Embracing Suffering as Part of Our Calling: Submitting Our Circumstances to His Will

 “Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church” (Colossians 1:24, NIV). I am amazed every time I read this verse. How can anything be lacking in Christ’s afflictions? And how can we be worthy to contribute to His suffering in any way?

I am a family medicine physician three years out of residency seeking to rejoice in what I am suffering for the sake of His body. I live with my husband and our three young children, with a fourth on the way, in a Central Asian country run by a terrorist group very much in need of the gospel.

I was asked to write this article several months before we moved here. Fresh out of a 10-day security training, which included mock-captivity for three days, I felt prepared and knowledgeable about suffering and was excited to share my thoughts. Seven months into life in this challenging country, I’m feeling humbled and weak as I struggle to embrace my current suffering.

“Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking” (1 Peter 4:1a, ESV). My husband and I trained at a faith-based residency in Birmingham, Alabama. We were encouraged to live in our continuity clinic’s neighborhood so we might better understand our patients and “arm ourselves” for future service to the King in challenging places through “suffering in the flesh.” Gun violence and drug addiction were common. Their high frequency in our neighborhood painted a clear picture of the city’s ongoing struggle with racial injustice. Few lived in our neighborhood by choice. Most were driven there by poverty or remained there due to poverty.

We had hopes that proximity would allow us to use not only our “nine-to-five job” (well, in residency maybe it was “five-to-nine job”), but every hour of our day for the sake of the gospel. It was challenging and uncomfortable, but we did see fruit from this: close relationships with neighbors we served in the clinic, special opportunities to serve in the foster care system, personal sanctification and a rich community with the fellow believers around us. Sharing in Christ’s suffering in our neighborhood, and welcoming that suffering, was for the most part a joy.

As we waited to move overseas, we continued to seek to embrace suffering through living simply among the poor. We moved from the inner city to a refugee community of our target people group where we could begin language study.

“So don’t be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, or of me his prisoner. Instead, share in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God” (2 Timothy 1:8, CSB). Armed with some experiences of cross-cultural living and suffering in the U.S., we followed God’s calling on our life and moved overseas. It has been a gift and privilege to serve here, but we have been faced with new forms of suffering that I have found more challenging to accept. Due to security protocols and local expectations of how a foreign doctor’s life should appear, gone are our days of simple living close to the poor. Instead, we have faced significant isolation and loneliness. The like-minded community is small, and our people group focus is shared by few.

I am also experiencing, to an extent, the highly restricted life of local women. Driving a car is not allowed, and I am banned from parks and other community spaces. Speaking my mind in public, or even showing too much emotion, is frowned upon. I had hopes of working in medical education here, but currently medical schools are open only to male professors and students. A recent medical evacuation for our son also reminded us that we are raising children in a city with a potentially dangerous lack of safe and appropriate healthcare.

It is possible, however, that as we seek to embrace changes from our “preferred” to “non-preferred” forms of suffering, we are getting closer to what a life of true obedience to Christ looks like. Carrying our cross and losing our lives for His sake has certainly taken a heavier and deeper meaning since living here. In Matthew 26, Jesus asks three times for His cup of suffering to be taken from Him. Isn’t that often the place in which we find ourselves? I imagine suffering in a God-honoring way to be all smiles and joy. What a comfort it is to know that Jesus, fully human and fully God, wrestled with His suffering while perfectly embracing it.

I’ve pleaded numerous times—Lord, if I could only visit more locals in their homes…or begin meaningful medical work…or find a few more close friends…or see more clearly what you are doing here and why you want us here…. Perhaps for others it has been petitions for the healing of a loved one, an end to unemployment or the resolution of relationship strife. I praise God that He does not reject our honest, raw pleas, but welcomes them as our loving Father. “…if it is possible…Yet not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39, CSB). “…if it is not possible…may your will be done” (Matthew 26:42, NIV). In Christ’s life, and many times in ours as well, ultimately the cup is not taken and we need to submit to God’s will over our own preferences.

May we never relent in our honest pleas to the Father, or doubt that He is listening. Ultimately, though, may we submit our circumstances to His will.

Dr. K and her husband are both family physicians living and serving in Central Asia with their children. Their family has been called to go to difficult places to be a witness for Christ to people who have never heard the Good News.