May 17 – Hope Through Suffering

Gregg’s Reflection

There have been seasons in my life when suffering felt like an unwelcome guest who refused to leave. My first instinct was to push it away, to try and fix things quickly so I could feel better. But the longer I walk with God, the more I realize that hope doesn’t come from escaping suffering—it comes from meeting God in the midst of it.

The Welcoming Prayer has been a powerful companion in those times. It invites me to welcome whatever is happening, not because I want it, but because I believe God is already present in it. “I let go of my desire for security, affection, and control,” the prayer says, and in letting go, I find a surprising freedom—and a hope that suffering cannot take away.

Hope through suffering is not about pretending the pain isn’t real. It’s about trusting that the story isn’t over, that God can weave even this dark thread into the fabric of redemption. That trust allows me to breathe, to pray, and to keep walking forward one step at a time.

Scripture

We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.

Romans 5:3-4

Ancient Quotes

Trials are medicines which our gracious and wise Physician gives because we need them; and he proportions the frequency and weight of them to what the case requires.

John Newton

Modern Quotes

As a person ripens in unsayable intimacy to God, they understand God as a presence that protects us from nothing, even as God sustains us in all things.

James Finley

Welcoming Prayer: When you are overcome by pain or an emotional reaction that drains your interior silence—

Focus and sink into the body sensation. Notice what you are feeling emotionally and physically.

Say: Welcome, welcome, welcome. I welcome everything that comes to me at this moment because I know it is for my healing. I welcome all thoughts, feelings, emotions, persons, situations and conditions. I remain in the sensation and say welcome, embracing Spirit in and through the sensation.

While experiencing and resting in the sensation, repeat the letting go sentences:

I let go of my desire for security.

I let go of my desire for affection, esteem, approval, and pleasure.

I let go of my desire for power and control.

I let go of my desire to change the situation.

Letting go means passing through the experience, not around it, not running away, or stuffing it back in the unconscious.

Mary Mzozowski and Thomas Keating

Journaling Prompts

• How have you experienced God’s presence in seasons of suffering?
  
  
• In what ways might welcoming your pain open you to deeper hope?
  
  
• What would it look like to release your need for control in a difficult situation?
  
  
• How has suffering shaped your faith over time?

👉 Go deeper into this week’s theme:
Read the full Week 20 Reflection: Hope