I was often questioned as to why I chose and write about suffering while it was not my subject. I know people write better than me. Why not proclaimed the goodness of God? But for me, it is the sufferings due to my physical pain and the shame I felt because of my limited being in the sphere of work and responsibilities at home. To experience the goodness of God, first I have to endure the suffering and shame in my journey.
For me, suffering and shame is a school I happened to be enrolled in as I need to learn the vast array of love and grace in my life. It’s a school everyone wanted to graduate with before the minimum time frame of the course. Also, it is a school where learning is unlimited. The testimony is my little and only tool, in endorsing the name of my Savior.
The shame involved here brings pain to the heart. One felt looked down upon despite being already disheartened many times. In the contemporary world, body shame is another form of shame. People are shamed and working on to shame others.
The cross is the emblem of suffering and shame – it doesn’t end there. It is there at the cross victory over all these was proclaimed.
The evil one wanted to shame us. Everyone has our good sides – a quality which may not be useful nor shine among people. I was shamed.
Many times I cannot look after myself – I lost control. I have to be taken care of by everyone. People mocked me behind my back. I became a nuisance although I wanted to carry out my duties.
I felt that I was singled out for easy prey. But recognizing it helps me get out of it.
I was very much ashamed of my diagnosis, my neurological disorder when I came to know of it. Yet I cannot hide, I cannot run away. It’s a privilege I had to carry – the shame and suffering, the pain and fear still eluded me. And I know I’m not the best person to carry the baggage.
At times, I was ashamed of carrying my suffering and shame. Yet I know the emblem was wholeheartedly carried and done away with by my Savior.
The cross becomes my new beginning and new hope by the grace of God where the son of God torn the veil. He is accessible even to me.
Suffering and shame are the roads to recovery more often. By this, I am not glorifying it but wanted to focus on what is beyond suffering and shame.
The emblem of Victory:
The cross was the place for suffering and shame but was surpassed by the big sacrifice of the lamb for the cleansing of our sin and suffering eternally. Without it, there is nothing to boast about the cross. The power of the cross lies in the sacrifice and declaration of victory, which further was completed by the resurrection. The cross is the emblem of victory for us.
Our suffering and shame today was our way of becoming closer to him, at times. The feeling of being abandoned did occur in our pain, to inching the eternal victory over all these wordless pains. There is nothing to boast about in suffering, it brings shame but we can boast of the sacrificial work at the cross and not on our minute miseries.
Let one boast of the cross.
Love is spoken, not always in words, the most in suffering and shame. When the son suffers God is still there. The God of good times is still there in our bad times.
Suffering and shame are within the reach of everyone. So is the love and grace of God.
Here’s a promise: Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion; instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot; therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion; they shall have everlasting joy. Isaiah 61:7 And the suffering and shame was foretold here: He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Isaiah 53:3
Rejoice in Suffering:
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.Romans 5:3-4
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and the sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2
Grace and Suffering Equation:
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 2 Cor. 12:9
The emblem of suffering and shame becomes the emblem of Victory for the defeated, the emblem of hope for the hopeless, the emblem of love and forgiveness for the lost. What does the cross mean to you?
There is no doubt in his suffering, he knows, we are also to share our emblem. 1 Cor. 1:4
The power of the cross is for the suffering world – too wide yet very personal.
Today as I sit with the pain, suffering, and sometimes shame, I often think of the cross. It’s because he had suffered witness all kinds of pain and shame I can look upon him – not on others but only on him.
And my chest choked. my heart runs I felt very very privileged. I lost control easily yet it’s worth living and keep waiting on him!
“So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross…..” as Rev.George Bennard puts it.
I will cling onto the cross and exchange it someday for a crown!
