You’re tough enough when it’s rough to show your stuff

Photo by Lauren Richmond on Unsplash

In suffering you need to be alert to the beauty in life.

— Jordan B. Peterson

There is something worse, far worse, than suffering and that something is the place of hell.

Hell is the place of utter chaos. We court hell when our lives are overwhelmed in the confusion of suffering, but hell is not a place we are directed to go to. On the contrary, suffering is just as likely to open the door to heaven, but we hardly think that is a possibility.

One of the things I discovered in my foundational grief — in the minutes and moments and months upon months of bearing something close to hell — was that my sense for beauty and goodness was also nourished.

Somehow, as I journeyed with God, even though for the largest part He seemed absent at the time, His Spirit reminded me as I looked back of the beauty and goodness in life, especially in other people’s suffering. My compassion was being nurtured. And my heart to connect with people’s suffering was being enlarged.

Suffering did not just take away from my life,
it added qualities into my life.

Somehow, I learned to trust that when things are rough I was tough enough to show my stuff.

In fact, I seem to be more easily encouraged, because I knew I needed courage.

I craved situations that would bring new life. And even after seeing this work once, I believed it could work again and again. So, even in suffering, and especially in grief, there is a need for courage, and when we need courage we are drawn toward being in situations where we can be encouraged.

These principles I talk about, here, are sound scientifically proven principles in the field of psychology, and still, thousands of years before that God spoke on these matters.

We must separate two concepts that seem to be joined.

These two concepts are the concepts of suffering and of hell. Both seem to be faced at the same time, hell within suffering, and suffering that produces hell. But if we separate these two destinations of being, we enlist hope as we recognise and run from hell into the arms of grace.

We must separate hell from suffering.

We do this in a simple action of finding beauty in life, which is to think courageously, and to be prepared to be vulnerable to be brave to be encouraged.

We will only go to hell if we submit to the idea. If we submit to the devil and willingly do his work. I don’t know many people who would be happy doing that. But there are many who don’t realise they are doing just that when they give up or when they decide to become satisfied in resentment.

If the idea of hell scares us
it will motivate us
to bear our suffering with God.

Why is it that some people prosper through their suffering, while others seem to remain perplexed?

Perhaps the only difference between the person who prospers and the person who remains perplexed is what their attitude settles for. Suffering is an invitation to maybe the biggest purpose we’ve ever had in our lives. To overcome it is our goal. And anyone who has such a goal, who fears being swallowed by their grief, will endeavour to improve on their life, simply to make their life more sustainable.

While we suffer we are not compelled to stay in or even enter hell, though there may still be many moments that feel like hell. When we resist hell and find that God is on our side to the point of investing in on our purpose, we find we can avoid or overcome hell.