There follows a very helpful anonymous contribution to our biblical thinking regarding our current topic. 

I applaud your dealing with the whole issue of suffering. It’s a subject that’s often bypassed; in fact, apart from the books I’ve sought out on it, you are the first person in my 44 years as a Christian who has tackled the issue head on, embracing the many scriptures that tell us we will suffer. As you say, Jesus mentioned it often, and who else would I want to hear it from? I have longed to hear the subject given such a profound hearing. 

However, there is a delicate line between acknowledging it as the red thread that weaves throughout our calling, and knowing how to minister with loving grace to those who suffer. 

You mentioned blindness: my mother, a devoted Christ follower, suffered grimly with that for the last ten years of her life. I walked that journey with her, and saw her battle with the huge grief and loss it brought her, along with her search to find Jesus in it.

It wrung my heart out watching her; it’s a cruel disability that robbed her of almost everything she loved. Part of me longed to see her triumph in her faith, and felt impatient at times, but as I grow old and struggle with many challenges, I enter a deeper understanding. 

It truly is a privilege to suffer in Christ. The Lord asked me the other day as I tussled with an issue: "Whose glory do you want; mine or yours? My glory shows up best in tough situations."  

It was a wonderful question and answer, going straight to the heart of everything, slicing away self-pity, bringing His perspective, and lifting up my eyes once more to His wonderful purposes, right in the middle of my struggle.

Our ongoing challenge as churches is to hold the wonderful truth of the Lord’s desire and power to heal, deliver, and redeem, along with the truth of our calling to "suffer in His footsteps". Our gospel can easily veer too much in one way or the other, and lose that imperative both/and of His supernatural grace.