Two New Resources for Hope in Suffering

In the time I’ve spent in practice, what I’ve discovered is that the most soothing balm to suffering comes from having another sit beside you and say, “I know where you’ve been,” and, “I know nothing I could say will make the pain go away right now, but I’d like to be here with you in it if you’d be willing to have me.” We need fellow believers to be with us and to point us to our sympathetic savior who sits beside, and indeed within, us in suffering.

I want to provide two resources that may be helpful if you or someone you love is experiencing deep suffering:

First is Joni Eareckson Tada's work and her ministry Joni and Friends. She recently did an interview alongside the wife of one of our Board Members, which can be found here. 

Second, another resource from Barbara is her new book, The Wonderful Land of Affliction: Exploring Adversity through Allegory, written in a style admirers of John Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress will find familiar and comforting. All proceeds for sales of Barbara’s book support Chronic Joy, a nonprofit organization “dedicated to compassionately serving all those affected by chronic illness, mental illness, chronic pain, and disability by providing accessible, easy-to-use, faith-based educational resources and publications.”

There are many truths in scripture that speak to us in suffering, but praise be to our good God that many of those come to us through the hands, feet, mouths, and ears of our fellow brothers and sisters in the faith. I hope these resources, and others found on this site, are helpful to you.