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What is God doing in our suffering?

Updated: Apr 1



At the bottom of every blog post is a Holy Pause Practice for you to print off and spend time with God. 


I am glad you are here! However today finds you, I’m sure you’re carrying something on your heart and mind. 


I am not sure what you carry inside each and every day, but here are some of the things I carry: 


I struggle.


I experience mountaintops.


I find joy in random places. 


I love when I encounter grace. 


I carry shame… on most days.


I struggle to forgive. 


I cry.


I don’t understand why certain things happen.


I grieve. 


I love deep conversations. 


I ask God, “Why?”


I struggle with unanswered questions.


I am just like you. Mountaintops and valleys. Let’s name it — we all suffer. But we don’t journey alone. We are in this thing called life together! I see you. He sees you. And He is with us every single step. 


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I grab my journal early every morning and write, “God, here I am. All of me. Every piece of me.” 


I take a minute to PAUSE and write how I feel. "Lord, I feel anxious. I feel hopeful too. I feel curious about this situation. I feel hurt over that comment. I feel joy when I look at the sunrise. I feel grateful for time family."


I spend the next several minutes in silence. Just being with God. I also allow Him to be with me. I imagine Him sitting with me in the room. Just like two friends sitting together. Listening is prayer, too. 


He invites us to “be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10 NIV)


It was once said that “silence was God’s first language.” Mother Teresa shares in A Simple Path, “I always begin my prayer in silence, for it is in the silence of the heart that God speaks. God is the friend of silence — we need to listen to God because it's not what we say but what He says to us and through us that matters.” 


I invite you to start practicing a little silence. I encourage you to take the next several days leading up to celebrating Christ’s resurrection and practice being still with God in the silence. 


The God I read about in the Bible, met people right where they were. 


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So much of our spiritual journey carries stories from our past. Stories we have told ourselves that might or might not be true. Narratives that play over and over in our mind and then affect our heart and soul. We have a “story within.” The story within tells a story that often we don’t take time to notice. 


Sometimes we don’t notice those stories until we pause and be still. He invites us to a different journey. He invites us to walk a different path. He invites us to be free! Remember, you are chosen and loved.


“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” (Colossians 3:12 NIV) 


Almost every single one of us has stories that carry pain, disappointment, and suffering. What is our tendency when we are in these moments? Run. Run as fast as you can because it hurts. It hurts deep. When we are hurting, the last thing we want to do is stay. Right? I wrote a blog post last year that must have resonated with many of you. The title was, “What is God doing in my waiting?” https://www.holypause.com/post/what-is-god-doing-in-my-waiting Take a minute to read it and share with someone.


Some of the hardest news for us to accept is that the Way of Jesus is the Way of the Cross. 


But the Way of the Cross is the way to the Light. Isaiah shares, “After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied” (Isaiah 53:11). The footnote says, “He will see the fruit of his suffering / and will be satisfied.”


Oh, what if we could see the fruit of our suffering?! What if we could see our suffering as a gift?


The story within often tells us to run. To hide. To avoid. To deny. There is something I am noticing about my story within. I get stuck there. I marinate on it. But I am slowly learning to allow myself to be open with God first. To name whatever it is I need to name. I can then become curious. I am learning to be curious about the story within rather than judgmental.


Jesus gave us a beautiful example of being honest before His Father when He decided to spend time with His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane before His death. The conversation was gut-wrenching, but I find something beautiful and freeing in the garden! Jesus didn’t hide His story within. This is a beautiful example of an honest relationship where our LORD and SAVIOR slowly opened His heart and soul to the plans God had for Him.


Let’s lean in for a minute… imagine yourself in the Garden with Jesus. (This happened in a garden — a place of beauty!) 


Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” 


Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”


He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 


So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.” Matthew 26:36-44 NIV


Jesus didn’t hide His struggles or His feelings. He didn’t hide anything actually. He didn’t hide the grief. He also showed us how to walk through grief, sadness, disappointments, and questions. He showed us how to live in them — by attending to them. He named them and allowed God to be with Him in it. He showed us how to go to the cross.



Consider the things going on in your heart and mind, or “the story within.” Is it time for you to go to your garden and pause? Or maybe it’s time to invite someone to walk with you. Is it time to name and allow God to meet you in the midst of your suffering? Is there something you need to surrender, and then ask God to show you the next step? Are you embracing who God says you are?


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I absolutely love the title that immediately precedes John 16:16 in the NIV, when Jesus is preparing His disciples for His coming death. It reads, “The Disciples’ Grief Will Turn to Joy.”


It takes time for our grief to turn to joy. Maybe longer than we would like. 


