Some thoughts on suffering

A thought came to me today.  How much am I willing to suffer, really suffer, so that someone else can get right with God?  When I say, "get right with God", that could mean get saved or it could mean a backslidden Christian getting back into fellowship with Him.  We often look at our suffering by the way it affects us, not at how it affects others.  While we are going through trials we tend to internalize our suffering.  "What did I do to deserve this?" "Why, Lord?" "Ok, ok Lord, I'm sorry, just take this away." We certainly don't see the big picture of how our suffering affects others or even us ourselves.  Or, if we try to figure it out, we fail miserably.

I tell my kids.  Sin always, always, always kills, hurts, or destroys.  Sometimes that sin hurts only us, and only mildly, but at other times sin affects us and those around us deeply.  It doesn't always need to be my sin that affects me.  The child whose mother chose to get pregnant at 16 is affected by that mother's choice for life.  The spouse whose husband or wife leaves them for someone else is affected deeply as well, even if the marriage was failing to begin with.  

The question I have for myself is, would I willingly choose to suffer if I knew it meant my family member, my coworker, my neighbor, or my friend would accept Christ?  That may not be too hard for you to say, "Certainly, if I knew someone would come to know Christ I would be willing to suffer", but getting closer to home I ask myself, "Would I be willing to lose my breast so that my family member, my coworker, my neighbor, or my friend would get right with God?"  I am not sure God is asking that of me right now, but I still must face the question of willingness.  Ultimately God wasn't asking Abraham to offer Isaac, He just wanted to know Abraham was willing.  Abraham's test wasn't in sacrificing Isaac, but rather in being willing to do that, and God took Abraham all the way to the last possible minute to test that willingness.  

It's definitely harder to say yes to that question when we know someone is a Christian.  We want God to judge them for their sins.  We don't expect or want Him to allow us to suffer for someone else's sins, but didn't Christ do just that?  Isn't He our example? How about you? How much are you willing to suffer so that someone else could know Christ or return to fellowship with Him?