If you are anything like me you will feel despondent with the words ‘suffering’, ‘pain’, ‘hardship’. I am getting better at dealing with difficulty. God has been steadily growing me out of the need to self-protect stemming from childhood trauma. But, there are moments where I still struggle to accept that good and bad coexist. We cannot subjectively dismiss the reality that good and bad things happen.
Is there something to gain from pain?
The Holy Bible is filled with accounts of suffering, which can lead us to judge God incorrectly. We often hear the ‘don’t judge’ brigade also say, “If God is love how can God let suffering happen?” This thinking is a modernist view stemming way back to ancient Greek culture with philosopher Epicurus
Epicurus believed that the greatest benefit was to seek modest, lasting pleasure in the form of atarax (peace and freedom from fear) and aponia (lack of bodily pain) in the form of knowing how the world works.
As idyllic as that sounds, remember that the mistake of naturalism, humanism, and atheism is that its bias filters life by avoiding the paradigm of supernatural aka spiritual. Therefore, those philosophies hold themselves as a god-of-their-understanding but yet cannot suitably answer why consequences, pain, or suffering exist. Yet, any person can attest to the prevalence of suffering. By default, if suffering exists, perhaps this is reason enough to turn to God’s Word to seek out why?
The Book of Job is a remarkable book that teaches us that suffering is an inevitable reality, through which purpose can be derived. Much like professional athletes will tell us that gaining fitness is a series of suffering through levels of pain to achieve goals that make them do incredible things.
Contextually, satan is challenging God in the Book of Job that humans only love God because He gives us good things, but that when things go wrong we will abandon Him. Job has been struck with major financial loss, loss of family, and ill-health.
WHERE DO YOU AND I GET OUR FRAGILITY FROM THINKING WE SHOULDN’T SUFFER WHEN WE OURSELVES CREATE SUFFERING FOR OURSELVES AND OTHERS?
In fact we see that right in the beginning of life as we know it, our choices allowed evil to become part of our paradigm that didn’t exist in the beginning. Genesis 3 vs 17 is a startling explanation of suffering being brought into our lives through disobedience to God who always wanted for, and created us perfectly without suffering.
To note: it is not the reality that we do toil painfully to live in life but the reminder that there was a time where things weren’t cursed by our disobedience to God who gave us perfection that we destroyed by allowing ourselves to be corrupted by the devil who tried to be God. Ever since, ego, has destroyed so much, that we still fall for.
Fortunately, God is a loving Father who is still invested in us. Romans 8 vs 27-30 shows us this incredible nature of God, who despite ourselves, works relentlessly to draw us into His Plan to restore us back to His Original Plan of us living without suffering, which will come when Jesus Returns.
Romans 8 vs 28, “God works ALL things for the good of those who love Him and are called unto HIS (GOOD) PURPOSE,” shows us that even suffering is not bigger than God, though to our fragility it can feel like it. Pain, suffering, and consequences are supposed to be red flags that draw our attention to our fragility. Fragility-awareness humbles us to recognize something bigger than ourselves exists. And in turn, when we cry out to God and find relief, this should make us fall in love with God knowing that although we live in suffering temporarily, greater things are coming.
Our egoism, god-complex, and narcissism lead us to create an imagined reality of nirvana on this side of the grave that avoids the truth that suffering is a part of life. It is an avoidance tactic that highlights our fragility. BUT, suffering reveals an unavoidable reality that The Holy Bible explains to us. Suffering exists therefore God is not a liar. Hence we can trust God that He will work suffering for our benefit. If we let Him.
Reinhold Niebuhr’s famous ‘Serenity Prayer’ reminds us that there is purpose in difficulty.
Whether you and I like it or not, want to believe it or not, and try philosophically dismiss it, the reality is that if God used the suffering of Christ to create THE WAY out of this life doomed to death, then who exactly do we think we are to not endure suffering? Romans 8 vs 18 settles our mind with the realization that God is in control, even in suffering, and it is in fact part of the transformational process to become Christ-like.
THE QUESTION IS NOT WHY WE SUFFER BUT RATHER, “GOD, PLEASE HELP ME TO SUFFER WELL SO THAT YOUR PURPOSES ARE ACHIEVED.”
PERHAPS, OUR IDEALISM THAT ROMANTICISES SUFFERING-AVOIDANCE IS SIMPLY A MANIFESTATION OF OUR IMMATURITY TO ADMIT OUR FRAGILITY AND THE WORLD ISN’T ABOUT US.
PRAY THIS:
God, where I have fallen into Epicurean falsehood thinking life is only about pleasure, help me to accept suffering is par of the course. Help me to learn what You need me to learn from pain, and grow me into deeper, greater, and more honest intimacy with You. Forgive me for buying into my fragility. Forgive me for judging You incorrectly because suffering exists. Help me to overcome everything that keeps me punishing myself because I suffered and didn’t perceive it correctly.
In Your Holy Name Messiah King Jesus
AMEN
#Hayibo 