What If Pain Is Part of the Calling?

Most of us come to Christ expecting — or at least hoping — that faith will make life better. Easier. More peaceful. And in many ways, it does. But the New Testament keeps saying something that cuts against our instincts: suffering is not an interruption of the Christian life. It is woven into it.

The Call to Joy and Pain by Ajith Fernando takes this biblical truth seriously — and explores it with the depth, warmth, and cross-cultural wisdom of a man who has spent decades in ministry in some of the world's most demanding circumstances. This is not a book of tidy answers. It is a book that opens the eyes, steadies the heart, and helps Christians embrace — rather than merely endure — the suffering that service to Jesus entails.

A Word the Western Church Needs to Hear

One of the most striking contributions of this book is its cross-cultural perspective. Ajith Fernando writes not only as a careful biblical expositor but as a pastor and ministry leader who has lived and served in Sri Lanka for decades — through conflict, hardship, and the particular pressures of ministry in a non-Western, often hostile context.

His gentle but clear observation runs throughout the book: the Western church, shaped by comfort and convenience, has much to learn about suffering from brothers and sisters who have never had the option of avoiding it. For readers in India — where the church has always known something of this — Fernando's voice carries the ring of hard-won, lived truth.

Rooted in Colossians 1:24–29

The theological heart of the book is Paul's remarkable statement in Colossians 1:24 — "I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions." This is one of the most misunderstood and theologically rich passages in the New Testament, and Fernando handles it with care and clarity.

He unpacks what Paul means by rejoicing in suffering, what it means to "fill up what is lacking" in Christ's afflictions, and how this shapes Paul's entire vision of Christian ministry. The result is a biblical theology of suffering that is both rigorously grounded and deeply practical.

What This Book Covers

The biblical connection between joy and suffering — why the New Testament presents pain as a trigger for joy
An exposition of Colossians 1:24–29 — Paul's theology of suffering for Christ and his people
How suffering draws the believer nearer to God — the sanctifying and deepening work of pain
How suffering makes the Christian more effective in service — not despite hardship but through it
What it means to "fill up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions" — a careful handling of a difficult text
The cross-cultural dimension — what the global church, especially the non-Western church, knows about suffering that the comfortable church needs to learn
Suffering as a blessing — both to the individual Christian and to the wider church
How to embrace a life of total devotion to Christ, joyfully, even when that devotion costs something

What Readers Will Learn

Why suffering is not an obstacle to Christian joy but can be a pathway to it
What the Bible — and especially Paul in Colossians — actually teaches about suffering for Christ
How enduring hardship in ministry produces deeper intimacy with God and greater fruitfulness in service
Why Christians in comfort-oriented cultures need to recover a biblical theology of suffering
How to reframe pain not as something to escape but as something God uses to shape and strengthen his people
What a life of total devotion to Jesus looks like — and why it is worth the cost
How Fernando's cross-cultural pastoral wisdom speaks into the specific experience of Christians in India and the Global South

Who Should Read This Book

Christians going through suffering who want a biblical, not merely therapeutic, response
Pastors and ministry workers navigating the particular hardships of Christian service
Christians in India and the Global South whose experience of suffering in faith is already real — and who want a theological framework to understand it
Western Christians and missionaries being challenged to rethink their assumptions about comfort and cost
Theology students and seminary candidates studying the theology of suffering and Christian ministry
Small groups wanting to study together what the Bible teaches about pain, perseverance, and joy
Anyone asking: Why is following Jesus so hard — and is that actually supposed to be this way?

About the Author

Ajith Fernando is one of the most respected evangelical voices from the Global South. He served for many years as the National Director of Youth for Christ in Sri Lanka — a role that placed him at the intersection of cross-cultural ministry, pastoral care, and the realities of Christian witness in a context shaped by ethnic conflict and religious pressure. He is the author of numerous widely-read books including Jesus Driven Ministry, Spiritual Direction in the Small Group, and a major commentary on Acts in the NIV Application Commentary series. Fernando is known for combining rigorous biblical exposition with the kind of pastoral wisdom that only comes from decades of costly, committed ministry. His writing speaks with unusual authority on suffering because he has not merely studied it — he has lived it. He and his wife Nelun have ministered together in Sri Lanka for their entire adult lives.