Suffering with Students
When students suffer, we suffer. Suffering is a value we hold high within the confines of student ministry. It’s not a pretty value like you typically see, but it is real; it is life. And it something we want our students and leaders to get as they process life in small groups and as a ministry. When one student suffers, we all suffer.
If we are to be the true church today, then the value of suffering with one another must be held high. Look to the life of Jesus- he suffered with people. Look at the disciples- they suffered with people. Why? Because that is humanity in its most raw sense.
The book of Lamentations is a book of suffering. It is a cry for help, an admission of a problem and plea of innocence. “Why?” is a common thread. Is that not true today? Today suffering is all over the place, and sometimes the reasons escape our knowledge and understanding.
The last thing we want to see is people suffer alone. If we are to be the church, a genuine family, then we must not allow suffering to be a lonely game of one. We must suffer alongside one another. It’s who we are.
