Someone
recently asked me the question, “Why do some experience more suffering than
others?” I think the more burning question in their mind was, “Why does God
allow more suffering in a God-believing, God-fearing Christian than He does in
an unbeliever or carnal minded Christian?” Of course, I really can’t answer
that question and neither can you. However, we all want to take a stab at the
answer, and I think that is ok.
That question
is not a new struggle. You find that same struggle in the Bible (Job 12:6; Ps.
73:3-9; Jer. 12:1-2). I think Malachi best summed it up, “Now we call the
arrogant blessed; not only are the doers of wickedness built up but they also
test God and escape." (Mal. 3:15,NASB) From our limited perspective, it
seems God is blessing the wicked and allowing them to prosper, while we who
love Him and are committed to Him suffer.
When we come
into this world, we observe expectations about life from our parents,
relatives, friends, peers, teachers, pastors, media, etc. Those expectations
become rights we believe we must have in order to have a “good” life. When our
rights or expectations go unmet, we suffer. It is when we suffer that we are
tempted to ask the questions above.
First of all,
the comparison game will get us nowhere. Only God can answer the “why me and
not them” question. I see that query as a distraction from what God is doing in
my life. So, if we take the other person out of the question it becomes, “Why
do I suffer?” Now… there is a biblical answer to that question! Let’s look at
perspective for a moment.
God is eternal
and He is not limited to our “time and space” existence. He does interact in
our time because that is where we exist right now. When God told Moses that His
name was “I AM,” He was revealing a deep truth about Himself. He was letting
Moses know that He doesn’t have a past or a future in the sense that we do.
Personally, I can’t even begin to comprehend that! The Bible says that a
thousand years is like one day and one day is like a thousand years (Ps. 90:4;
2 Pet. 3:8).
From God’s
perspective, our suffering is less than a moment. Yet, when He interacts with
us in our suffering, He experiences every grueling second, minute, hour, day,
week, month, year or years with us. He wants to comfort us and whisper to us,
“Everything will be okay by child. I’ll wait with you until it is over.” When
we trust Him and see our suffering from His perspective He does something
supernatural in our thinking that is like an unveiling of a mystery. As our
thinking is changed and renewed, our beliefs change, as our beliefs change, our
behaviors change.
I think Paul
reveals the reason for our suffering in 2 Corinthians 1:8-9, “For we don't want
you to be unaware, brothers, of our affliction that took place in Asia: we were
completely overwhelmed -- beyond our strength -- so that we even despaired of
life. Indeed, we personally had a death sentence within ourselves, so that we
would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.” (HCSB)
It is through
our suffering we learn complete and utter dependence on God. We learn more of
the depths of His love and goodness. He makes His grace more visible in our
lives. Suffering is the perfect storm to strip away all that hinders His glory
from being seen in us. We have all of His glory, but it is operating out of
self-reliance that shields His glory in us.
When we suffer,
our emotions are screaming out for relief.
If we listen to our emotions as though they are the guiding force in our
lives, we will make choices that only lead to more suffering. God wants to
transform our thinking thereby changing our understanding so we can see things
from His perspective. This process deepens our faith in Him. To live by faith
is being fully convinced that what God has promised He will be able to perform
(Rom. 4:21).
Paul best
describes this process, “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer
man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary,
light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all
comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things
which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things
which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Cor. 4:16-18, NASB)
When suffering
comes our way, we can see it from God’s perspective and rely on Him to walk us
through “the valley of the shadow of death” (Ps. 23:4). He is turning our ashes
into beauty (Is. 61:3). We will see His glory in us in ways that only He can
accomplish. When our response to suffering changes from “why me” to “not my
will, but Yours,” then we will know we are trusting in the Lover of our soul.
