Leaning into God in Hardship and Suffering

 Recently Fuzzy and I have been invited to teach at multiple gatherings, one about Trauma and Healing and one about Leaning into God in Hardship and Suffering.  We love any opportunity to encourage the Body of Christ and prayerfully agreed to teach at both events. Over the past year, we have been exploring different online classes, teachings, and seminars to learn more about Psychology, Mental Health, Trauma, and Member Care for Field Workers. We know that this job we do can be very stressful and lonely. We both have had different experiences with how we have handled stress and trauma on the field in the past, both in healthy and not-so-healthy ways, and we both have benefited from having gone through a debrief of these events. We would love to make ourselves available to debrief other workers. Not only that, we know that living in the Horn of Africa, we will be building relationships with locals who come from war-torn areas and have suffered greatly at the hands of their families or their government. While shocking to some of us from the west, their trauma is a common occurrence here and part of daily life, but still can have lasting effects on their mental, emotional, and spiritual health.

I know that I have suffered very little for the Gospel at this point in my life. I have made sacrifices, yes, but that is not the same as the suffering that Scripture talks about. In preparing for all of these teachings, I have had the joy of digging into the Word and understanding Christ's suffering on our behalf. I have been able to see and understand the suffering that Paul faced in order to grow the church. With goals and desires to grow the Kingdom of God in the Horn of Africa, I know that Fuzzy and I will likely face great suffering.  Having the opportunity to teach about how to lean into God in hardship and suffering, not only have I been able to teach others ways in which to do this, but I also have had to learn how and can be prepared on a heart level for the times of suffering and hardship we may face in the future. I am just amazed at how kind our Father is to prepare our hearts for what is to come.

How have you learned to lean into God in the hardships in your life?