I was listening to my kids' cd of Bible verses turned into song tonight. These cd's have been such a place of renewal of childlike faith for me without all of my adult baggage. The song that struck me was from Romans 5. It speaks about our process of suffering and that it ultimately produces hope which won't put me to shame. As I was listening to the song, I was remembering this past weekend of the triathlon. I was remembering my brick workout from late this afternoon. Those felt like suffering; my history in sport has taught me it will bring endurance. I'm not afraid of that kind of suffering in fact I embrace it. I'm so thankful that the spiritual benefit of suffering produces so much more than a good showing at a race. It produces hope because, "...God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit." I long to embrace the spiritual suffering the same way I can the physcial.
"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Romans 5:1-5 ESV
