Embrace the Suck!

I remember being on Facebook years back and reading a post from the daughter of an old friend of mine who had married a West Point graduate. Her husband, a highly sought after U. S. government asset, was spending many days away from his new bride. The Army life is a difficult one, to say the least. Troops are often sent away at a moments notice for long periods of time; often minus the normalcy of being able to let their families know the details of their departure.

Imagine being woken up in the middle of the night by your spouse’s commanding officer who is on the other end of the phone line saying, “I need you to pack up and be ready to deploy within the hour. This is a secret mission so you can’t tell your spouse anything other than ‘goodbye’.” Imagine being your kids, who wake up to find a parent gone for some indeterminate period of time.

This young woman, after her husband was deployed, posted  “Embrace the suck!” on her Facebook page. I had never heard the expression, even as an Air Force veteran, but I quickly learned what it meant from the droves of other military wives who responded encouragingly. While I fought off a wave of sadness, I was more so overcome by a wellspring of appreciation for these women. They shared a unique courage, tenacity, and perspective that I could only presume to understand.

“Embrace the suck!”

I’ve since said this very thing to myself during those times when the good Lord has asked me to accept situations in my life that are, let’s say, less than palatable. When this happens, the Spirit brings to remembrance Holy Scripture, which always keeps me away from any kind of pity party.

But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having won over the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. But while the disciples stood around him, he got up and entered the city. The next day he went away with Barnabas to Derbe. After they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying,

“Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”
The young lady I mentioned earlier was also a military “brat” (one of her parents was a retired Army soldier), so she knew what she was signing on for when she married her husband. While there’s no way to fully prepare oneself for certain hardships, we believers and our own families ought to learn what it means to be a soldier for Christ (2 Timothy 2:3). We must, likewise, “embrace the suck!”

It doesn’t do anyone any good to throw a pity party. In fact, a rightly oriented soldier considers it a privilege to serve - the more difficult the mission, the greater the glory - Hoorah! Besides, the rewards for doing so are eternally wrought, far more valuable than any earthly benefit could ever be.

Peter began to say to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You.” Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.”
A change in perspective is usually all any of us ever really need to be delivered from our so-called woes. I have found that a simple sit down with the Holy Spirit and His divinely inspired Bible fixes everything, every time. He may never promise me that a certain “thorn” in my flesh (ala 2 Corinthians 12:7) will be removed, but as Paul reflected:

And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
Who ever said fighting for a good cause was easy or even pleasant?

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
This passage is the Spirit’s way of saying, “Embrace the suck!”

Amen?

Love in Christ,

Ed Collins