For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.
1 Peter 2:19,20
We love the internet. It brings the world to our fingertips. It connects us with people, places, and ideas from everywhere and brings them right to wherever we are. I working on a daily basis with a guy named Mo and he’s in the Punjab province of Pakistan. We chat and send emails and videos to one another every day. We’ve become close friends to the point that he thinks of me as part of his family.
Shopping has also gone global through the internet. Mary Ann was looking for some fabric to make purses for young women in Africa. Living here in Lake Wales, Florida, the only fabric store is Walmart. And for anyone who knows anything about fabric stores, you know that their selection is really small. Hardly anything to look through.
So, to find some fabric for this noble cause, she turned to the internet. The good news is that she found a website that had lots of beautiful fabric to choose from. And the really good news was that it wasn’t expensive.
After putting in her order, she asked me to look it over. Everything looked great and I was just about to hit the order button when I just happened to think about delivery times. So, I looked up the company and found out that it was on the other side of the planet! This can make for some very long delivery times. Mary Ann said this was fine so we ordered it.
This is what technology can do. Yes, there’s a ton of bad people and things on the internet. It’s been used for evil and has hurt many. But it can also be used for good. To help many all around the world.
But there is one great big hole that this marvelous technology cannot fill. It can answer many questions, but they are all tied to the what questions of life. What is the size of Texas? What is the history of Great Britin? You can convert measurements and learn new recipes, but it can’t tell you why someone like it.
Why is the bigger question than the what. Why is the question to what’s behind something. This is especially true when it comes to people and their decisions. Why did they do that? Why did they say that? Why are they so angry?
Peter explores and explains the why question behind the idea of enduring pain, stress, and suffering. But more than just suffering, Peter says there is a reason and motivation to endure unjust suffering.
Suffering that we deserve is one thing. We did or said something and now we’re paying the price. It’s time to “pay the piper” and go through the painful consequences of life for what we did.
But unjust suffering is something altogether different. We didn’t do anything wrong. We didn’t ruin our mom’s favorite piece of Tupperware®. We didn’t spray Coca-Cola all over the living room ceiling after shaking the bottle up. We didn’t ruin a fishing reel by turning the fishing line into a bird’s nest. These, and many other things I did certainly deserved the immediate consequences that came flying my way.
These people were suffering for sure, but they didn’t do anything wrong. They were being treated unfairly because their boss was abusive. The fault was with someone else. It was someone else’s problem, but they were paying the price for it.
God wanted them to respond not with words, but with something more powerful. It is God’s will that they do good and endure it. Not to lash out. Not to scream and yell. Not to post negative reviews on social media. Not to start rumors about them. Just the opposite. We’re to do good for the people that hurt us. That speak evil about us. That do things that ruin our reputations.
And this brings us to the why question. Why in the world should we do this when everything inside of us is screaming to kick them. To take them down. To hurt them worse than they hurt us.
The why is because it’s commendable before God. It brings praise and honor to God. We will please the one who loves us. We are willing to do anything that makes the one we love happy. It points out God for the whole world to see. People don’t pay attention to “an eye for an eye” but it will stop them in their track when we do something nice for the person who hurt us or our family. It makes everyone as why we’re doing it.
Now this is something that the world will sit up and take notice of. This will get everyone’s attention. Think about Mother Theresa. She didn’t have a website. She wasn’t on any social media platforms. I don’t think she had a cell phone. But she helped the poor and anyone who came to her.
Why? Because “Prayer in action is love, and love in action is service.” To Mother Theresa, these weren’t just words in a text, but a living, breathing, powerful motivation that energized her each and every day. It’s time to not just ask the question of the why behind our choices and actions, but to answer it. Bring it to God. Ask his forgiveness and look to him for the why of our lives.
Noodling Questions
What’s your reaction to anything unjust that comes into your life? Describe
How do we avoid suffering in our daily lives? Give examples.
Why won’t we face the real reasons for our anger and frustration?
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