God's purposes in suffering

This morning after my walk I was reading a bit in Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, and am reading the chapter entitled "Why God Appoints Suffering for His Servants" by John Piper. In typical Piperesque fashion, he has distilled this difficult topic into six easy points, each backed by a plethora of Scripture verses. Piper says there are six basic reasons God appoints His children to suffer:
1. Suffering deepens faith and holiness.
2. Suffering makes your cup increase (here, Piper discusses the riches we obtain in eternity when we suffer for Christ)
3. Suffering is the price of making others bold for Christ.
4. Suffering fills up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions.
5. Suffering enforces the missionary command to go.
6. The supremacy of Christ is manifest in suffering.

This has reminded me, on the one hand, to be grateful for my suffering. I praise God for the wealth and depth of my relationship to Him that has come because of the difficult things in my life. I thank Him for keeping me from the "inertia of ease and the apathy of abundance", as Piper calls it. I praise Him for pointing out to me over and over again, how to hold this world loosely, and for reminding me to keep the priority of my life in serving Him.

On the other hand, I am almost stunned to see the depth of His mercy in making my suffering so trivial and easy to bear. Yes, I have had to fight fear, and now I grow frustrated with fatigue. But these are, truly, light and momentary afflictions, especially when compared to those in tougher places. So I am praying for God's grace for my friends, the Carlsons, as they watch their teen-age daughter succumb to lymphoma. And I pray for my friend Jeannie as she watches cancer devastate her mother and struggles to learn how to stand in that place of difficult service. And I pray for Natasha, who is learning to raise her young daughter with the looming specter of metastatic disease ever before her. My way is very easy, and the least I can do is be bold before the throne of grace for these dear ones!

So, today I am mostly thankful in heart that though this world is fraught with perils and suffering, the One who made us and redeemed us is big enough for them all.