The Cross - Jesus Carries Your Suffering

W ritten by r obyn H atting H I have spent many years grappling with why we suffer. People had tried explaining the concept to me, I have watched video after video of pastors and apologists explaining suffering and I spent time reading the various scriptures covering suffering. None of these avenues were settling the matter in my heart. I was angry for a large portion of my young adult years. When you experience trauma as a young child, there are wounds that eventually form hard, thick scars if not dealt with correctly. Thick scars that constantly remind you of your suffering and cause pain in certain conditions. It is only through God, and at times, outside help, that these scars can correctly heal. Instead of accepting situations and these childhood experiences, I was questioning them as I realised it was morally wrong and the answers I was getting weren’t making sense. I I had gone through experiences that had left me broken and had caused me to act in ways that left me ashamed. This broke me in ways I didn’t know how to heal from and I didn’t understand how a loving God had allowed them to happen. I blamed Him for what had happened and for not healing me enough to allow me to act in ways that were true to myself. I had to reach a point where I had no choice but to come before God, broken and in dire need of His truth and revelation in my life, in my brokenness and in my questions. I’m not bashing the other avenues I had tried, they definitely helped me. But God had to work in my heart before truth could sink in. The moment God breathed His truth and life into my brokenness and questions, that’s the moment I started to experience joy like I had never before. I saw Him in the moments where I was at my lowest. I saw Him in the words of encouragement from friends. I saw Him in the gentle whispers, the questions and the stirrings of my heart. I knew that despite the sin and brokenness in the world, He was good in it all. He had a plan despite it. He cried when I cried out in pain, His heart broke alongside mine and He felt the heaviness of my burdens. And He carried that heaviness

onto the cross with Him. He set me free. His blood covered me and would bring the freedom, peace and healing that I so desperately wanted and needed. The healing was painful. The restoration process took time, tears and inner turmoil. But it was GOOD. It didn’t make the suffering disappear or any less difficult, but it made it bearable and it helped me understand why suffering exists. It helped me realise that broken people, break people. I saw how suffering was as a result of free will, choosing sin and allowing it to corrupt our hearts – and the nasty ripple effects and consequences thereof. Now when I think back to those hard moments, my heart breaks for the suffering I had to endure at the hands of others. But I experience such joy at the work God has done in me and through me since then – and the restoration He did in my life. When I experience hardship now, I remember the previous suffering and turn to God immediately. I ask Him to help me carry my burden. It’s not easy, and sometimes it takes a while, but through it, I see Him working in and around me and my heart is again filled with His joy and love. Today I’d like to encourage you to earnestly seek God in your suffering. Whatever you’re going through, Jesus carried that burden and pain onto the cross with Him. He experienced the entirety of what you’re going through. And at the end of it all, He said “It is finished” and sin lost its victory over us. He reigned victorious then, and He reigns victorious now in and through your life. Allow Him into the broken, painful parts. Allow yourself to experience joy - His joy - and let it carry you through so that you may feast from the table He has prepared for you despite the shadow of death (Psalm 23).

“My beloved spoke, and said to me: “Rise up, my love, my fair one, And come away. For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over andgone. The flowers appear on the earth; The time of singing has come, And the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. […] Rise up, my love, my fair one, And come away!” (Song of Solomon 8:10-13)