My Dear Shepherds,

Did anyone tell you at the beginning that suffering would be essential pastoral work? Right up there with preaching, strategic planning, counseling, and administration. Not just unavoidable but essential? Did that come up?

If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. (2 Cor. 1:6)

For our flock to persevere in the faith, they need to know God’s comfort, and that’s where we come in. We are their lead comforters, representing to them the rich varieties of God’s consolations by our teaching and example.

Every pastor following in Jesus’ footsteps will share suffering with him. He, too, carries the burdens of shepherding your flock, each and all of them. He joins us in heartaches and meets us in our prayers. There are great joys in our work, but it is only through suffering that we come to experience the balm of God, changing us for good.

But here’s the pastoral bonus: God compounds the comfort he gives us by extending it to those we shepherd. Our God-given comfort is like Miracle-Gro for their “patient endurance” and comfort.

And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. (2 Cor. 1:7)

God’s comfort is the product of faith, obedience, and resurrection power. That unique, divine comfort becomes transferable. In fact, it is one of the kingdom secrets of church growth—not in metrics, you understand, but in fruit. Every Christian suffers on the crosswalk but grows through God’s comfort.

My writer/editor friend, Christy Britton, wrote, “The best advice I’ve ever received came from a godly man who spent years suffering from an autoimmune disease. He was almost completely homebound, and his days were marked by physical agony. But this suffering servant lived each painful day for the glory of God, and every time I visited him, I saw a faith giant, not a frail man. On our last visit before he died, he uttered these words that have stayed with me, continuing to guide me in my own journey: ‘Keep saying yes to Jesus. Yes, Lord, yes.’”

Take a moment to recall some of your most painful pastoral hardships. (Go ahead. I’ll wait.)

Can you itemize the changes God produced in you through those times? My own inventory began with humility, no small marvel. But we only access God’s grace through that low door. I recall, too, how Jesus yanked my attention away from distractions to sit at his feet. I remember sacrificing certain desires and loosening my grip on useless things.

When suffering turns out the lights, the Lord’s words and presence begin to gleam. We grow in grace. We’re wiser. We pray with greater insight, faith, and surrender. In turn, those qualities nuance the way we preach and counsel, prioritize and plan. F. B. Meyer called it “the art of comfort.”

My pastor friend, Bob, walked with his wife through cancer till she died at age 60. I remember mentioning this passage to him and he said, “With God it is not just comfort, it is comfort with strength in it, with teeth in it.” Bob had always been a good pastor, but that suffering season made him an even better comforter.

It’s a remarkable ministry that God entrusts to us. Christ’s gospel advance inevitably takes us into dark and painful times. But as we grope in the dark, God eventually pulls us close, and out we walk—breathing resurrection air.

Be ye glad!

Lee Eclov recently retired after 40 years of local pastoral ministry and now focuses on ministry among pastors. He writes a weekly devotional for preachers on Preaching Today.