My pregnant wife had never been heavier.

But when she stepped off the scale after a recent weigh-in, curiously she didn’t collapse in a ball of distress, rather she remarked, “Wow, now I know what many of my patients go through.”

As a nurse, the average weight of a patient at her hospital is 274 pounds. That means most are experiencing difficulties walking, sitting down, getting up, and catching their breath - all things that pregnant women suffer through. And now that she had put on a few pounds, my wife better understood the plight of her patients.

Empathy.

This is just one way suffering can make us better.

If you’re like me, when Jesus calls his disciples to deny themselves, to lose their lives, and to follow his example of suffering, it can seem like a real buzz-kill. After all, we like our comfort, convenience, and freedom. 

But what if denying ourselves was actually good for us? 

I think that, deep inside, we all know that’s true. And not just because we can become more empathetic, but because we can become more resilient, and we can become more like the ‘Suffering Servant’ whom we have dedicated our lives to follow.

I think Jesus calls us not just to suffer, but to change our attitudes about suffering. What we discover is that often times it’s not as bad for us as we suspect, but suffering is something God uses to better ourselves and the world. Count it all joy, therefore, when you suffer, God is at work.