http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheForgottenWays/~3/191947180/
In our reflection today, Debs and I read 1 Peter 1
which has so much to say about the connection between suffering and sanctification. The mystery of joy, of being saved, in the midst of sometimes severe suffering is surely the mark of a saint. But on reflecting on how many people we know who have given up the faith because of their inability (or unwillingness) to integrate redemptive suffering into their lives, we noticed another thing; namely that the more holy we become the more we will suffer. This is so because holiness conforms us to the nature of God, and in a fallen and as yet unredeemed world, that puts us at odds, not only with ourselves in some way, but also with our contexts. Because of this, God’s redeeming and sanctifying actions in our lives are experienced as a form of burning, of being purged, or as T.S.Elliot says below, we are “…redeemed from fire by fire.”
