A mixed blessing?

An interestingly named bakery in Tooting, South London. Photo Tim Thornborough

"The weather was really hot on holiday - but it was a mixed blessing, because we all got sunburnt."
"Nuclear power is a mixed blessing - it gives us electricity but also weapons with terrible destructive power."
"Children are a mixed blessing - of course they bring us incredible joy and happiness - but the sleepless nights, the expense, the worry..."

I wonder if you've ever used this phrase in conversation? Many of us have.

We might also be tempted to think that being a Christian is a mixed blessing. The "upside" is enormous after all - forgiveness, eternal life, a new family, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the sure rock of the Bible as our guide in life, joy... I could go on.

But with it comes a whole heap of other stuff that is less pleasant. Misunderstanding, persecution, a task in life that seems impossible, the inner struggle against sin and temptation. None of these things are minor - many of them deeply painful, and last our whole lives.

So if someone said to us: "being a a Christian is a mixed blessing", we might be tempted to nod in agreement - until we looked at our Bibles.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places - Ephesians 1 v 3

[Jesus said:] “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets. - Luke 6 v 22

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds… - James 1 v 2

The pattern of the cross shows us what we are to expect - resurrection and eternal life, but by way of suffering and death. No one pretends that these things do not hurt. No one suggests that picking up your cross daily isn't often a wearying agonising experience. But the Bible writers go way beyond that fatalistic view of this life. They encourage us to see the sufferings and trials of this world as a part of the blessings we have received now. They are signs that God has redeemed us for a glorious eternity. They are a privilege to share in, because in some mysterious way we participate in the sufferings of our beloved Lord who saved us. And in the mercy of God, they are part of the way he refines us and shapes us for the new creation. Not a mixed blessing - but a small part of riches that have been poured out on us in Jesus.

Anyone got any suggestions for ways we can talk about sufferings being a blessing without sounding mad or twee? All suggestions would be a blessing.