1 Peter 4:12-13
Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world. (NLT)

If you’ve read my devotions before, I always have stories about my wife, Leah, and my dog, Woodrow. A few years ago, Woodrow put us through some of the hardest trials our marriage has faced, essentially as newlyweds. At 2 in the morning, we were awoken by a noise that we’ll never forget, that I’ll just call… a dog in severe agony from four discs rupturing in his back. Fast-forward past extreme confusion, rushing to an emergency vet, immediate life and death decisions, emergency surgery, and crate rest (pray you never have to crate rest an animal)—and we now have a full-of-life “beagle bull” (pronounced “mutt”) that’s hind-paralyzed. The best mutt you’ve ever seen, though! He’s my boy!

That was a difficult journey for us to say the least, but many of you have experienced unfathomably extreme trials, grief, and life stuff. When I think about the pain of life, and what Jesus went through to redeem our desperately broken world, one thing I keep coming back to is this: This isn’t how it’s meant to be. Not in a posture of despair or confusion, though—rather, a posture of amazement. Life has extremely difficult times, but it also has joyous times. There’s something significant in that dichotomy, as today’s verse also points us to.

Trials reveal an ingrained understanding in every person that something here on earth is wrong. If there’s nothing else meant to be, then this is all just par for the course—but as Christians, we know that the tangible “wrongness” we feel is the result of a fallen world where sin leads to death. The death of joy, relationships, expectation, trust, hope… you name it. The death of good. But that’s not the end of the story, thanks to Jesus. The feeling that things are just not right reveals something greater: our eternal longing for connection and communion with God, in a creation that is as it should be. And that is the promise we have because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.

Wednesday’s Reflection

Romans 8 encapsulates a groaning creation, God’s plan, and other encouragement that the trials we face are temporary because we know what’s next. Reflect on those promises, and try to memorize a few sections of that passage so you can cling to them the next time a trial comes your way.