called to suffer?

at work today, for a human rights charity working with persecuted christians, a palestinian christian couple came to lead our devotions. he is working in the states promoting awareness about the plight of christians in the holy land and is involved with reconciliation efforts. he has been holding meetings in westminster with an israeli christian setting out their vision for reconciliation.

that and the lead up to easter got me thinking about the role of suffering in conflict resolution and reconcilation. paul talks about carrying around the death of christ and completing the sufferings of christ. is our suffering redemptive in some way? would mandela have had such powerful role if he had been imprisoned for say six months? what about martin luther king and gandhi?

i am coming to think that in any relatioship the path to shalom is not paved with rights and demands for justice but with a more costly way which lays down rights and gladly accepts injustice, until the other - whether it is a nation, wife, friend, child - is sensitized. suffering maybe acts like a scouring brush which takes off the flaky outer layer of rhetoric and posturing and reveals, in a special few, a dazzling mirror which reveals not only the integrity of heart of the sufferer but also causes the other to see themselves as they really are.

what lies beneath...