Over on The Green Room I have a new post in my series on suffering and work appreciating Martin Luther King’s perspective on connecting faith to labor, and evaluating his statement that “unearned suffering is redemptive”:

Suffering is the telltale mark of the fallen cosmos. We all bear that mark in ourselves. Just as Elihu said to Job, our suffering is God’s declaration to us that we and our world are not all right; we need him to transform us and our world.

But Paul says [in Romans 8] salvation transforms our suffering. It becomes eschatological. The same suffering that is, in all people, a mark of our need for redemption becomes, in the redeemed, a mark of God’s promise of salvation. We suffer, but not as those without hope; our suffering no longer says merely “you need God to come,” but “God is still coming for you!”

As always, your comments are welcome!