Untimed suffering

Everywhere I have looked lately has had sickness and death. From relatives of my volunteers at work dying to my dad's uncle passing away to my grandma being diagnosed with cancer to prominent members of the community dying.

Then of course there are the terrible stories of death and destruction in the news, especially the heart-wrenching stories of the 21 Christians being beheaded overseas by ISIS. It made me sick just reading about it.

That's what a sinful world brings about --- death and illness and destruction. What do we do in times like this?

We pray, we draw close to God and we ask for strength to deal with the circumstances around us in a way that we couldn't without our savior.

This winter, to stay in shape, we've been doing Insanity and just started T25. These workout programs are intense, but what is nice is there is a timer scrolling across the screen. With each exercise, I can see how much time I have to endure the struggle. When you know it's only 10 more seconds, it helps you deal with the pain and keep going.

Life isn't like Insanity and T25. You don't always know how long you will need to endure hardship and struggling. There isn't a timer under us showing us how much longer we have to keep going. However, we do know that suffering is only temporary.

Like at the end of a workout, when you see the results in your body and you feel good about what you did, Christians know that suffering will end with awesome results. We will be stronger mentally and spiritually, and we will have the greatest rewards of all in heaven.