It struck me the other day that many of my heroes spent time in prison. I love reading biographies and it hit me that a large portion of the people I have been reading about lately had spent time incarcerated. Biographies are important to me because I believe we have a lot to learn from those who have come before us. Both secular and religious wisdom teachers point out the importance of learning from others as a part of growing as wise people.

I think this is why the book of Hebrews spends an entire chapter listing men and women of the faith who have faithfully followed God and then tells us “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” (Heb. 12:1) The author understood that our own walk with Jesus is meant to be heavily informed by those who have faithfully gone before. Their faithfulness can challenge and encourage us in our own walk today.

Still, it was a little odd to me that so many of my wisdom mentors spent time in prison. But maybe there is a reason for this. Some of them deserved to be there while others didn’t, but they all have something in common that has deeply shaped my approach to life. Each of them became better people during and through their time in prison. A time of great suffering that could have and maybe should have crushed them into despair ended up being a crucible that shaped them into the people who have deeply impacted the world. In fact, without their time in prison, I may never have even heard of them.

I have especially been struck by the lives of Charles Colson, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Corrie Ten Boom, and the Apostle Paul. Each of these men and women were locked away for one reason or another and easily could have given up all hope. Instead, they embraced their time of suffering as an opportunity to grow as followers of Jesus. This decision lead them to become witnesses for millions of people both inside and outside the Church.

Chuck Colson

Take Charles Colson for example. Here is a man who went to prison as a result of the Watergate scandal during the presidency of Richard Nixon. He is said to have been a man who only cared about power and money and did some illegal things to obtain and keep them. Ultimately, he went to prison because of these choices.

Right before he was locked up, however, he became a follower of Jesus. He recognized that he had not been living a life honoring to God and turned his life over to God. He still had to face the consequences of his decisions, however, which meant going to prison. At one point while behind bars, he learned that he had lost his license to practice law, that one of his children was likely about to go to prison as well, and he was not going to be released early like he had hoped. It’s easy to imagine that such circumstances could lead someone to feel angry at God. They might even walk away from God or give up completely. For Colson, however, he saw all this bad news and difficult situation as an opportunity to grow.

Instead of giving in to despair, Colson turned even more of his life over to God. He formed relationships with his fellow inmates, lead Bible studies, gained empathy for the men and women he was surrounded by, and ultimately was led to start a prison ministry after he was finally released. While he went to prison because of his greed, selfishness, and lack of care for others, he left a man called by God to serve men and women in prison and dedicated his life to sharing the Good News of the Gospel with them. In fact, his ministry called Prison Fellowship continues to share the Good News of Jesus with men and women in prisons around the world today.

But would he have ever been able to connect with, empathize with, and serve these men and women had he not been in prison? It seems to me that his ultimate calling in life came out of the most difficult time in his life. Now, this isn’t to say that God caused him to go to prison in order for him to discover this ministry or that anyone should wish such a difficult time on their own life or the life of someone else. It is to say, however, that God was present in such a difficult situation and shaped Colson in ways he maybe wouldn’t have been shaped otherwise. This is what Paul is getting  at in 2 Corinthians 1:3–4 when he says, “Blessed be the…God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction.” God offers us comfort in our suffering and then invites us to comfort others out of that situation. The key was, Colson had to be open to it. We, likewise, must decide if we are open to it.

The Invitation in Suffering

This is the invitation of suffering. This is the invitation Apostle Paul, Corrie Ten Boom, and Bonhoeffer each offer in the way they responded to great suffering. They could have been crushed by it and given up. Instead, they recognized that God can use every situation for God’s glory and sought ways to better serve God. For Paul this meant continuing to share the Good News with the Body of Christ and live a life on contentment no matter what was going on around him. For Bonhoeffer, who died in a concentration camp, this meant serving his fellow prisoners as a pastor and writing books about the Christian life that we still read today. For Corrie Ten Boom this meant learning to be grateful in all circumstances and what it means to love and forgive our enemies.

When we suffer, we have this same choice. I don’t know what you are facing today. Maybe it’s a medical crisis or the loss of someone you loved. Perhaps you don’t know how you are going to pay your bills or you are grieving the loss of a dream. Maybe you have been abused, forgotten, or simply don’t understand how you got to where you are. It’s normal to feel pain. It’s good and healthy to grieve. But we ultimately are given the choice of how suffering is going to shape us.

See, we can either believe that the cross is the end of the story or the empty tomb is. If we believe that the tomb of Jesus is empty, then it means that death never gets the last word. We may still experience horrific suffering and face great times of pain, but it’s never the end of the story. Unless, of course, we allow it to be.

We can allow the difficulties of life to crush us, name us, and keep us in a place of despair. Or we can choose to allow it to shape us. Suffering can connect us to others in ways a life without any difficulties never could. Suffering can help us grow in empathy, perspective, compassion, and wisdom. While I don’t believe it’s wise to say that God causes all suffering, I absolutely believe Paul when he says in Romans 8:28 that “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

Resurrection is the Last Word

This means that God can take difficult, painful circumstances and work in them and through them for good. This doesn’t mean it won’t still hurt. But it does mean that resurrection can still get the last word. Like our brothers and sisters who went to prison, suffering can be an experience that shapes us to better love God, ourselves, the world, and creation. 

I don’t know what you are going through right now. I can promise, however, that God is with you whatever you are going through. I can also promise that you are invited to grow through this experience and you can walk through it with creativity and trust and discover new ways to love God and love others. This is the story of so many of the members of the cloud of witnesses who came before us. It can be your story as well.

May you believe that the tomb is empty and that death never gets the last word. May you see whatever difficult situation you are going through as an invitation to grow in ways you couldn’t have otherwise. May you connect with God, yourself, and others in ways you never could have imagined. May your experience of walking through this time lead to greater life because our God is a God of life. Blessings brothers and sisters and grace and peace.

Share with us below how God has invited you to grow through a time of suffering or a way you have been invited to come closer to God in a difficult time.

Podcast Episode

You can listen to our discussion here.