Suffering

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.