Lessons from suffering

Since I've discovered his writings at Odyssey, Chris Erdman probably has the highest "blogging average" at Transforming Sermons--that is, I link to a higher percentage of his posts than any other blogger (including Conrad Gempf, Dan Edelen, Mike Russell, and Peter Bogart). Chris's latest deals with the role of physical suffering in the life of a preacher. Chris himself is struggling with Crohn's disease:

Disease can make it difficult to preach. Sometimes we may need to stop preaching (and doing much else) for a season, but suffering in our humanness does not disqualify us, and I am finding it does not make our preaching as a witness to Jesus Christ less effective. Rather the opposite is true. Instead, I am learning that our humanness qualifies us to preach. Humanness, especially suffering, inducts us into the life of Christ, who suffers and is “effective” because of suffering. That we don’t understand this, or welcome it, doesn’t make it untrue.

I think Chris is right. Are we willing, then, to give God thanks for our suffering?