Suffering unjustly

I'm thinking today of a young lady I know who has been treated really badly by her church. She's served faithfully for a number of years on the staff of the church, but has found herself sidelined and replaced by someone else, and all this without any personal word of explanation. I'm sure she is hurting deeply, and probably a bit confused. Her story is not an isolated one. Sadly, it is common for churches to treat their staff badly. There are no trade unions to protest and no employment laws to protect, so when unaccountable leaders operate in autocratic ways, people get hurt.
When we suffer unjustly we have a major choice to make. How will we respond? We can feel sorry for ourselves (and understandably so, for a while), become bitter and cynical, get drawn into a war of words, or even become embroiled in a major conflict. Alternatively, we can take our suffering to the cross and allow our pain to draw us into a deeper place of identification with Christ in his sufferings. Somehow, Christ's sufferings continue beyond the cross (Colossians 1:24), and we can share our sufferings with him. This does not remove the pain, but does help us to know what to do with our hurt. This is the 'fellowship of his sufferings' (Philippians 3:10), one of the gateways to intimacy with God and the release of his power in our lives.
Easter reminds us that Jesus was a Man of Sorrows, acquainted with grief. As we remember how he carried his cross to Calvary, we are challeneged to take up our own cross and follow him. Sometimes life will cause us to walk with him along our own version of the Via Dolorosa, the path of sadness.