by Pastor Douglas Brauner

What Gets You Out of Sorts?

“Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance…”
Romans 5:3 New International Version

Somewhere in the annuls of the Fountain Creek management system must be a history of this wheel that periodically allows water to run in a nearby canal. It must be an ugly history of misuse and ill-tempered workers. It might have contributed to its look as it stubbornly held fast when workers attempted to set the water free.

Yet it remains. Modern technology has not replaced it nor has another analog wheel. It simply does its job, and in doing its job, it shows character.

Suffering is a part of life that we cannot avoid. It often comes when we least expect it. But in the hands of our redeeming God, even suffering produces God’s work. The cross reminds us of the redemptive value of suffering, not ours, but Jesus’ suffering. Sometimes our suffering appears pointless, other than it points to the one who suffered on the cross for us. It is in Jesus’ cross that suffering works perseverance.

Copyright Family of Christ Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colordo