Having spent the majority of his medical career serving disenfranchised communities in India, the doctor Paul Brand made this striking observation after his return to the United States: "Patients [in the U.S.] lived at a greater comfort level than any I had previously treated, but they seemed far less equipped to handle suffering and far more traumatized by it.” This statement is not meant to shame or insult in any way, but it does carry a very important observation: the lens through which we view life will give us either stronger or weaker resources for navigating the realities of heartache, disappointment, suffering and injustice. Yet, as we'll see from 1 Peter 4:12-19, in a cultural moment that offers relatively shallow resources for navigating suffering, the way of Jesus gives us strong resources to hopefully endure the real pain of suffering as we frame it in light of the true story of fall and redemption, see in it the purifying purposes of God, and experience in it the mysterious, suffering love of Jesus.
