Nowadays, it doesn’t take much for a person to become disheartened about the general state of things. Just take a look at the state of the world around us. Turn on the TV and you are automatically bombarded with vivid images of suffering all over the world. When you take all this in and compound it with the fact that the simple act of living is not always easy – that we too at times, and to varying degrees, have suffering in our own lives – we enter into those dark valleys – where shadows are pervasive – it’s easy to understand that we start to lose faith.

     In the book of Hebrews, we read that Christ learned obedience from what he suffered and that this suffering perfected him. What does this mean? There’s a lesson here and it’s not always easy to accept. Even though Jesus was the Son of God, he was destined, from the very beginning and as a human being, to learn obedience by accepting the suffering he was to endure. Because of his perfection through his experience of human suffering, he becomes the cause of our salvation.

     And this is where we are able to keep our faith – and keep from being trapped in the dark valley. Because our God chose to come to us and be human, he has the ability to sympathize with us and all of our trials precisely due to his own experiences of trial and suffering. So you see, he understands what we suffer because he suffered.

     So what’s the lesson here? The task at hand is not an easy one. To put it simply, we are to patiently endure life and know that through all of it – through the good times and dark times – through all of the joys and sorrows – through the periods of good health and those of pain and suffering – that we indeed have hope to gain the same perfection that Jesus gained through his endurance of this life. And when the time comes for us to be called to our eternal home, we will be with Him and there will be no more suffering, no more tears, only joy.