Life sometimes feels like a constant cycle of hoping and hopes being deferred.
Waves of joy followed by heartbreak.
I wanted to be free of this turmoil. Free of pain and hurt.

So I set my heart to seek the Lord. I knew I needed more of Christ. I thought that if I knew Christ more, I would no longer feel the weight of burden and suffering. I thought if every fiber of my being was fully transformed into the likeness of Christ, I would be so full of peace and joy that I would no longer experience angst or heartbreak.

But as I sought the Lord, I realized that to know Christ is not to be lifted out of suffering. Rather to know Christ is to know suffering. He was rejected, spit on, tortured, and shamed. And He was not unaffected by this. He was in anguish, sweating drops of blood in the garden before he was arrested. He was perfectly in union with the Father, yet still experienced the pain of this world. To be holy and spiritual, therefore, does not mean that we are immune from experiencing the anguish that comes from loss, pain, rejection, hurt, and evil.  If anything, it means we are intimately acquainted with it, just like Christ was.  He willingly faced all evil and demonic spiritual forces out of love for those killing Him.  Jesus, “for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising shame, is now seated at the right hand of the Father.” (Hebrews 12:2)

Knowing Christ means being with Him in this; dying with Him that we may also live in Him (2 Timothy 2:11). We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body (2 Corinthians 4:10).

We love like He did, and therefore also hurt like He does.
We give of ourselves, even when it is not returned. We face rejection. We face shame.

But we do all with Him. We endure with Him. We participate in His sufferings for the joy set before us. For just as He rose, so also shall we.

Just as God would not let His Holy One [Jesus] see decay (Psalm 16:10), so He also will not let any of those who hope in Him be put to shame (Psalm 25:3). His eyes are on those who fear Him and hope in His merciful love (Psalm 33:18).