good news?

It’s conventional wisdom that when it comes to trials, God only gives us as much as we can handle. If that’s the case, I’m a spiritual pygmy. Today at a meeting of Asian American pastors, I prayed with 2 other pastors. One has had to leave the pastorate to tend to his wife’s physical needs. She has a heart condition that caused a massive heart attack a few years ago resulting in some brain damage. She’s lost some memory and is greatly weakened. The other’s wife was diagnosed with breast cancer a year ago, and then more recently was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Both of these friends are experiencing a level of suffering that I can hardly imagine.

In his second letter to Timothy, Paul invites Timothy to “join with me in suffering for the gospel” (1:8). It’s a very odd phrase to repeat in the ears of a contemporary American Christian. Is the gospel worth suffering for? That’s not the way we market the gospel these days. If the gospel is “good news”, why would we suffer for it? Unless Paul’s (and God’s) notion of good news is different from ours.

I haven’t suffered much. I get prayer letters from a friend who works in a country that severely limits religious freedom. He regularly writes of Christian leaders in his city who have been imprisoned and beaten. Is the gospel worth it?

When I visited Thailand a few years ago, we were taken to a Buddhist temple that sat on many acres of land. Included was a compound of residences for people with HIV. The Buddhist monks didn’t know what to do for them, so they let Christians come and help. By serving their physical needs, the Christians had converted pretty much every resident in the compound. I’ll never forget one woman who was there as a result of her husband’s sexual promiscuity. She told us that she was glad that she had contracted HIV because now she knew Jesus. Is this the same Jesus that I know? Is this the good news that I preach?

I don’t have an easy answers for these questions. Like I said, I feel like a spiritual pygmy when it comes to suffering. Anything that I say seems too trite or cliché, mostly because it is. I’m not asking for suffering. But it makes me wonder about all my prayers that are specifically requests to avoid suffering. Am I missing out on something?