For September 7, 2026
Shake It Off by Greg Holmes, D.MIN – Director of Missions serving 17 churches
THERE’S AN INTERMITTENT PART OF LIFE we don’t pay much attention to, until it is forced upon us, and that is suffering. Job, the archetypal man of suffering, says “Man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.” (Job 5:7) Once it does grab ahold of our conscious mind, it simply does not let loose unless and until we work our way through it and are able to turn our minds, and our actions, to other things. The nature of suffering is such that we must go on in life in spite of it. Since we are body, soul, and spirit, suffering comes in various forms. There is the suffering of the body, when injury or disease makes its sudden appearance. There is suffering of mind and emotion, closely and inseparably linked, when loss is felt, whatever that might be. And there is suffering of the spirit, when that particular force of life is not available to us for whatever the reason.