S2E3 - Songs of Suffering by Joni Eareckson Tada

In this episode of The Berean Bookclub we chat through Songs of Suffering by Joni Erickson.

This book walks through 25 songs which have accompanied Joni through what seems to be a lifetime of suffering. Along the way, she not only offers personal reflections on the place these songs have had in her own suffering, but reflects on the place of suffering in our lives, the purposes for which God allows suffering and the place which song has to lift our eyes to Jesus in the midst of suffering. In this book, Joni marries two of her great loves: Jesus and song. This makes it not only a sobering reflection on suffering but an incredibly practical read which seeks to equip us to love Jesus through song in the midst of suffering.

In this episode we speak through the value of memorizing God's promises through song and the place of this in suffering, how orchestrated sufferings by the master vine-dresser are an essential part of abiding in Jesus, how to press into suffering rather than fight against it, how to speak about our suffering without creating more anxiety and fear, the ability of suffering to choke out our gratitude, the power of focusing on Jesus cross rather than our own crosses, the beauty of not regaining what was lost through our suffering and trusting God to conform us to the image of Christ through our suffering.