What is pain and suffering for? Why do bad things happen to good people? Pain and suffering are universal experiences. No one is immune to the trials and tribulations of life. When faced with difficult circumstances, it’s natural to question why. In His mercy and grace, the answers Jesus gives are so sweeter. Let’s dive into what pain and suffering mean for the Christian!
Suffering to Encourage Fellowship
When we are experiencing pain and suffering, our minds are very quick to convince us that we are in it alone. The reality of life is that everyone lives through hardships at some point in life whether it be emotional, mental, physical, or spiritual pain and suffering. What a beautiful reality check! Jesus presents us with the idea that our pain can be used to motivate us to seek out others who are going through something similar or those who have been where we are. 2 Corinthians 1:4-6 says this:
4 He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. 5 For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. 6 Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer.
Our agony seems to be a way to level the playing field, to humble all of us. None of us can boast that we haven’t been touched by something awful or hard. Since none of us can truthfully claim this, it opens us up to being vulnerable to each other to build true fellowship amongst ourselves.
Spiritual Health and Building Character
Can you imagine what it would be like to not feel physical pain at all? Some people live like this! There is a rare genetic disorder called Congenital Insensitivity to Pain or CIP. If they get a paper cut, break a bone, have nerve damage, etc, they don’t feel it. Would you consider them lucky? I wouldn’t.
Physical pain is a warning system for our bodies. How would we know when to pay attention if we never got a notification? It is the same for our mental and spiritual health too. Without the pain signals, we would continue thinking that everything is alright, but we’re on the brink of death.
“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” C.S. Lewis The Problem of Pain.
God has given us pain as a blessing. Remember, His ways are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9)! Pain and suffering can take us to our knees, can’t it? It can take our breath away and send our minds reeling.
The instinct we have is to ask “why,” and God is faithful to hear us when we cry out to Him in our aches. In our pain, God can grab our attention and hold it, while we are in a submissive state to reflect on what He presents to us.
For those of us who experience chronic pain, I’d like to believe that we have been blessed beyond measure since we have an increased amount of time to spend in reflection with God. Our constant affliction can be seen as an anchor in God so we aren’t washed away by the current of the world.
The Apostle Paul wrote a letter to the church in Corinth, which was in bad shape. He had to set them straight so they could be the followers of Christ they were called to be. In 2 Corinthians 7:9-10, he says:
9 Now I am glad I sent it, not because it hurt you, but because the pain caused you to repent and change your ways. It was the kind of sorrow God wants his people to have, so you were not harmed by us in any way. 10 For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.
It is natural human behavior for pain to catch our attention. God knows that sometimes the only thing that will alert us to our sins or a situation that requires our attention is hurt.
Goal= Be Like JESUS
The Bible doesn’t shy away from the reality of suffering obviously, because Jesus Christ, the Son of God, experienced the ultimate suffering on the cross to save our souls from the fate of hell! Jesus bore the full wrath of God so we can be safe from hell’s eternal suffering. I believe that many Christians ignore the uncomfortable truth that to truly follow Christ, we must endure suffering in this life and do so for His sake.
Instead, your suffering has a sanctifying purpose; it is meant to deepen your relationship with Jesus, that you may “know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.” Philippians 3:10
OOF. How many of us truly think about this when we are amid torment? Our sufferings are meant to sanctify us by helping us empathize with Jesus as He was dying the torturous death He died for us. Our hardships are meant to serve as a mere glimpse of what He endured for us on the cross.
I’ve been reading I’ve Seen the End of You by W. Lee Warren, MD, and there is a scene where he is questioning his faith after working on a brain bleed in a severely abused baby who came through the ER. The pastor and he start talking about the verse Romans 8:28
28 And we know that God causes everything to work together[a] for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
Warren insists that this verse means that everything will work together for the good of those who love God. The Pastor counters with a matter-of-fact answer that I haven’t heard before. The book states, and I quote:
“If I believed that the Bible says everything works out for good all the time, I would know it wasn’t true and I would throw this cross out and get another job. But that’s not what it says. It says that if we love the Lord, he will use everything in our lives to make us more like Jesus, which is always good for us. Big difference.” (pg 151)
That is a huge difference! As Christians, our lives our not about being comfortable and having a smooth ride here on earth. If we were comfortable here, why would we need a Savior or look forward to eternity? We wouldn’t! As followers of Jesus, the absolute best thing for us, no matter what is to be sanctified and made more like Jesus. THAT is the point of any pain and suffering we experience in life.
God is trippy. I don’t know why, but it always blows my mind that He wrote us a guidebook for life and there is always an answer to our questions. We may not like the answer or find it sufficient, but it is.
I encourage you all the remember to turn to God and pray when you are struggling. Read His word and ask Him all the questions because He can handle it! Seek out and lean on your community of similar and fellow sufferers. Remind yourselves that Christ crucified and risen is our absolute hope and confidence that we will get to eternity where pain and suffering are no more! Lastly, although it can be hard to understand, trust God’s sovereignty. He is always behind us, before us, beside us, within us, and over us. Nothing happens that His Will doesn’t allow!
I’d love to hear your thoughts! Why do you think we experience pain and suffering in this life?
What do you think is the point of it all? Comment below!
Blessings and prayers to you Chronic Believers!
