A Common Struggle and Our Common Savior ~ Jane Jue

Jue Family My husband, Jeff, and I, along with our 3 children, have attended Springton Lake Church for almost five years. In the beginning we did not know that our church had the reputation for being “the friendly church,” but over the years we have come to experience it as so much more than just “friendly.”  For us it has exemplified the true body of Christ.  While no church on this side of glory is perfect, it has been a joy to be a part of this rich fellowship. I start with this as the beginning to my story because this “Common Threads” edition is about community and doing good for others. My family and I have been blessed to have received much good in our church community, and have had the privilege of doing good alongside others in this body of believers. For these things, and much more, we are grateful to God.

Born in Seoul, Korea to two physicians just out of their medical training, I moved to New York City with my parents and my older brother when I was one year old.  At that time there was a shortage of doctors in America, and my parents took the courageous step to start a new life in this country with the hope of using their specialized skills to serve people. There was also the added promise of better educational opportunities for their children. My entire childhood and young adult years were spent in the New York City area. This explains why I walk too fast, am slightly impatient, and I am perhaps a little more bold and to-the-point at times than I should be. I chalk it up to my New York upbringing. Thankfully, I think that the last 16 years in Pennsylvania (and the work of the Holy Spirit) has softened that edge in me. My immigrant parents worked hard to create opportunities for my brother and me in a foreign land away from all their family and support system. They ensured that I would also become a doctor by asking me from a young age, “What kind of doctor do you want to be when you grow up?”  It was the family trade, and I dutifully went off to medical school, knowing that being a doctor matched the empathetic heart that I knew the Lord had given me. But medical school and residency training were hard, to say the least. I felt as though I just escaped with my sanity and my marriage still intact. I struggled to not let the challenges of being a doctor eat away at my compassion for my patients. The demands of the work meant that I had very little time for anything else. And my perfectionist tendencies made a hard task almost impossible. I wrestled with not being the kind of caring doctor that I had envisioned.

So how did I regain my God-given gift of empathy?  I found that suffering in my own life has taught me much about empathy and compassion. Specifically, suffering in the hands of a loving God who has comforted and tenderly cared for me, and shown Himself faithful. Through seasons of illness and failures, family brokenness, challenges in raising children, difficult work environments -- to name just a few things -- I have not only been painfully and lovingly refined by God in many areas of needed sanctification, but I also have grown in my understanding of the pain and suffering of others. I am certain everyone can relate to some degree or another. I know that suffering is not unique to me, but is rather universal – a common struggle.

Suffering has a way of providing clarity in life – forcing us to pause, take stock, and seek the Lord. God has consistently met me in His Word and through prayer. And I, like many of you, have experienced a special depth of fellowship with Christ in suffering and sorrow. Knowing that He Himself experienced far worse anguish on my behalf, and truly understands the depths of my pain is of great comfort to me. Honestly, it is not the type of thing you really wish on others or yourself, but knowing that this special fellowship with Christ is there for us in our brokenness is pure treasure. It gives insight into James calling our trials pure joy (James 1:2-3).  It is also the paradoxical beauty for ashes (Isaiah 61:3), sowing in tears and reaping in joy (Psalm 126:5), and the transformation of mourning into dancing (Psalm 30:11). It is the hope of the resurrection of Jesus Christ bursting into my life when I am down for the count. It is Jesus calling me to arise (Mark 5:41), and because He is my Savior, I will indeed rise with Him. While this is all true, I admit it is not all glorious, and actually, more often than not, it is quite ugly, messy, and uncomfortable. Sin and suffering have consequences here that often leave scars that may not see full healing on this earth. Those taken from us will not return to us here, though we have comfort that we will be together again with those who are in Christ. We are carried by the hope of glory, that in the Presence of the Lord in a restored heaven and earth, that everything sad will become untrue.

It is because of the unfailing faithfulness of God’s deep care and comfort in our own lives, and the call for the perseverance of the saints that the Lord has enabled and compelled Jeff and me to move toward hard things and hard places in the lives of people around us. We find our inspiration in 2 Corinthians 1:4 as we look to the God “who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” Many at Springton Lake Church have modeled this well for us. Coming alongside people in their suffering is humbly walking with them, acknowledging the common struggle that we all have in this life. My struggle may not be the same as the next person’s, but with the Spirit’s help we lift each other’s burdens along the way. Beyond just our common struggle, we find comfort in our common Savior. Together we help each other look and see our common Savior – the One whose suffering and conquering of death gives us strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.  Together we seek to know His holiness, goodness and faithfulness in the present and cling to the promised hope of glory in the future.  It is easy to tire of doing good. Walking toward people in suffering can be hard, messy, heavy, and inconvenient. Yet this is what Christ did for us, and much more, and He carries us as we share each other’s burdens. It is a privilege to co-labor and spur one another on as we look ultimately to the Lord of the harvest and praise him for the good work He has already accomplished in Christ. Let us continue to love, serve, and do good, knowing He meets us in our time of need and often with the hands and feet of the body of Christ.

 

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