“Love Suffers Long” 1Corinthians 13:4a the more I ponder this the better I like it, not to say it doesn’t hurt but it does bring life and it brings a lot of it.

The more I Love ‘OLD RED’ my 1995 Dodge Dakota the longer I am willing to suffer with it’s brokenness, true or false? That mechanic that brought your car back to you saying it was fixed and as you drove out the oil all drained out and seized your engine would infuriate me unless perhaps that mechanic was my daughter. That waiter that just messed up your order and dropped your eggs on the table and the coffee in your lap would cause you to get furious and leave unhappy, unless perhaps, it was your best friends son.

My daughter Mariah gave me  Ann Voskamp’s amazing book “The Broken Way” for Father’s Day. In that book, Ann shares the understanding that the word patient and the word passion have the same root from the Greek word “pati”, which mean “to Suffer“. I immediately grabbed my tablet and looked it up in the dictionary which Websters even shares that the suffering aspect of the definition is “obsolete”, I laughed out loud!! This insight connected so many dots for me and the more I have pondered it the truth of it shines brighter in my heart.

Passion is only found once in the King James version of the Bible, in Acts 1:3a “To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion ”  In the Strong’s concordance number G3958 the word is used 42 times in the KJV version of the Bible; 39 times its translated suffer, once passion, once vexed, and once feel.

This concept is so revealing as I reviewed old relationships and friendships, even material possessions and pets; I came to the startling conclusion that at the point at which I decided to quit suffering was the point at which the relationship ended.

Transversely the more I fell in love with family, friends or even a pet or ‘Old Red’ the longer I am not only willing to suffer but honored to do so, as is the case with our most important LOVE, Jesus.

To love is to suffer I feel sure you can relate, even a child who is perfectly behaved causes you to suffer when they are out late, or facing surgery. The Prodigals’ father, David with Absalom, Jesus with Judas the suffering is beyond my grasp. However, the risk to love brings life, the further I walk with Christ the further I share in his sufferings,  the more you love the more you suffer.But REJOICE in that; check this out.

Romans 5:3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

When did you suffering do just this in your life, think about it, I can count so many…try it, then thank Jesus for loving !!