Suffering

Check out all of YMI’s content pieces tagged under Suffering. We hope you’d benefit from the written and visual content we have under this topic: Suffering.

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ODJ: carrying your cross

My wife was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in October 2012. I shared with a friend about the challenges this situation had posed for me. As we talked, he gently told me that this is the cross I have to carry. “Carrying your cross” means living with sickness or a child with a disability, or financial problems or any difficult circumstance of life. But when Jesus tells us to carry our own cro

ODB: Blessed Are The Meek

One problem with the English word meek is that it rhymes with weak, and people have linked the two words together for years. A popular dictionary offers a secondary definition of meek as “too submissive; easily imposed on; spineless; spiritless.” This causes some people to question why Jesus would say, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Mat

ODJ: in the shadows

I know a couple who have just had their third miscarriage. In two of those painful losses they’ve held a perfectly formed, lifeless little body in their hands. While there’s much light in this world—beauty, goodness, joy—there are also the shadows of sadness, evil and suffering.

Sometimes we wonder where God is in the midst of our pain.
But look at the people to

ODJ: use what you have

In 2008 economists confirmed that the UK was in recession. Sure enough, in time, as many as one in ten people lost their jobs, and the normally bustling high streets fell silent as many well known companies became insolvent.

Due to my work as a DJ on a Christian radio station, I was asked to speak to a group of people who had been hit hard by the economic slump. I shared the followin

ODJ: looking beyond calvary

The Mount Grace Priory is one of England’s best preserved medieval monasteries. For hundreds of years Carthusian monks lived there in solitude, devoting themselves to prayer. The priory’s ruins are impressive, but a more modern monument caught my attention on a recent visit to the site.

At the centre of the priory church stands a sculpture called the Madonna of the Cross. Crafted

ODJ: suffering for good

Within the span of just 20 minutes last December, four Pakistani women were shot and killed in the city of Karachi. A fifth woman was shot in the city of Peshawar. To make the situation even more horrific, these women were medical staff, implementing a polio vaccine programme organised by the UN. A spokesman for the Karachi police explained to the BBC how “these were pre-planned and coordinated

ODB: Surrounded By Mercy

It was almost impossible not to see the giant billboard with the red background and huge white letters that shouted: “This year thousands of men will die from stubbornness.” Later I learned that the billboard was one of hundreds just like it targeted at middle-aged men who typically avoid routine medical screenings and often die from preventable conditions.Psalm 32 deals with the spiritual dis

ODJ: shouting to silence

Last year, during a well publicised political debate, one man repeatedly shouted his responses, talked over the other candidate’s responses and laughed as his opponent stated his case. Why did he do it? He was striving to silence the other candidate with his noise.
Stephen could relate. As the fledgling New Testament church was just taking flight, the “man full of God’s grace and power

ODJ: shamed and disarmed

Hospital chaplain Matt Marino received a call to go to a patient’s room. He expected to find someone gravely ill, fearful or clinging to life. Instead, he was surprised to find a “strikingly attractive 23 year old sitting up cheerfully in the hospital bed, holding her infant daughter and chatting with family and friends.” Confused, Matt quietly asked the nurse why he had been called.