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Suffering - Why me?

I'm sitting having just finished a workout in the gym, one of my better ones of late (they've added games to the machines, and they have become a distraction recently). But, it still wasn't perfect. I can't seem to get my mind out of that precise moment in time when I'm on the rowing machine, or while I'm pumping weights, the fact that it hurts, and it's hard. My mind always seems to say 'you can just stop, you know'. I quite often look at the timer to see if I can justify getting off, but this usually starts around a minute. While I was rowing, I was thinking that if I could just think differently about the pain, it would transform my work out, and in turn my life. Sounds extreme doesn't it?

But it's true. If I was able to row for an hour, beating my own mind, changing the way I look at the pain, I would get fitter quicker, be healthier, and lose weight - a current goal of mine.

I've realised that this is true of life. And suffering. At this point I want to say that this isn't about mind control, or positive thinking, but changing our perspective. The way we look at things transforms the way we act (indeed this is true of our perception of ourselves - that deserves another blog). The more I look at the bible, the more I realise that the New Testament writers in particular have this view of suffering that is just damn right odd. They say things like, consider it pure joy when you suffer, and we hear stories of guys getting tortured, and coming out high fiving because of the experience. But our view of suffering is most often 'why me?'.

I want to go much deeper on this topic, suffering fascinates me, because I believe that unlocking and changing our understanding of it, will transform how we see ourselves, our lives, and indeed God.

For now I am going to try and picture a superhero body when I work out, and when I go through problems in life I am going to try and move from feeling sorry for myself, and instead try and grow in character, faithfulness, and patience, because I believe this is what God wants. If God's rescue plan involved someone suffering the worst possible death, then maybe there is something deep within suffering which we can learn from. And I think it starts with asking 'why me?' but differently than before. Instead of asking it looking inward, asking it looking upward (metaphorically speaking at least).

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