Thursday Read: The Fellowship of Suffering
Paul wrote about "the fellowship of sharing in [Christ's] sufferings" (Philippians 3:10). This is strange language - fellowship usually means community, shared meals, common life together. But Paul describes suffering as something that creates fellowship, a shared experience that connects people in deep ways. He wrote to the Corinthians: "The God of all comfort, 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" (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).
Notice the pattern: God comforts you in your affliction so you can comfort others in theirs. Your suffering isn't random or purposeless - it's preparation for ministry. The comfort you receive isn't just for your healing - it's for someone else's future need. You don't suffer alone and you don't heal alone. Your pain connects you to others who have suffered similarly and positions you to help others who will suffer in the future.
This is why people who've never struggled with addiction can't help addicts the way recovering addicts can. Why people who've never experienced depression can't comfort the depressed the way those who've walked through it can. Why those who've never lost a child can't sit with grieving parents the way bereaved parents can. Shared suffering creates credibility that no amount of sympathy can match.
When someone who's never been divorced tells you marriage struggles get better, you appreciate the encouragement but question their understanding. When someone who's weathered divorce and found healing tells you the same thing, you believe them. They've been where you are. They know what you're feeling. Their comfort carries weight because it comes from fellowship with your suffering.
This doesn't mean your suffering is good or that God causes pain to create future ministers. But it does mean God wastes nothing - even your worst experiences can become your most effective ministry. The addiction you overcame prepares you to help others fight the same battle. The depression you survived equips you to sit with others in darkness. The betrayal you endured makes you trustworthy to those newly betrayed. Your scars become your credentials.
February 12th, 2026 is Lincoln's birthday (he was born February 12, 1809). Lincoln suffered from what he called "melancholy" - what we'd recognize as clinical depression. He experienced deep darkness throughout his life, including periods where friends worried he might harm himself. Yet this suffering gave him capacity for empathy that shaped his leadership during America's bloodiest crisis. He could sit with national grief because he knew personal grief. His suffering prepared him for a specific calling.
What suffering have you experienced that might prepare you to comfort others? What pain have you survived that someone else is currently facing? What darkness have you walked through that someone needs to know doesn't last forever? Your suffering wasn't wasted - it was fellowship with Christ's suffering and preparation for fellowship with others who suffer.
You don't have to be completely healed to comfort others. Sometimes the best ministry comes from wounded healers who are still limping but moving forward. You don't need all the answers to sit with someone in their questions. You don't need to have overcome completely to encourage someone who's just starting. You just need to have received comfort from God that you can now share with someone who desperately needs it.
