Father Stu and Suffering

I was set to pondering the idea of suffering again as I watched the movie Father Stu, starring Mark Wahlberg, Mel Gibson, and Malcolm McDowell. Its a great story of a going nowhere boxer from a dysfunctional family who meets a girl and follows her to her church (where has that story been told over and over?) where he finds a relationship with the Lord and decides to become a priest. I won't give it away but as part of his life he experiences much suffering and points several times to the fact that as Christ suffered, so must we. There's a lot of solid doctrinal truth in it. I highly recommend the movie but a warning that the language is coarse in line with the characters. It's a true story and one that many believers would find rings true with their experience, and the experience of others in church history.

That said, I was reading Spurgeon today and he used 1 Peter 5.10 as his the reference for his morning reflections today. "After that ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you". The Bible tells us over and over, the path to peace and contentment doesn't lie through ease and entertainment, but suffering. Christ told us if the Master suffers, so must the students. If we would be established, strengthened, and settled, it requires discipline in suffering and faith in the One who allows it. Why do we think that's abnormal? Because we are still selfish, sinful human beings, wanting ease over discipline. It's rampant in our society. 

 History shows us there is a cycle to society: Oppression where we become unhappy with our circumstances; Liberty where we sacrifice whatever's necessary, even our lives, to throw off the chains; Enlightenment where we enjoy the liberties we have, expanding art, knowledge, and technology as we have more leisure time; Dissipation where we now are entitled, expect more leisure, are unhappy and bored with all of our toys and demand more and more entertainment. I fear we are in the last stage, where nothing is worth dying for if it intrudes on our pursuit of happiness, our own selfish wants and desires outweigh the needs of others, and we are undisciplined and lazy, abhoring any type of suffering for the sake of good: ours and others. We are unfulfilled in our search for happiness, looking for something to fill that hole. Unsettled as we look for that one thing that will satisfy. The thing that will finally scratch that itch. 

 But once again Father Stu, mirroring what Christ and the apostles say, reminds us there is no easy path to contentment. Submission to Christ as King and Lord and His will, whether it is a good day and we praise Him for our blessings, or suffering where we praise Him that He cares enough to bring us through suffering to contentment, is the only way. Even the course of history tells us that it requries struggle to get liberty and liberty allowed to languish undefended leads to dissipation and, ultimately, oppression again. "Those who chose to ignore history, are destined to repeat it". And those of us who don't ignore history are destined to raise the alarm but, sadly, watch as society devolves into dissipation. 

 God help us. He is our only hope. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life" John 3:16 

OFFICIAL TRAILER

 

BTW-Rotten Tomatoes professional critics say, in typical form: "A socially conservative, faith-based biographical drama, and an unconvincing, broadly played, sinner-redeemed story with shallow characterizations and the pick-up line: "I'd wait 40 years in the desert for you." and "Mark Wahlberg is convincing and committed as a foul-mouthed Father, but this is ultimately just religious propaganda — preaching exclusively to the converted." But those of us looking for a good movie with uplifting themes. The guy on the street likes it. I do.