Theology done by people in the depths of suffering looks much different than theology done by people who are relatively comfortable.
When I say “theology” I mean anything anyone thinks or does towards the magnification of Jesus Christ. And this might not even be a conscious effort, especially for those in the thralls of suffering. Indeed, it is in these seasons, when “we have the sentence of death on us so that we will learn to trust the One who raises the dead,” that we are simply living out of the depths of Christ’s life for us (ecstatic existence); i.e., we know He is living for us, or we “wouldn’t make it.”
Indeed… He lives! This the promise fulfilled of Christ’s work of redemption, grounded on the terms of God’s grace toward those who would be redeemed. And because he livesβeven through his incomparable sufferingβwe may take hope in faith of the resurrected, ascended, and exalted Christ as the guarantee that confirms all of God’s promises so as to sustain those placed in need through any personal experience of enthrallment by suffering… because he lives!
(Praying for and with you, brother.)
Amen, Richard. Thank you.