The Gift of Suffering
The gift of suffering…a gift most do not want to receive…
Pain or truly deep agony and suffering are not popular…they get on our nerves and more…
When it comes to religion it seems suffering is a prerequisite, you have to suffer or earn your way to God…you have to prove you are worthy by scoring oodles of religious points (yes I know that there are also those that think they only have to be better than an ax murderer) or perhaps the goal is the eradication of suffering itself.
Yet Christianity is unique in that your suffering is not a prerequisite, you cannot earn your way to God…you can never be good enough and the eradication of suffering is not the goal…actually it can be a free gift similar to salvation itself. I have often heard the argument of suffering evoked in attempts to discredit God…why would a good God allow suffering? (Only a species as broken and dark as us humans would have the nerve to think we can judge God). Now I come along here and suggest to you that perhaps suffering is actually a gift…and no I am not a masochist…for that matter my wife is tougher than me and suffers more graciously than myself…while women may have the prerogative of changing their mind I freely admit to receiving the prerogative of men that of being needy when suffering…
Perhaps this piques the point, when we are suffering we are needy, or we most acutely recognize our need, we learn we are not bulletproof and have a need beyond our mortal abilities (interesting how we finite mortals become teachable when we are most vulnerable to the reality we are not infinite or immortal). When suffering we are more open and capable of embracing the grace and love God wants to provide (frequently in the most unexpected of ways) through suffering depth of relationship can grow unlike in times of plenty (at least in ways our current brokenness works). We come to the end of ourselves and are finally willing to listen, when things are “good” or “quiet” we usually will not listen but when things turn “bad” God gets our attention by turning up the volume so we take notice…sometimes…
I have noticed in my own times of suffering and observing the suffering of others that it is better to already have that relationship with God as it changes the nature of suffering. Why is it that most pray more fervently and more frequently during suffering?
Suffering can be like a gift, you cannot earn or deserve a gift…a gift by its very nature is free, the giver of the gift offers it out of grace, the receiver can only receive or decline the gift (beware, the default is decline as nobody should be forced to take a gift). Is God forcing you to be happy and successful or is He forcing you to be unfortunate and suffer pain, illness or tragedy? Did God predetermined that my first marriage would be a miserable train wreck so that I would finally be open to the Blade (Bible) and turn to Him to transform my life? Did He force me to sin in that marriage so that my resulting brokenness would result in my turning to Him and my current wondrously happy second marriage?
No, that is fatalism and not Biblical. As God does not force me to sin He also does not force me to suffer. We live in a Fallen broken universe (a result of the infamous incident in the Garden), the natural consequences is a universe where suffering exists both in the nature around us and in the human condition. Horrid tragedies occur and so do sinful choices, sadly, people suffer and people die. Yet is there a hope after death?
Life is an opportunity as suffering can be a gift. I choose to receive the embrace of God in suffering…We have a model for suffering, Jesus Himself. Jesus is well acquainted with suffering and grief. This means that Jesus as Very God knows our suffering…actually more than we can possibly imagine…For we simply think of the physical suffering of Jesus when He was tortured and then crucified…but He also suffered on the cross for our sins as the substitutionary atonement…He volunteered to suffer for us, He paid for the gift final sale…Jesus is the perfect holy holy holy substitute for sinful sinful sinful humans….that is love and that is grace…the Gift of Suffering…
We think of gifts at Christmas, many decry gift giving, I admit to both enjoying the giving and receiving of gifts…yet I suggest that the gift of baby Jesus in the Christmas manger is no greater than the gift of the God-man Jesus at the cross….
Are you willing to receive such a gift? I will warn you…life shall never be the same again…for as we are not God’s puppets He certainly is not ours. However He will transform our lives if we are willing to receive His Gift of Suffering…He shall take you as you are but He shall not leave you that way…and if you truly received the Gift you will want Him to change you…His promise of an end to suffering is for your resurrected life not for the here and now, however He can change the way you engage with suffering…
I invite you to now have a look at the Gift of Suffering with MAX
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"Life is an opportunity as suffering can be a gift"' excellent line. I guess it's all the way we look at suffering, some it pulls closer to God or a higher being, others they throw in the towel and ask "why me?".
