Our 14 year old son came in this morning while I was
finishing my makeup and showed me this passage to read in Tozer’s excellent book
The Radical Cross, then he just
decided he’d read it aloud:
“As long as we remain in the body we shall be subject to a
certain amount of that common suffering which we must share with all the sons
of men—loss, bereavement, nameless heartaches, disappointments, partings,
betrayals, and griefs of a thousand sorts.
This is the less profitable kind of suffering, but even this can be made
to serve the followers of Christ. There is such a thing as consecrated griefs,
sorrows that may be common to everyone but which take on a special character
for the Christian when accepted intelligently and offered to God in loving submission. We should be watchful lest we lose any
blessing which such suffering might bring.
But there is another kind of suffering, known only to the
Christian: it is voluntary suffering deliberately and knowingly incurred for
the sake of Christ. Such is a luxury, a
treasure of fabulous value, a source of riches beyond the power of the mind to
conceive. And it is rare as well as
precious, for there are few in this decadent age who will of their own choice
go down into this dark mine looking for jewels.
But of our own choice it must be, for there is no other way to get down. God will not force us into this kind of
suffering; He will not lay His cross upon us nor embarrass us with riches we do
not want. Such riches are reserved for
those who apply to serve in the legion unto the death, who volunteer to suffer
for Christ’s sake and who follow up their application with lives that challenge
the devil and invite the fury of hell. Such
as these have said goodbye to the world’s toys; they have chosen to suffer
affliction with the people of God; they have accepted toil and suffering as
their earthly portion. The marks of the
cross are upon them and they are known in heaven and hell.
But where are they?
Has this breed of Christian died out of the earth? Have the saints of God joined the mad
scramble for security? Has the cross
become no more than a symbol, a bloodless and sterile relic of nobler
times? Are we now afraid to suffer and
unwilling to die? I hope not, but I
wonder. And only God has the answer.”
Tozer didn’t mention it, but along with saying goodbye to the world’s toys is saying goodbye to a life of
self with all its destructive appendages and chains; goodbye to a life of
regrets piling one on another as the decades descend heavily on one’s
aspirations; goodbye to a last flailing attempt to recreate life at 18 before
so many things (and people) were wrecked on the shoals of self-interest and
pursuit of counterfeit “jewels”. I’d
just spent some time among some of our unbelieving peers, the defining
characteristic of which appeared to be a desire to turn back the clock a couple
of decades and live several hours again
of being 20—before the shipwrecks, before the consequences of decisions came pounding.
And I realized anew, looking around me, how precious is our
set-apart life in Christ. The riches of such
a life, the life of self-abandonment, is ironic, for in it comes the truest satisfaction, fulfillment, liberty.
"I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places..." Isaiah 45:3
British Columbia, Canada
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