The Christian life is like....bungee jumping.

I've been thinking a bit about suffering this week. Hopefully this won't be too disjointed.

We know, as Christians, that suffering will come. We are even called to take up our cross daily and follow Jesus. March to your death everyday? Carrying the thing that's going to kill you?
Pretty much.

I went bungee jumping once. I was 15 and we were on a family vacation in South Carolina.
I don't remember much about the actual flying through the air, but I remember vividly how I felt standing hundreds of feet above the ground and looking down.
Every cell in my body was in panic mode. Some part of my brain had decided jumping off a really tall ledge with some rubber bands around my groin was a good idea. But it hadn't managed to convince the rest of my body. The conflict was SO intense. My body was screaming,

"DON'T DO THIS! YOU'RE GOING TO DIE!"
It was completely seperate from my will, which was determined to jump off the ledge.

We all think of our minds as being the primary controlling agent behind the things we do, however, I can tell you that jumping off that ledge was *physically* difficult. The man said, "Go" and I just stood there. Finally after several seconds my will conquered, and I jumped. But it was so unnatural it almost didn't happen.

Enduring suffering is kind of like that. Every part of you is screaming to make it stop. and in some instances that's fine, there's a vast difference between self flagellation and accepting a bitter cup from God. I'm not recommending the former.
However, Job's choices were endure or curse God and die. I bet a lot of times dying looked like the easier thing, how he must've longed for a way to make it all stop. But he endured.
Jesus had an actual escape route. Ten thousand angels could fly to his rescue. How many of us would take God up on that offer during our trials? But Jesus didn't. He obeyed His Father.

I don't think enduring suffering is natural. Physical, emotional, or spiritual. Maybe Adam and Eve just weren't hardwired for it, a genetic defect, only exposed because of the fall.

If you burn your hand on the stove, you don't keep it there. It hurts, so you pull it away. If someone dislikes you and makes a point of letting you know, you do everything you can to avoid that person. If a situation is making you miserable, you rack your brains to figure out a solution that will end your suffering.

But Jesus calls us to love our enemies and to pray for them, not duck your head when you see them coming. Pray for and bless that jerkwad? Well, that's mortifying. Literally.
Sometimes Jesus actually calls us to accept and endure horrible circumstances, persecution, insults or abuse.
Sometimes there's no escape route without compromising your character or your faith. Disobey, curse God and die, or just endure.

It's completely unnatural and against every instinct you have, but sometimes God wants you to go THROUGH the fire and not around it. He wants you to jump OFF the ledge and not back down the ladder.

Jesus did it first, for our sake. So it only seems fair that we could do the same for Him. He even promises that the burden will be light. He took the heaviest part of it.

I submit, though, that it's extremely difficult...no-completely impossible to force yourself to jump over the metaphorical ledge....to patiently endure suffering rather than avoid it without the Holy Spirit's help. Otherwise our body AND will would most likely be in complete agreement to preserve ourselves.

Which is why I'm glad God promises to never hand out more than we can handle, and even if we still succumb to self preservation, He loves us the same.

Here's what you look like though when you die to self....er bungee jump.