Calvin’s father – a hybrid of Watterson’s own father and himself – is often seen trying to help little Calvin “build character”, usually in the middle of a camping trip gone wrong. Yeah, you may have been there too.

Calvin regularly fails to see the point of this character building exercise, often noting how the lessons in life his father so eagerly dishes out seem to save his father some expense.

For many of us, we can relate to little Calvin when we experience suffering. It may be personal and felt, it may be trivial and inconvenient, it may be grotesque and life-altering.

Calvin felt left alone to suffer without meaning and without support.

There is a difference however between the world of Calvin and Hobbes and this life. His name is Jesus. Christianity says that there’s nothing man can do to make it to God. Instead, God came to man. His name is Jesus.

When it comes to suffering Jesus suffers alongside us. We do not have a God indifferent to the human condition. He has been there. And he is with us in our pain, no matter the circumstances.

More than that too, Jesus suffered for us. He willingly, lovingly and purposefully laid down his own life to pay a price that was around our necks. He suffered in agony, alone for hours and he did it thinking of each of us.

There is a present, felt reality about suffering in this world. Some of us will go through more than others but all of us will suffer and all will die.

Jesus’ suffering wasn’t pointless. It had a purpose. More than that, it had ultimate purpose that speaks into this life as well as the next. And there’s more good news: Jesus can use your pain and your suffering and turn it for good.

Suffering and pain can devastate joy, tear up hope, bring the strong to their knees and cause us to cry out, “Why?” In this world gone bad Jesus came to bring healing. He came that we might be saved out of despair and into a living, lasting hope. He’s done it all for us.

Jesus suffered and died that we might see him through our suffering and live.

For more Calvin and Hobbes go here: http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/

Groom and Best Man

I have just returned from one of my favourite weddings of all time. My best friend married his new best friend in a beautiful ceremony with a fantastic reception in Bristol.

The church was packed out with friends and family keen not to miss this couple, loved by many, make their vows before God. Everyone I talked to agreed it was a top-class wedding, with lots of fun and a deep sense of purpose about the proceedings.

The day belonged to the happy couple; the glory belonged to God.

From the readings in the church, to the message during the service, to the toasts (yes, Jesus got a toast at this wedding) to the speeches,much was made of what God had done and will do through my friends.

It was my honour as Best Man to offer a speech. What could I say of my friend? What should be said? It’s not hard to see the central point of his life as that time when he took Jesus seriously. That decision had serious consequences and marks his whole person. So it was clear, by making much of my friend, I was making much of Jesus and His transformative power.

As an apologist I love to make much of Jesus. The wonderful thing is that this time it went hand in hand with honouring my friend.

In an age when weddings have greater significance that marriages, when money is splashed around in the name of good times with scant regard for the significance of the proceedings there is an opportunity to go with it all, or return to the core and give thanks to God.

People are marked by what they choose to celebrate. It was such an honour to be a part of a very special day where God came first and we could all rejoice together!

“If a burden and its resulting pressure come upon us while we are not in an attitude of worship, it will only produce a hardness toward God and despair in our own souls.” – Oswald Chambers

Last year I went through I and II Peter with the staff at YWAM Maui. This year I’m going through them again, thanks to the current series from Mars Hill. If you haven’t spent much time in these two books, I’d encourage you to as they’re incredibly rich in insight for how to live out our faith.

The short of it is that trials will come at us. Some times those trials will be, well, trying! To diminish them is often to live in denial. To deny that a Christian should experience trials at all is outright heresy, and a complete misreading of the Bible. Jesus himself said that when we put His principles in place in our lives that we will face trials and persecution (Matthew 5:11,12).

Life can be humming along nicely and we may not be in the practice of worship. Aside from highlighting a misunderstanding of God, this bad habit can also set us up for failure. When trials come, and come they will, if we are not in the habit of worship then things can stop humming in tune very quickly.

It has also been my experience that one trial, no matter how severe, will not correct the bad habit of not being in the practice of worship. I had two fairly large battles last year. And the first one, medically related, took me out and caused me to question just how firm my personal relationship with the Lord was. And did I learn? It took another large disorientating wave to knock me off of my feet at the end of the year, this time crushing my pride fairly well (tip, if you give you life to the Lord and don’t surrender your pride it will hurt when he sanctifies that part of you!), to realise that quite apart from Jesus deserving worship at all times I was built to worship Him in relationship with Him. This is the life giving part of the deal, and will put is in a position to handle the trials well.

When we suffer well, we represent Jesus well. When we take the knocks and still praise Him, we become more like Him. We need to worship Jesus, even rejoicing in the tough times (1 Peter 1:6). His grace is huge. When we worship Jesus for who He is, Jesus gets brighter, sin gets darker and his grace appears more powerful to us.