…and the fellowship of sharing in his suffering,” Philippians 3:10

I’ve heard stories recently of Chinese believers who go to prison in order to share their faith with the inmates there. I don’t know for certain, but I’m pretty sure there is a lot of suffering and misery in many of the world’s prisons. And yet, there are those who would deny themselves to the point of pain and suffering in order to witness for Jesus.

That is completely foreign to my Western mindset. And obviously it’s totally foreign to our Western feel-good, no pain society.

My point is not to deride the West for its comfortable way of life. I want to do better. We “pride” ourselves at being the best in the world in most everything. Suffering, though, is a tough one. Is it possible that we could be the best at that too?

What would it take to be the best at suffering? Perhaps we just need someone to tell us we can’t do it. In books I’ve read, many of our Chinese brethren have already said that.

The ball is in our court…