Suffering according to the will of God

I've been translating with my Greek class this semester 1 Peter and one thing that keeps coming up thematically is suffering in accordance with the will of God or suffering and God's will.

Tonight as I was translating 1 Peter 4:12-19 I had an epiphany regarding this perplexing subject.
Up until now I had always understood this within the frame of suffering that is being caused by God. In other words not all suffering that happens is God's will but there is a particular kind that is His will and that is the good kind......... and that just never quite made sense.

^{1 Peter 4:19} Therefore, let those suffering in accordance with God’s will entrust themselves to a faithful Creator, while continuing to do good. 

That verse alone put up with a few other isolated verses can cause confusion but put in their literary context this verse in particular looks like this:

¹² Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. ¹³ But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed. ¹⁴ If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory,^e which is the Spirit of God, is resting on you.^{f 15} But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, a criminal, or even as a mischief maker. ¹⁶ Yet if any of you suffers as a Christian, do not consider it a disgrace, but glorify God because you bear this name. ¹⁷ For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God; if it begins with us, what will be the end for those who do not obey the gospel of God? ¹⁸ And 

“If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, 

what will become of the ungodly and the sinners?” 

¹⁹ Therefore, let those suffering in accordance with God’s will entrust themselves to a faithful Creator, while continuing to do good. 

Suffering now is seen not as coming from God but as a part of living in this world. The key issue is not suffering but HOW one suffers. We are told to suffer while doing good, while being Christians, while not returning blow for blow, while being more moral and upright than our oppressors or the system which is oppressing us. Not as evil doers or murderers or immoral men.

This all reminds me of what I read in Howard Thurman's book Jesus and the Disinherited where he tells of when a young black man asked MLK Jr. why black men must be more moral than the white men oppressing them. In other words why do you say we should turn the other cheek, meet hatred with love, violence with peace!

The answer is that in suffering there is one thing that a man still controls, that is his soul. He can corrupt that and continue the cycle of violence, retribution, and suffering or he can receive the blow and stop the cycle saying that the cycle of violence and vengeance ends here.

A man can gain the whole world but lose his soul, he can lose all but still be strong and resilient in the face of suffering because that kind of strength comes from within. 

In other words, suffering according to the will of God is living uprightly and courageously in the face of oppressive peoples, systems and situations. It is not letting that outward system, person or situation destroy the very fabric of your being. 

When Christians suffer like this, it brings glory to God for in it we imitate our Lord who suffered under a corrupt system at the hands of cruel men but in the end God resurrected Him and has set Him at His side. He will do the same for those who are conformed to the image of His Son, who take up their cross and when suffering comes (and believe me suffering comes be it from whatever direction) suffer while doing good, while living fairly, justly and righteously.

War on Religion?

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-february-13-2012/the-vagina-ideologues---sean-hannity-s-holy-sausage-fest?xrs=share_fb

Check out the clip on the link above first.

Watched it? Ok, good. Now for some thoughts.

Today in my school's chapel someone warned about the coming government persecution of Christians kicked off by the birth control controversy. The words were something to this effect, "The day is coming when we'll see government persecution worse than what the Catholics have recently experienced with the birth control issue."

Now I respect this person tremendously but I do civilly disagree with him in this. I don't understand how a woman's health mandate turns into a war on religion but even better is when the Church throws a tantrum the government backs down and goes along with the Church.

If that is persecution then I clearly don't understand the word anymore!
To act as if Christians not getting their way in politics is persecution belittles the word to describe what millions of Christians do experience around the globe. This is how the democratic process works, not everyone gets their way all the time.

No, what I think we are experiencing is the dethronement of American cultural Christianity. Once upon a time the Church may have gotten it's way in government often (or maybe that's just a myth too) but those days in which Christianity dominated the Western world are over.... and I'm not so sure that's a bad thing.

First off, I've lived in a region where cultural Christianity is still vibrant and I, as well as others my age, can't help but notice the blatant hypocrisy within it. Christianity challenges those who are disciples of Jesus to an intense 'other' way of life- social justice, personal righteousness, an others-oriented way of living. Now for those who live in this cultural Christianity, someone can go to church in the womb, grow up in church, be a card carrying member yet never having counted the costs and picked up their cross. They are cultural Christians and are a product of cultural Christianity. This is how racism has infected the church of my home state for so long. Being a Christian and being racist (or having some remaining vestiges of discrimination) are both part of being a white, Southern person (that is the perspective I can speak from) and so there is no apparent contradiction. This can be said of many issues that I and others see as contradictions- e.g. Christian and pro-war (and not the just war variety but the total war kind).

Second and more importantly, the fact is American Christianity has tremendous political power which is incongruent with its victim mentality and understanding of the world. If we are on the long road to where Christianity is dethroned from THE religion of the West to a religion in the West, I think we are heading towards a path of healthier identity as Christians.

Christians are entirely too politicized. We are culture warriors before we are strangers carrying our cross speaking prophetically to power on behalf of the down and out on our way to the eternal country. And I guess that is my beef. We are political tools to a party.

Anyway this has gone way too long. I just know one thing- Jesus didn't disciple those who would find ways into political/economic power in his day seeking to spread his influence to that realm and baptize the State. The only time he came in contact with the 'powers that be' it was confrontational with him taking the side of the lowly, the outcaste, the down and out, the poor.

Far from the centers of power in Rome he started the project of planting his Kingdom in a backwater province among uneducated men and unwanted crowds.