God Can Turn Misery into Ministry

I saw a message from a Facebook friend that troubled me.  The message didn’t give any specifics, but I knew that something bad had happened to Aaron (name changed).  Twenty years ago, he had taken his first full-time ministry position out of seminary at the church I served as pastor.  He was, to me, a little bit like a coworker and a little bit like an adopted child. 

I called him and learned that he had fallen victim to some terrible church politics and his fifteen-year ministry at a church he’d help to grow from the ground up had wrongly come to an end.  Needless to say, hearing about his struggle brought back some memories.  I had often asked God to take away some of those memories, or at least the pain they brought, but now I saw that I had an opportunity to do something far more faithful with what I had endured.  I couldn't remove those experiences from my heart and mind, but I could, in helping my friend, redeem them for God’s glory.  I told him…

I've walked in this valley you’re in and, if you’ll let me, I want to help you get through it.  I want you to know that this journey will be hard, as hard as anything you've ever done, but there is another side.  You can’t see it yet.  You might not believe it exists right now, but I can tell you there is another side and I want to walk with you until you get there. 

We all suffer, but not all of us become faithful stewards of our suffering.  If you and I will place our pain on the altar of service, then we can become a part of a helping healing miracle.  Paul described that miracle when he wrote…

(2 Corinthians 1:3-4) Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

When you are a faithful steward of your suffering, then God does a miraculous thing:  your greatest hurt becomes your greatest ministry.