Suffering

From my time in Venezuela I've learned a lot not only about its culture, but of mine as well. Seeing the cultural differences, even the most miniscule in daily life, has allowed me to have a greater appreciation of the US. It has also allowed me to be a little more objective. There is something that God has been putting on my heart ever since I've been here, something to share with US churches and Christians. The issue I want to talk about is faith and suffering. One of the biggest differences that can be seen in Venezuelan culture, in Venezuelan churches, is their genuine faith. Its something that can be noticed from visiting a single church service. Its something that can be noticed from a week-long missions trip and it is something that continues to be confirmed months after living here. Their faith is real and they live it out in their daily lives. I've always wondered why the images of faith in Venezuela were so much stronger than in the US, and then I realized that the key to their faith was suffering. They understand suffering and handle it so much better than we do.

It was then that I realized that we have a problem here in America. We are so preoccupied with comfort and security. We dream of surburbia, big houses, safety, great jobs, and retirement. Let's get down to the point, we are so preoccupied with the things of this world that it blinds us from the valuable lessons we can learn from suffering. We do everything we can to prevent suffering from ever happening. We live in our safe bubbles that we construct ourselves, and live in neighborhoods with people who look and act like us. The majority of our friends and social circles are Christian and contact with anything outside of that which we know would be considered too risky. And what has become of this? Our faith is not developing.

I know this from my own personal struggle. I know that my faith before coming to Venezuela was nowhere as strong as it is now. Being in Venezuela I am apart from anything and everything that I have ever put my confidence and identity in other than God. In other words, I have learned slowly and painfully to let go of those parts of me that did not look like God. I had let go of all of my false idols. Learning how to die; that's what it takes to look more like Christ. Mark 8:34 says, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." In John Piper's "Let the Nations be Glad," Piper claims: Many of us have pictured the cross as a mere burden. Something that Jesus carried up a hill. However, this is not what the verse means...the cross was so much more than just a burden. It was an instrument of pain and execution. In modern day terms the verse would mean something like this: Pick up your electric chair and follow me", or "Pick up the sword and carry it to the place of the beheading." If we are to follow Jesus, If we are Christ's followers, then we must be ready to take up our cross. Suffering is not a strange, horrible thing to be avoided - its part of a Christian's life. If you don't believe me pick up the New Testament and take a good, hard look at it. 1 Peter 4:1 says "Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same thought." The suffering and hardships we go through in life are like fire that purifies gold --- its what Jesus uses to mold us and shape us to become more holy; to look more like him. We learn not to depend on this world, not on ourselves, or anyone else for that matter. We learn to depend solely on God, our Father alone.

The first time I saw genuine faith...I mean faith so real that it was pouring out of a person was when I met Wilmer. I had arrived in Venezuela for the second time and spent my first Sunday at my now husband's church. Before leaving, he told me of a story of a guy from his church who's car was torched and robbed while he was at an overnight prayer vigil at church. When we arrived all you could see was the charred remains of what was once the frame of his car. I was shocked of course, I mean what says "Hello you're not in Kansas anymore" like seeing a torched car frame outside of a church building. Can you imagine that happening at your home church? During the service, our Pastor mentioned a few words about what had happened and it was then that I learned that Wilmer was a taxi driver. So, not only did he lose his car the night before; he also lost his job, his sole income for supporting his family. Wilmer has a wife and four children living at home. All of sudden, Pastor introduced Wilmer and invited him onstage. I was just amazed that he even showed up for church after all that occurred. What happened next just took my breath away. Wilmer with all of his strength, might, love, no sense of resentment, in complete and pure faith - Wilmer belted out a beautiful worship song to the Lord and the whole church erupted in song following him. Tears were flowing down everyone's eyes. It was an incredible moment. One that I will never forget. How many of you would do that after losing your only car and job the night before, not because you did something wrong, but because it was stolen from you?

On that trip I got to know Wilmer and his stepdaughter Milagros even more. When I came back to the US, I soon found out that they had found deadly cancerous tumors in Wilmer's organs. Things went from bad to worse for Wilmer and they didn't get any better. Wilmer has spent over a year going from hospital to hospital, doctor to doctor, each one giving him different dates for how long he was to live. His family doing what little they could to survive without their father's paycheck.

That December I came back to Venezuela and I saw Wilmer again, this time with a bandage around his head covering surgery that he had to explore tumors that were present near his brain. Wilmer still strong in his faith as ever, was up on stage during the service singing worship songs and encouraging everyone at church.

A year later, Wilmer's health continues to go downhill and doctors have been giving him days left to live. They keep resetting the deadlines as he continues to live past them. I recently visited Wilmer at home, he is now bedridden. He can hardly move or talk. However, even in those conditions Wilmer was the same. He had his worship music playing in the background, and while my husband and I went there to encourage him; he ended up encouraging us. He used what little words he could to encourage us to reach the nations and to break the paradigms in our churches today. Then he said something that just broke my heart, he said with tears in his eyes and such emotion in his soul, "I just pray everyday that God will use me, that he will use little me here in this bed - I can't move - I'm here, but I just pray that God will use me where I am to speak of his glory." Because of Wilmer's faith, his story will live on - God's glory will be seen it has impacted our church and every individual in it. Wilmer's faith is being reproduced as inspiration for all of us. I know for certain that I will carry Wilmer with me wherever I go in this world! I encourage all of you to live your lives like Wilmer....leave this world with no regrets!

"God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. And the supremacy of that glory shines most brightly when the satisfaction that we have in Him endures in spite of suffering and pain in the mission of love." - John Piper

"Now we hope for the blessings God has for his children. These blessings, which cannot be destroyed or be spoiled or lose their beauty, are kept in heaven for you. God's power protects you through your faith until salvation is shown to you at the end of time. This makes you very happy, even though now for a short time different kinds of troubles may make you sad. These troubles come to prove that your faith is pure. This purity of faith is worth more than gold, which can be proved to be pure by fire but will ruin. But the purity of your faith will bring you praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is shown to you." - 1 Peter 1: 4-7