Anyone want to find community through suffering?! Um… no thanks. But, if we’re honest with our selves… don’t we all suffer? Sure, some suffering is much more obvious to the outside world… divorce, cancer, the death of a loved one. Suffering can also be found in the not-so-obvious… the husband who is worried he won’t be able to provide for his family, the child who doesn’t feel like they “fit” in, the teenager who can’t find one loyal friend. Suffering. It’s there. It’s all around us. We can’t escape it, so why don’t we help each other out. Why don’t we make communities of suffering? (Stay with me, I’ll come back to this idea.)
Of course we can always count on Jesus to model this in a perfect way for us. The Bible tells us that Jesus was often times “moved with compassion” (see Matthew 9:36 for one example). Do you know what the word compassion means? {Me neither, thank you Ann Voskamp!} If you break down the word compassion, com means “together”, while pati means “to suffer”. You only have compassion where you are willing to suffer together—to co-suffer. Isn’t that what Jesus did (and does) for us? While He was on earth, He found the ones who were suffering to bring them healing. He took on our suffering by dying on the cross. He continues to step into our suffering today to remind us of the hope we have in the resurrection of Christ. While it can be down-right scary to share in the suffering of another, it is also “profoundly purifying, sanctifying, God-glorifying, soul-unifying, and ultimately, life-satisfying” (Voskamp, The Broken Way).
So back to the idea of creating a community of suffering… the Beloved Leadership team is very quick to let you know that we have no clue what we are doing. We are simply trying to follow God while He leads the way before us (we often feel like He is sprinting and we are just desperately trying to keep up!) But after three years, I can see it. What He has created for the women of Beloved Ministries. He has created a community based on suffering.
This is why when you walk into the room on a Tuesday night of Beloved, you will see women of all ages, races, socio-economic status, and cultures. How does it work? Because each woman in the room understands to an extent what the woman to the right and left is going through. Through our struggles, we bond. Through our struggles, we find community unlike any other. Let’s not give up on suffering together—to be real, to show where we are hurt… for that’s what brings about the most beautiful community. A community that offers hope and healing; a community that looks like Jesus.
