Ruminations...

This morning during my devotions different thoughts that I have been pondering from statements made during the Bible study I attend, church services, and staff devotions.  In Eyes of the Heart by Tracie Peterson she uses an example of a forest fire being the worst thing that can happen to a forest.  While I appreciate the point she was trying to make, the truth is a forest fire is actually a good thing.  As far as I understand, without fire, all the full grown trees would grow up, block out the sun and keep out the new growth.  Eventually the trees would get old and die, but there would be no or very few trees to replace them.  The forest would be gone.  On the other hand, a forest fire comes through and burns out all the foliage which is blocking out the sun.  The sun is then able to reach the forest floor and young trees are able to grow - rejuvenating the forest.  The fire may not be good for one individual tree, but the forest is not about one tree.  The one tree is just a part of the forest.  This is a good picture of life for the believer.  If we focus on ourselves, we might ask why do bad things happen to me if I am following God, but as one of my co-workers said, our lives are not about us, they are about God.  In the grand scheme of things don't we only matter because God cares about us, and because of that, our focus should be on God alone and serving Him.  Shouldn't we be like the 1st century believers, praising God for the persecutions that they went through?  They did this not only because Jesus Himself went through it all, but also because the way we go through suffering, even to the point of death, brings other people to God.  Would King Darius come to believe in the God of Daniel if the king's counselors had not first gotten him to pass the law that no one could pray to anyone but him for 30 days, and then Daniel had not been willing to continue praying in his normal way, knowing he could very likely die for what he did?  How many people's souls were saved through the Inquisition, because they saw what their neighbors were willing to suffer for their faith?  Often we pray against suffering, but I wonder is this the right thing, or should we be praying that God will use us any way He sees fit to bring others to Him?  Do we not want the suffering because our focus is to much on "me" and not on God?  I don't know for sure the answers, and I can't say that I really want to pray for suffering to come into my life, but I wonder, is that because my focus is on me.  I wonder if the acronym for JOY (Jesus, others, you) should be thrown out.  Even thinking of ourselves last is to much.  We do not need to think about ourselves period.  God has that more than covered.  Maybe Joy should only be Jesus.  If we focus solely on Him, will not the effect of that focus bleed out on the others we are around?  Maybe then people would not see believers as hypocrites, but rather they would see Christ in us.