What’s more, we had human parents who disciplined us, and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live? Our human parents disciplined us for a little while, as it seemed best to them, but God does it for our benefit so that we can share his holiness.
Hebrews 12:9-10 CEB
I don’t know what hardships the readers of this letter faced, but the writer tells them to view their trials as a divine discipline intended to purify them and train them in right living. Parents discipline their children; God disciplines us — so the reasoning goes. This is a difficult idea because it is easy to take it in the sense that God deliberately sends us pain, hardship, and suffering to teach us some larger lesson. I don’t believe that at all. In the Gospels, Jesus didn’t cause people pain; rather, he sought to alleviate it and ultimately endured it on the cross himself. I see the trials people face as a place where God is most present, inviting them to deeper trust and wholeness. This is how hardship is a divine training ground, as this passage teaches. I love the little phrase ‘submit to the Father of spirits and live.’ Not submission in a servile, groveling form. No, the image that comes to mind is a little girl climbing into her father’s lap, trusting in his love, wisdom and protection for her. How to climb into the lap? Prayer. So Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, “The right and proper attitude of a human being toward God is to entreat God with outstretched hands, knowing that God has the heart of a loving parent.”
(image by Ezra Katz)


