Suffering (and the $20 Challenge)

Note: this blog entry was first published at the $20 Challenge blog for Terra Nova. To learn more go to www.my20dollarchallenge.com.

Rick McKinley writes an interesting chapter in his book "This Beautiful Mess" about suffering. The key point he makes (much more eloquently than I will in this short blog entry!) is that we Westerners spend most of our lives doing everything we can to avoid suffering. We even, without meaning to, consider ourselves somehow superior to those who suffer.

Even when an American Christian goes some place and suffers, they usually have speaking engagements, movie rights and book deals waiting for them when they return.

"The American church doesn't produce martyrs; we produce celebrities."

As I look at my life, this statement breaks my heart because most of my life I've secretly (or not so secretly) dreamed of being a celebrity, not a martyr.

Suffering is doing without, living in pain, being abused and overpowered. I have never purposefully put myself in a position where there is even the possibility of that happening. Yet many of my brothers and sisters around the world (and throughout history) were rarely in a situation that didn't involve suffering or the fear of suffering.

$20 may not seem like much right now, but to me, it is a starting point. It is the place where I take a stand and say that I will take the road that might involve suffering - sacrifice, energy, time, resources, pain. I will choose this road and make it mine. I see my $20 as a down payment on "the pearl of great price."