King David used more eloquent language:
"Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.
I sink in the miry depths,
where there is no foothold.I have come into the deep waters;
the floods engulf me..." (Psalm 69: 1-2).
Every one of us has that "sinking feeling" at least once in a while. For some, it is frequent. For others, it is their constant experience.
Why do we have to go through such times of distress? When we become Christians, aren't all of our problems suppose to be born by Jesus and now we can float through life in a state of blissful joy?
Well, if we are following Jesus, then we should learn from His example. He faced the shame, humiliation, pain and total rejection of the cross. The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus was "made perfect" through suffering (Heb. 2: 10) and that he "learned obedience from what he suffered" (Heb. 5: 8-9).
How could the sinless Son of God be "made perfect" or "learn obedience?" Wasn't He already perfect? Didn't He already "know all things?"
The word for "perfect" really means "complete or mature." The kind of learning the writer is talking about is experiential learning. In heaven, Jesus had no cause to learn obedience. He had the ability, but until He was submitted to the Father as the Incarnate Son, He did not have the occasion.
Until He had received an order to obey, He did not learn what it was like to obey.
That is what our suffering does for us. It forces us to obey. To say, "You're God and I'm not. I will call out to You in your God-ness and in my creaturely-ness and remain in an attitude of trust and submission, even when it is difficult, even when I'm sinking and my feet can't touch bottom."
Maybe that's how Paul could "rejoice in sufferings" (Rom. 5: 3) and James could "consider it pure joy, whenever you face trials of many kinds..." (Jas. 1: 2). They saw it all as part of the maturing of our Christian character.
Are you learning obedience from what you're suffering? Remember that handy prayer, "Help, God!"
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