Upper Room Daily Reflections - daily words of wisdom and faith “Suffering” Friday, 29 November 2013

Today’s Reflection:

SEVERAL YEARS AGO I heard Elisabeth Elliot describe suffering as anything to which you respond, “Oh no.” It can be as minor as a flat tire or a broken appliance that causes you quickly to say, “Oh no.” Or it can be the devastating news of a loved one’s death that causes you to break down and weep, “Oh my God, no.” Pain is a part of life, and it seems we live our lives on a continuum of hurts, sometimes seen by others but more often unobserved.

…There is a lot in life to which we respond, “Oh no.”

What shall we do with our pain? This to me is one of the acid tests of faith. How we handle our suffering and hurts will determine to a great degree how we handle the pain of the world. How we handle our own pain also will largely determine our own transformation. Will we deny our pain either in our attempt to “be happy” or because we can’t explain it? Will we anesthetize ourselves to it, always look for a way out of it, or do everything we can to avoid facing and feeling it? Will we play the “blame game” or become angry or bitter? How we answer these questions will shape how suffering affects us.

I would like to suggest how the presence of Christ can work in our suffering to transform us. Pain is not so much a problem to be solved as it is a mystery to be embraced and endured. This is true because God is at work in our pain as well as in our pleasure. This is not to say that God causes our pain but that God loves us as much in our pain as in the rest of our lives. God promises us comfort and consolation in times of suffering. God promises strength to help us bear our hurts. God promises us wisdom to help us learn from our pain. God promises us grace to transform us through our pain and actually use it as an instrument of transformation. So let us embrace pain, not as a friend but as a reality of life we cannot avoid. Let us allow pain to do its work in us, and let us trust the presence of Christ not as a way out but as a way in and through the pain.(Daniel Vestal-Being the Presence of Christ)

From pages 73-74 of Being the Presence of Christ: A Vision for Transformation by Daniel Vestal. Copyright © 2008 by Daniel Vestal. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Upper Room Books. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.

Today’s Question:

Pray for someone (perhaps yourself) who is experiencing suffering. Share your thoughts.

Today’s Scripture:

Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.(Matthew 24:42, NRSV)

This Week: pray for someone experiencing time of lonely exile.

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Saints, Inc.:

This week we remember:  Narcissa Whitman (November 29)

Narcissa Prentiss was born in 1808 in New York. When she was eleven Narcissa had a conversion and joined the Congregational Church. At sixteen, inspired by a female missionary to India, Narcissa decided she wanted to be a missionary. She was trained and worked as a teacher before offering herself as a missionary in 1834. Another would-be missionary, Dr. Marcus Whitman, proposed marriage so they could work as a team.

The day after their wedding in 1836, Narcissa and Marcus began the arduous journey west to present-day Washington. They built the Waiilatpu Mission where Narcissa taught Native American children and Marcus served as doctor and taught farming. After their daughter drowned, the Whitmans opened their home to a family of seven Oregon Trail orphans and other children.

Narcissa's inspiring letters from her journey and the mission were widely published and inspired countless others As a strong, articulate Christian and one of the first two white woman to cross the continental United States, she influenced a generation of Oregon Trail immigrants.

After eleven years serving the native peoples of the Walla Walla area, Narcissa, Marcus, and twelve others were massacred on November 29, 1847.

If Narcissa Whitman had taken the Spiritual Types Test she probably would have been a Sage. Narcissa Whitman is remembered on November 29.

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Lectionary Readings

(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)

Isaiah 2: Climb God’s Mountain 1-5 The Message Isaiah got regarding Judah and Jerusalem:

There’s a day coming

    when the mountain of God’s House

Will be The Mountain—

    solid, towering over all mountains.

All nations will river toward it,

    people from all over set out for it.

They’ll say, “Come,

    let’s climb God’s Mountain,

    go to the House of the God of Jacob.

He’ll show us the way he works

    so we can live the way we’re made.”

Zion’s the source of the revelation.

    God’s Message comes from Jerusalem.

He’ll settle things fairly between nations.

    He’ll make things right between many peoples.

They’ll turn their swords into shovels,

    their spears into hoes.

No more will nation fight nation;

    they won’t play war anymore.

Come, family of Jacob,

    let’s live in the light of God.(The Message)

Psalm 122: A Pilgrim Song of David 1-2 When they said, “Let’s go to the house of God,”

    my heart leaped for joy.

And now we’re here, O Jerusalem,

    inside Jerusalem’s walls!

3-5 Jerusalem, well-built city,

    built as a place for worship!

The city to which the tribes ascend,

    all God’s tribes go up to worship,

To give thanks to the name of God—

    this is what it means to be Israel.

Thrones for righteous judgment

    are set there, famous David-thrones.

6-9 Pray for Jerusalem’s peace!

    Prosperity to all you Jerusalem-lovers!

Friendly insiders, get along!

    Hostile outsiders, keep your distance!

For the sake of my family and friends,

    I say it again: live in peace!

For the sake of the house of our God, God,

    I’ll do my very best for you.(The Message)

Romans 13: 11-14 But make sure that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can’t afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don’t loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!(The Message)

Matthew 24: 36 “But the exact day and hour? No one knows that, not even heaven’s angels, not even the Son. Only the Father knows.

37-39 “The Arrival of the Son of Man will take place in times like Noah’s. Before the great flood everyone was carrying on as usual, having a good time right up to the day Noah boarded the ark. They knew nothing—until the flood hit and swept everything away.

39-44 “The Son of Man’s Arrival will be like that: Two men will be working in the field—one will be taken, one left behind; two women will be grinding at the mill—one will be taken, one left behind. So stay awake, alert. You have no idea what day your Master will show up. But you do know this: You know that if the homeowner had known what time of night the burglar would arrive, he would have been there with his dogs to prevent the break-in. Be vigilant just like that. You have no idea when the Son of Man is going to show up.(The Message)

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Upper Room Ministries

 a ministry of GBODPO Box 340004

Nashville, TN 37203-0004 USA

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