Trading Shoes

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake  Colossians 1:24

For Your Sake – Paul understood the process of redemptive suffering.  Do you?

In this letter to the church at Colossae, Paul says that he is exuberant and joyful because he has been able to substitute himself in the place of others.  He volunteered to step into the shoes of those believers in Colossae and take punishment, grief, sorrow and injury on their behalf.  The exact Greek reading is huper humen (on behalf of you).  Paul literally says, “I stepped in and took on myself what was otherwise going to injure you.”  That is redemptive suffering.  That is the perfect portrayal of the role Jesus played.

We like to read this verse without the connection to agony.  We think that “for your sake” means nothing more than a comment on the emotional effort to get to Colossae.  We don’t want to contemplate the possibility that we are called to stand in the shoes of another when that will mean physical, emotional, mental and spiritual suffering for us.  We believe in the “everyone carries his own load” philosophy – until our load gets too heavy and we want someone to lift it from us.  But to volunteer to take on extra burden simply to make another’s life lighter?  No, let’s not go there.

So, we ignore the plight of the diseased.  We would rather buy diet pills.

We pretend we don’t know about the starving masses.  Just Supersize that, please.

We don’t volunteer to minister to inmates.  They got what they deserved.

We won’t cut back on our lifestyles in order to provide for the anonymous poor.  I earned it.  I can spend it as I wish.

We like our own shoes.  They fit.

Christians have no impact, and no place, in this world without substitute suffering.  It is a flat-out denial of the redemptive life of Jesus to think and act as though God’s plan is to better ourselves.  We are here for only one purpose – huper humen – for the sake of others.  If you really follow your Lord, you cannot avoid this path.  He came because you needed someone to take your place.  Now it’s your turn.

Today you will have an opportunity to choose redemptive suffering.  You will have a chance to deny yourself for the sake of someone else.  You will be prompted to take the place of another.  Today is your day to die to your desires and show compassion for another.  Today is the only day that Jesus will call you to His path of suffering.  What are you going to do about it?