The Most Joyful Journey: Sharing in His Sufferings

In the summer of 2017 Amee and I took what we anticipated would be our last family vacation with all the kids. Our oldest child was in college, the next was entering his senior year of high school and we were headed back to the mission field. We wanted to make it memorable. So, we decided to take a road trip to Washington, DC. That’s 1603 miles of family bonding; site-seeing and picnicking along the way. But then the A/C went out in our 2001 Dodge Caravan. Our collective joy turned into 14 hours in the back of a minivan in the middle of July.

In his letter to the Philippians, the apostle Paul describes his journey with Jesus. It all began when he counted everything as loss compared to the superior value of knowing Christ. Paul’s whole life purpose became the passionate pursuit of following Jesus. 

Such a journey might sound almost dreamy, even delightful. Indeed, the theme throughout the book of Philippians is joy. However, it wasn’t easy at all. Paul wrote his letter from prison. His dear friend Epaphroditus had nearly died. Yet, Paul came to know Christ more deeply through sharing in his sufferings. In fact, it was through sharing in his sufferings that Paul came to be more and more like Jesus.

Paul compares his own spiritual journey to that of Jesus Himself. In fact, it is the path marked out for all Christians. We haven’t been called to just believe in Jesus but also to suffer for his sake. Sharing in his sufferings makes up the second leg of this most joyful journey.