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Friday night Lucas and I had the privilege of attending a simulcast of Secret Church, led by David Platt. It’s a 6+ hour long study (250 pages of notes!) that starts around 6pm. That means we got home and were in bed by 2am.

(that would be 2 o’clock…IN THE MORNING!)

That’s unheard of for codgers like us.

But it’s not like you have time to doze off or get sleepy. David teaches so fast, and throws so much information at you, it’s like drinking from a fire hose. I’m just sayin’, that man never missed a beat, stumbled over a word or even said “um”.

Not once.

I think he had a super-secret IV in his ankle, delivering Red Bull directly into his blood stream.

But there’s nothing “secret” about Secret Church. It’s called that in honor of the thousands of our Christian brothers and sisters who really do have to meet in secret for church. They gather in cramped basements during the middle of the night and listen to some seriously non-fluffy teaching for hours upon hours. They are so hungry for the Word, they care not about their discomfort.

It’s quite the antithesis of how we do church here in America, where we debate whether or not we should also go to Sunday school that morning, complain that we missed the first quarter of the football game because the preacher “went on” too long, and critique the music as if they were contestants on American Idol.

We’re so lame.

The topic of this particular Secret Church was suffering.

Mr. Platt does not mince words on this subject (nor any subject for that matter). He teaches the good and the hard, regardless of its popularity.

Oh boy.

When I hear lots of teaching on suffering, I tend to brace myself for the possibility that God might be preparing me for it. After all, it’s not likely that I will escape this life without enduring suffering, so I should be be prepared for it.

Nothing in scripture teaches us that we will skate through life without scars. We would like to believe that we will, though. Why do you think prosperity preachers like Joel Osteen and Kenneth Hagin are so popular? And so rich.

They deceive millions of “followers” into believing that if they would simply obey God’s commands, their lives will be full of health, wealth and happiness. Name it and claim it, people, right? They take scripture completely out of context and bend it to preach their “good news.”

The Bible teaches quite the opposite. Did you ever read about a disciple who ended his days in a phat house on the Med, eating hummus, playing golf and watching his grandchildren grow?

Nope. Most of them were martyred.

The Bible says “when you face trials of many kinds”, not “if”. (Jas 1:2) It also tells us “if anyone wants to be His follower, he must take up his cross” (Matt 16:24). 

Here’s a paragraph from InterVarsity Press’ Bible commentary regarding ‘taking up your cross’: (read it…I promise it’s good!)

“‘Taking up one’s cross’ in antiquity hardly meant simply putting up with an annoying roommate or having to live with ingrown toenails. It meant marching on the way to one’s execution, shamefully carrying the heavy horizontal beam (the patibulum) of one’s own death-instrument through a jeering mob. Jesus anticipated literal martyrdom for himself and many of his followers by the Romans’ standard means of executing lower-class criminals and slaves; his kingdom was ultimately incompatible with Rome’s claims. If disciples “come after” and imitate their teachers, Christians’ lives are forfeit from the moment they begin following Christ; to come after Jesus, Peter himself had to return to walking behind Him.”

Yikes.

Here’s a great quote by the awesomesauce Randy Alcorn:

“When Paul was taken in chains from his filthy Roman dungeon and beheaded at the order of the opulent madman Nero, two representatives of humanity faced off, one of the best and one of the worst. One lived for prosperity on earth, the other didn’t. One now lives in prosperity in Heaven, the other doesn’t. We remember both men for what they truly were, which is why we name our sons Paul and our dogs Nero.”

The good news is not that we will escape this life unscathed, but that when we suffer, it accomplishes a myriad of purposes:

• to refine our faith
• to reveal His glory
• to teach us to rely on Him
• to bring us to repent and renounce all sin in our lives
• to lead us to our reward in Him

And the one common end…our JOY in Christ, to the GLORY of God.

(all The Platt-ster’s points…not mine…I could never be so concise)

I can say that in my life I have never suffered significant loss. I’ve never lost a child or a husband. I have never been afflicted with serious physical illness or life-altering mental illness. Lucas has never lost his job. We’ve never lost our home to natural disaster. I’ve never been persecuted for my faith.

I think the suffering I’ve endured has been moderate, at worst. And when it hits, I am squirming so hard, trying to wriggle my way out from under it, and clawing my way out. I throw temper tantrums. I become anxious and fearful.

I beg God to take it away.

Clearly I am an excellent suffer-er.

But the point is not that we bury our pain and plaster on a fake smile and tell people it’s all okay when we go through horrible circumstances.

To suffer well is to cling to Christ, to press into Him, and find your deepest satisfaction and joy in knowing Him.

“But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed.” 1 Peter 4:13

Good stuff, people.

On a lighter note, my other takeaway from Friday night’s Secret Church is that I don’t understand Twitter.

At all.

And that’s frustrating for a semi-tech-savvy person like myself.

I don’t understand how this symbol #, which used to be called a pound sign but is now called a hash mark, can trend things. And what is a trend? I thought it was tight-rolled jeans in the 90′s, and Live Strong bracelets 2 years ago. And where do these trends go?

See? I don’t get it.

And I don’t get the significance of this symbol either @, and why it matters when you tweet.

And I don’t have the time to sit down and figure all this out anyway.

So…all this to say, my three takeaways from Secret Church are:

1. I don’t get Twitter.
2. Suffering is inevitable, but it is ultimately for our good and His glory.
3. David Platt rocks.

The end.

Oh, and PS – if you ever want to attend a Secret Church simulcast, you don’t have to have a big group or grand facility. We gathered in a friend’s house with the Young Adult Ministry (or the YAM’s, as they like to call themselves) that we help out with. All you have to do is register at the radical.net site, pay a nominal fee for the materials and they send you the study guides and tell you how to hook up the simulcast. It’s easysauce. And well worth it.