This post has proven difficult to write. I have friends who recently plunged over the cliff of grief due to the sudden death of a loved one. Others I know have suffered for decades with physical ailments which cause daily pain and struggles. In writing about the hope we have through suffering, I want to use care. I do not want to disregard or diminish the anguish of those hurting.
I know what it is to be in the deepest valley alone with my demons. I know what it is to feel abandoned by God; to be angry with Him...to doubt He even exists. I know what it feels like to have someone throw Bible verses and pious platitudes at me which only served to make my guilt and anger rise. I know what it is to have my pain invalidated. Even though our tragedies vary, suffering is universal, and it hurts.
I do not want to be like Job's friends. I don't want to add to anyone's pain, so I offer these words carefully and trust they are received with understanding. I want to share the hope on the other side of misery; to lend meaning to it.
I pray you will not be overwhelmed by the dark tunnel of suffering you may enter or get "stuck" inside that murky place. I pray you continue to move forward to the light that does come on the other side. I have been in the pit, and I have experienced suffering like I never thought I would. But God brought me out and I can tell you there is hope. There is purpose in our pain.
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"Give me one good reason!" "What is your excuse?" "What is the reason for my suffering?" "Why have You allowed this?"
We've all said these or similar words when something goes wrong. We want to know why. Why did this happen? Why am I made to suffer? Why was I "singled out" for this type of pain? Why___? (fill in the blank with your source of suffering)
If I get a reason for my pain, I feel like it will be easier to accept, so in the midst of my suffering, I ask God why. But many times I don't just ask, I demand to know why. God "owes" me an explanation, or at the very least, a reason. I ask for an accounting, a motive, or even an excuse. I want justification for what I experience. I point my finger at God and want to know why I shouldn't be angry with Him. I want God to apologize to me.
Our friend Job lost everything he had: possessions, family, and health, all through no fault of his own. Many of us experience seemingly random losses or pain and like Job, and like him, we need to accept that we may never know the reasons why. Job faced the rest of his life without answers; with explanations withheld. He had to simply accept the sovereign plan of God in his life.
Still, we wonder. What possible good can come from our difficulties? The "good" lies within the purposes of God.
Dictionary.com defines purpose as the "intended or desired result; end; aim; goal. The reason for which something exists or is done, made, used..."
We are eternal creatures, and during our time here on earth we exist for the divine purposes of God. He is our Father--our Creator--and we are designed to fulfill His eternal plan on this earth. There is a goal to be achieved. If we cannot come to our pain and suffering with an eternal point of view, it will be hard to ever be at peace with it. It will be hard to accept it, and it will be hard to continue loving the God who allowed it into our lives.
So why does God allow suffering?
He allows it because He is sovereign. He has an ultimate plan for this world and the people therein, and the main objective is to save people from going to hell. God is a loving father who doesn't want anyone to face eternal damnation, so everything He allows, even our suffering, has a divine purpose; to direct us and others toward Him and His saving love. Sometimes it takes hardship or pain to get us to go to the One who has the best plan for our lives. Sometimes we need to be broken to receive all He has for us. Sometimes we need to lead the way for others going through dark valleys.
Each of us are one piece of the entire picture, and every single person is vital. Just as the "butterfly effect" alleges that one flutter of its wings affects change throughout the world, so our lives--the things we experience and how we respond to them--have the ability to change our world and the people we encounter. Maybe the life of just one person is altered by our words or actions, and those changes ripple down to change others. It is impossible to know the effect we have on other human beings. I truly believe we will meet people in heaven who are there because of some seemingly small word we spoke, some small gesture we conveyed to them, or how we responded to the pain in our lives.
Our suffering brings us alongside others who also suffer. It opens a door--a community or brotherhood of sorts--where we can share the hope we have inside us. We can share our burdens and lighten the load of someone else. We have a witness inside our pain.
God can use suffering to open our hearts to hear Him. People turn to God at incredible rates during times of tragedy or hardship. Even those who profess no belief in God are found crying out to Him. When sobbing and broken, the cry, "why?" may open ears to hear His voice for the first time. For Christians, Job 36:15 tells us that when we are afflicted, He delivers us through it, but uses the trial to open our ears to His voice. Sometimes the difficulties we endure shut out the world around us and we begin to hear Him more clearly.
John 9:2-3 tells the story of the man blind from birth. Jesus' disciples asked Him who had sinned, the man or his parents that he should be born blind. Jesus responded that neither was to blame. The man had been born blind--suffered his whole life in darkness--so that the works of God might be displayed in him. Jesus then performed a miracle and restored the man's sight. We may not be the beneficiary of a miracle, but we have to remember that God is able. The blind man did not know he would receive his sight that day. He nor his parents had the knowledge beforehand that Jesus would visit them and bring him sight. Every day he lived in darkness, expecting nothing to change, but one day...everything changed.
Our lives may have a "one day' just around the corner, too, but even if the miracle doesn't come, our suffering can be used to demonstrate God's work in us. In the darkness of pain, we can shine His light through it, perhaps helping others find hope in Him along the way.
Suffering effects our faith. It can cause us to abandon our faith in God, or it can purify and strengthen it. During times of distress and pain, Satan slithers in, just like in the Garden of Eden, and whispers his lies and half-truths in our ears. If we entertain those thoughts, they take root and eventually lead us away from truth. Pain causes us to question God and His goodness. In these times, we need to anchor our hearts and minds in the truths of His Word. We need to shelter ourselves in Him, surround ourselves with those who will not only speak God's truth to us, but also confront the lies Satan tries to weave in. Suffering can be the tipping point of our faith. Satan wants to destroy it; God want to strengthen it. We choose which it will be.
Suffering can increase our trust in God. It's easy to give lip-service to our faith and trust when we have few challenges and things are going well. But when our world comes crashing down around us and we don't understand the agony we experience, will we still trust God? How deep is our trust? What is it dependent on? Will we trust Him no matter what our circumstances?
If we do not truly trust Him, there is no purpose to our suffering. We will never make sense of it, and it will fly in our face like a hard slap. But when we can come to Him, sobbing and angry and fearful and hurt, He is always there, loving us every second of every day. He will love us in spite of the mess we made of our lives, and in spite of the many times we go our own way. When we feel His pure love for us, when we experience His healing in our hearts and minds, trust grows.
Does that mean we anticipate or look forward to the pain life may bring? No, of course not! But when we truly know Him--when we truly trust Him--we can walk through anything in life and know He is with us. We can believe He has a purpose in it, even if we never know the "why" of it. We can trust Him in the valleys of our life.
There are many unanswered questions in this world. Being a Christian doesn't give us the right to any answers. Like Job, we may have to go through the remainder of our days not knowing why things happen. We may never know the reasons. We may never get the miracle. But we can have comfort in knowing that God, in His divine wisdom, has a purpose for it. We are not lost or abandoned or punished just because we suffer. We are part of God's divine plan; a plan that brings glory and honor to Him, as well as hope and salvation to many who don't know Him. If our goal is heaven, and our hearts are trusting God, we can endure hardships in life because we know He has all things under His control. He has a purpose for each one of us; a goal to be achieved.
Suffering is not what any of us want, but it is inevitable. If this post has angered you, or you don't believe one word of it, I simply ask you to revisit it at a later time. Your heart may not be ready to hear the words written here--I know mine wasn't for a long time. But there is a God who knows each of us intimately and calls us by name to the purposes He created us for. He will be waiting for you whenever you come to Him. Trust His love for you. Don't let your vision be blinded by the pain you feel. See beyond it. See your life through heaven-focused eyes. There is purpose in our pain.
(originally posted 8/6/20)
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