Salt and Light: Present Suffering, Future Glory
17 And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.
The Future Glory
18 Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. 19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. 20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, 21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. 22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children,[j] including the new bodies he has promised us. 24 We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope[k] for it. 25 But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.) Romans 8
Looking forward to future glory should be comforting, but as any nurse would tell you, patients want pain medication now. Does the Bible have anything to offer for our suffering now? In their book RARE Leadership, Marcus Warner and Jim Wilder don’t offer pain medication, but they do offer four skills that help us to endure patiently and confidently:
R: Remain relational
A: Act like yourself
R: Return to joy
E: Endure hardship well
These steps are derived from scripture (especially Ephesians 4) and neuroscience (particularly affect regulation theory: Hill, 2015). The main point is that our moral actions are determined by our identity which is formed by close attachments to significant others like parents and God. This is in contrast to the prevailing view that moral actions are determined by an act of the will. When we have good attachments, we have joy. When we have joy and are giving joy to others by our non-verbal cues and supportive actions, then we are acting like ourselves (our identity in Christ), can quickly return to joy from a moment of sadness or anger and thus have become mature individuals who are resilient and endure hardship well. I highly recommend you read the book RARE Leadership or the companion book Breakthrough by Marcus Warner which focuses more on emotional healing. We can learn to endure present suffering well and look forward to the future with joy.
References
Hill. D. (2015). Affect regulation theory: A clinical model. W. W. Norton & Company.
Warner, M. (2024). Breakthrough: 5 essential strategies for freedom, healing, and wholeness. Moody Publishers.
Warner, M. & Wilder, J. (2016). RARE leadership: 4 uncommon habits for increasing trust, joy, and engagement in the people you lead. Moody Publishers.