As most of you probably know, I majored in English in college. English was always my favorite subject in school, and I have been passionate about reading and writing since I was a little girl. There was really just no other path that I could pursue: it just made sense. It was me.
And wow, did I love it. Even now, I miss it. I miss writing literary analyses and getting feedback on my writing from professors. I miss classroom discussions about books, plays, short stories, articles, or poems we had read the night before. I just miss it all. Because of that, I was thinking about my days as an English major at the University of Tennessee, and I remembered something one of my professors said that God used to show me something about the Christian life.
One day in class, my professor was talking about Shakespearean tragedy, and he said something along the lines of, "The suffering causes us to gain knowledge."
Clearly, he was not talking in a Christian context in anyway, but as soon as he said it, I instantly thought about how it fit right in with what we as followers of Jesus know about suffering.
At the time, I would've said that the most difficult times of my life were where I had learned the most about the Lord and grown closer to Him, and that would've been a true statement. However, I would have had no idea of the pandemic coming just the next semester and losing my papaw a little over a year later. I would have no idea of the journey the Lord would have to take me on after that. I would have no idea what knowledge of the Lord that suffering would bring me.
God used that time to teach me that I don't have to understand what He's doing in my life or in the lives of those around me, and a lot of times, I probably never will. He tells us in His Word, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding" (Proverbs 3:5). I don't have to understand what God is doing because I know who God is.
I know He is good, He is love, He is light. I know He works all things together for my good. I know He holds my future. I know He knows the plans He has for me. Knowing God is enough.
Losing my papaw to the very same virus I spent months praying for him to be protected from was difficult to understand, but I don't need to. In my suffering, I gained knowledge. I came to know that it's okay to not know why God allows something to happen. He doesn't owe us an explanation. He's already told us who He is, and that is more than enough.
So, I don't know where you are in your life right now, but I believe that if you have a relationship with God, He is with you right where you are, that He is conforming you more into the image of His Son, that He is bringing you knowledge of His character, that He is calling you deeper into the waves with Him.
I hope this post encourages you today to know that if you are suffering, your suffering is going to help you gain knowledge, knowledge of Him.
"But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you" (1 Peter 5:10).
"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory with shall be revealed in us" (Romans 8:18).
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