Another Roman Road
“We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.”
The 'Roman Road to Salvation' is a collection of verses from Romans—a helpful guide for explaining God's plan of salvation in Jesus.
There's another Roman Road found in the first few verses of Chapter 5—the Roman Road to Endurance, Character, and Hope. Paul lays out Sufferings, Endurance, Character, and Hope as a process—a sort of assembly line, where one thing produces the next thing.
What's noteworthy here is that the thing we all want and need—Hope—is connected to the very thing we try so hard to avoid—Suffering. No one welcomes persecution, the death of a family member, a serious illness or financial setback. But most of us also avoid smaller sufferings: failures, losses, delayed gratification, deferred purchases, exercise, hard conversations, rejection, stillness, even fasts.
Could it be that our avoidance of pain and discomfort, individually and as a society, is connected to poor endurance, questionable character, and a deficit of hope?
Paul gives us a vision for suffering. Even major suffering, while uninvited, can be fertile soil for growth. And those minor sufferings? Maybe we should take more risks, denying our flesh in small ways and allowing our pride to be bruised more often. Paul says this is the key to more endurance, better character, and an abundance of hope.
