I joke about "suffering for Jesus" as I'm eating AMAZING Honduran food here, go jump off a waterfall, spend a day at the beach, see beautiful mountains, and enjoy lots of comfortable things like cable TV and hot showers.
But suffering is a consistent theme in my devotional life these past few months, both at College Park church before I left, and then consistently every week since I've been here in group devotions. Over the last few weeks, I've been reminded that suffering for Jesus takes many different forms, not necessarily the ones you would expect.
Suffering can mean saying no, for the sake of justice, to a kid who swears he doesn't have a box but really does.
Suffering can mean going to places that are remote, poor, and break your heart. Letting your heart break for the poor, and knowing that the small things you do are merely palliative measures, rather than hardening your heart or thinking you're fixing the world, that takes suffering. Yet done unto Jesus it is suffering for Him.
Battling loneliness as groups come and go is suffering. Leaving friends and family to go is suffering.
Giving up control of my own life, needing to run almost entirely on a schedule someone else dictates, that's suffering.
As we have continued to talk about suffering and I have had my definition expanded to include those simple heartaches these trips consist of, I pray that Jesus would continue to give me the strength to suffer for Him and persevere for the joy He holds up before me in the end.
