Never Be a Better Time - The opening of the recipient’s hearts to Paul and his missioners is at the core of this passage. A rough paraphrase might be: "Don’t treat our work in vain; the hardships we’ve experienced-and there are a lot of them-have all come because of Good New we proclaim. And let me count the virtues that have resulted through the hardships-and there’s a lot of them, too. They’ve all come to us missioners. So open your heart to us as we have to you."

Working Together - A deliberate ambiguity begins this section: "As we work together ("synergountes"). Work together with whom? Moving backward, the "together" would refer to God. Paul’s affectionate feelings for his recipients would suggest that the "together" referred to the Corinthians. Maybe he envisions both-God and the Corinthians. I think Paul may use this participle in a clearly ambiguous way to suggest an invitation for the Corinthians to join him-and God!-in the connectedness of evangelism.

Hardship Cafe - I wonder if Paul would have raised the same questions as Rabbi Kushner did in, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. Kushner certainly does a great job in raising our culture’s questions about the meaning of suffering, but Paul seems to see hardships differently. According to NIB, "Faith does not function as a protection from hard times or from difficulties. Problems and tribulations are not a sign or God’s disfavor [or God’s inability to act benevolently]. Paul’s hardship lists show that he frequently encounters problems and tribulations. Rather, faith-that is, our trust in God -becomes the assurance that God is "for us," that God is on our side through tough times and good times . . . [1]

How have you experienced the truth of Paul’s maxim, "all things [good / bad/ ugly] work together for God to those who love God . . ." (Romans 8:28)?

What items / experiences would fill your "hardship list?"

Play with the idea of lists-come up with the many lists that we use, maybe even your own version of David Letterman’s top ten list.

Move to the text about Paul’s two lists-the hardship and the virtue lists. Explore them, walk through them, listen to what lies behind such lists.

Try to uncover what Paul believes about God’s love and calling even given such an astonishing hardship list as Paul has. You could easily overhear Romans 8 about God’s love that never loses sight of us - or of our faith community when it experiences hardship.