We Make the Road by Walking
Week 27
Chapter 48
The Practice of …suffering.
The Scripture ….“Christ left you an example so that you might follow in his footsteps… When he was insulted, he did not reply with insults. When he suffered, he did not threaten revenge. Instead, he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly.” 1st Peter 2:21& 23
The Devotion
The sacred scriptures of yoga were written by a yogi name Patanjali, and they are called the yoga sutra’s. Patanjali outlines five reasons for suffering, three of which are; changing circumstances, unmet longing, and patterns that may not be serving you. Essentially he said, suffering is an inevitable part of life. He believed we could learn to lessen suffering by acknowledging it and then learn from it to show compassion to our neighbor, because we understand their suffering.
Jesus understood suffering as well. He taught that we would suffer for the sake of following him. He also taught that we should practice suffering in a way that preserved relationship and did not pay back an eye for an eye. While the practice of suffering may not sound like ‘good news,’ it actually is a practice that lessens the broken heartedness we may suffer by opening our hearts to show compassion to our neighbor