Where do we find joy in our suffering? “In Your presence there is fullness of joy.” (Psalm 16:11)


We see and experience His presence in the things He has created — in nature, people, and the Bible. We experience His presence when we feel love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, and self-control. Every day, we have the opportunity to seek His presence and experience the fullness of joy — and He also finds joy in you!


What brings you joy? Take a minute to think about it, and write down five things that bring you joy. Make some time to do one of those things this week. I find great joy in hiking. When I make time to go for a hike and enjoy all He created, I get to know Him more through what I see, and I am left in awe and wonder at all His creation! This brings me joy.


Have you ever met someone who is going through the most difficult circumstance you could ever imagine, and yet they somehow still have JOY? Someone shared a story recently about a lady going through the last stages of life. She had this contagious JOY that everyone noticed. Her doctor shared that he didn’t understand how she could have so much joy knowing she was dying. She shared that her joy was in Jesus and the HOPE of Heaven. This doctor wanted that kind of hope and joy, too, so he gave His heart to the Lord! Jesus turned her grief into joy and used it to change the world! 


She found her Joy in Him alone!!!


“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 NIV


Our peace is in Him — NOT our circumstances. I am learning this each day. This world WILL bring trouble, YET He has already overcome anything we will face. 

Oftentimes, we long for peace in all that is around us. Our relationships, our circumstances, our jobs, our churches. 

What if our joy is found in our suffering, too? What if we allow God to slowly turn it into joy? (This takes time and patience.) 


“The crucifixion and all that went with it was not a bump in the road on the way to fulfilling God’s plan, as if it were an obstacle to overcome. It was the way the plan would be fulfilled. That sorrow would turn into joy. God’s work was not to replace their sorrow with joy, but to turn sorrow into joy, as He often does in our lives. The sorrow would be directly connected to their coming joy, even as the sorrow of a woman in childbirth is directly connected to her joy that her child has been born into the world.” (Enduring Word Commentary)

Will we allow God to turn our grief into joy as we open ourselves more and more to Him?

I love this picture of Resurrection Sunday…



What do you notice about this picture? What are you drawn to notice?


The most important part of the resurrection story is the resurrection! Friday is not the end of the story. Saturday was silent. Sunday was coming. He defeated death — and because of His sacrifice, we will, too!


The morning the stone was rolled away — that morning changed our story forever. What if this could be our prayer?



Something unbelievable is happening as we go through our suffering. It is producing something in us that only suffering can produce. It is a gift to make and mold us into more of His image. 


“Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” Romans 5: 3-5. NIV



Love and hope is our story, and He is turning our suffering into something beautiful! He is the Prize worth waiting for! He is joy! 



Take a few minutes to Pause. Pray. Follow.

Pause to notice what is going on in and around you. Jesus is with you.

Spend a few minutes in silence. Maybe you want to grab your journal and write a few of your thoughts on paper.

Lord, I feel ______. Come just as you are. Maybe you want to go somewhere that brings you joy — your back porch, a garden, a nearby hiking trail. 

Spend a few minutes reading Jesus' words in the garden. Imagine yourself in the garden with Jesus. Read this verse of passage a few times. What resonates with you? Circle a word or phrase. Ask God to speak to you. 

“Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, 'My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” 


Four things I notice:

He paused to name His struggles and tell His Father.

He didn’t go through them alone.

He allowed God to be with Him right where He was. 

He surrendered. 


Which one might God be inviting you to? Invite God into a conversation. 


Pray and invite the Lord into a conversation.

Take a minute to pray the above prayer or maybe this is your prayer:

“Lord, not as I will but as you will.

Lord, not as I will but as you will.

Lord, not as I will but as you will.”


Follow and ask the Lord to help you go where He goes.

What do I want to name with the Father?

Do I feel alone? Do I need to share it with a friend?

How am I allowing God to be with me right where I am?

Where do I need to surrender? Where do I need to ask God to turn my suffering into joy?


Make time today to do something that brings you joy! He’s where the JOY is! 


Follow where He leads! Take the next step. He is with you!


Would you mind sharing this blog post with a friend if it has encouraged you?


OFFERING ONE-ON-ONE SPIRITUAL DIRECTION

Maybe your next step is one-on-one spiritual direction! It was one of the most transformative practices I began a few years ago! I would love to schedule a time to chat to share more about it if you aren't familiar. A trained companion (spiritual director) comes alongside of you to help you pause and notice God in our story and where He is working. We explore areas you might feel stuck or longing to discern. You begin to discover and walk more fully as the person God created you to be! Check out the video on what spiritual direction is https://www.holypause.com/learn-more.

Reach out if you want to schedule a time to chat! tracietack@gmail.com.


Finding beauty in the small things,

Tracie Tackett

Spiritual Companion

 
 
 

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