Embracing the Adversity Advantage

When I was a young preacher, I heard Dr. Gardner C. Taylor speak at a college conference. He spoke of “blood”—not literal blood, but the sacrifices, offerings, and labors poured out by parents, teachers, and founders for their children’s education.

Job, Jonah, and Jesus are “blood brothers.” Each embraced the necessary pattern of redemption: the sign of Jonah, the paschal mystery, the downward path before the upward rise. Death. Resurrection. Ascension. You go down to come up.

Without the paschal mystery—without the necessary suffering that shapes us—what do we really have to sustain us? What purpose, what transformation? If all we know is winning, rising, and feeding the ego, how can we ever learn endurance, depth, and growth beyond survival?

The first half of life is about getting; the second half is about giving. And Jesus said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. The Jonah-Job-Jesus pattern is redemptive for all of us.

But this pattern is hard for us in the West. We want progress without pain, resurrection without death, Easter without Good Friday. Yet Jesus said the only sign we’ll be given is the sign of Jonah. No shortcuts. No easy miracles.

So, will you embrace this pattern of necessary suffering that becomes transformation? Or will you resist what my friend Richard Barr calls your “adversity advantage”?

Strong blessings,
Cedric
traditionalwriter@yahoo.com