I remember you telling me that we who suffer are actually quite fortunate when we met in Vancouver, and that has stayed with me to this very day,and it probably will forever.
Suffering for me initially sucked, my life wasn't going the way I planned, I sucked, my life sucked, everybody sucked..poor me.
I made a decision to give my life to God, I couldn't do anything with it that amounted to much may be he could.
Sad isn't it , we go through life not really caring about the deeper questions in life until something tragic happens that we are not equipped to handle, questions like who we are?, why are we here? and where are we going?, like Max quoted in her post, those are the exact questions I asked myself, didn't have the answers, that's why I turned to God, he answered all of them, but it was only through the suffering that I asked him through prayer and reading the Bible, btw amazing what's in there.
So it's not about suffering anymore as much as the unbelievable awesome stuff that has happened because of it.
Romans 5:3,4, (so true), "And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulations worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope.. and that's what I now have a lot of..hope.
Usually I think of myself as a masochist, but then I probably am deceiving myself: I am a rich, upper class, spoiled brat who doesn't know what true suffering is. The few times I got a real challenge - too my ego - not my body - I handled it badly.
What bugs me sometimes is that it seems quite contrary to scripture that someone would be a Christian most of their life, make it into the Kingdom of God, but never have really suffered.
Hi Bob!
Great to hear your voice!
Thanks for that quote of illustrious me! LOL
I hope things are well with you…are you coming into town again?
It is amazing how epiphany moments such as when you turned from yourself to God can change a life.
Frequently we get caught up in “doing life” or indwelling upon the self (hyper introspection often with a bent towards the intellectual) thinking that within ourselves is the answer…whereas “the answer” is from God and we certainly are not God…suffering can be part of that purification just as metal requires heat so can we…
LOL You know, I considered scoring that verse from Romans in this article and here it is you did it!!! Great verse for this topic..thanks for gifting it here…
So you are going to ramp up the blogging again?
Merry Christmas Looney! Am I the first to say that this year?
LOL I hear you on perhaps feeling “privileged”…I am also globally comparatively rich and secure.
It is difficult to compare levels of suffering…does one need to lose a loved one, suffer from cancer, have a traumatizing accident, become homeless etc…
I have broken several bones and had my appendix taken out never mind wisdom teeth etc…I have fallen off a 200 foot cliff in a car accident….I did have a train wreck of a first marriage…I have observed great tragedy in friends and family…however I feel truly blessed…I have a wonderful wife, friends and family I love and who love me, a job that pays well that I truly enjoy every day…I have a roof over my head and food on the table with vacations here and there…I have two specialty soccer TV channels (which alone brings me an amazing amount of joy…I know its weird but its true)…but when I get hurt I am quite needy…you can ask Chocolate Girl! LOL
So when I observe those in say Haiti or those I volunteer with that are disabled, poor and/or homeless I recognize I am fortunate beyond measure and also recognize we are all a heartbeat away from such things…
As for Christians and suffering…I think perhaps it gets a bit romanticized like missionary work…do we need to be martyrs etc? Do we need to be like Joseph sold into the slavery of Egypt or imprisoned like Paul or John? Do we need to lose a son like Mary?
I think we all suffer but not all of us suffer to the same degree or dwell on it to the same degree…My life certainly is not dominated by suffering but I know those who have suffered little and have much but feel hard done by…my own mother I believe would qualify in this regard…
The tension in the attitude in suffering is interesting…and often makes for the best stories…tension, resolution, tension, resolution, tension, cliffhanger….
I suspect you have suffered but have a positive attitude….
Hey Livingsword, should be coming to town again maybe next year sometime, will give you a call for sure.
ps, check out the song I wrote on my blog, let me know what you think, about the struggles and making a decision.
Hey LSus,
It was nice to see a different aspect of yours: a dramatic one.
It is true that people seem to turn to God, or to the Highest Creative Power, when suffering. Why? I think that they do so because they want to escape the apparent reality of pain and so turn to Love & Peace (the One that transcends us all).
So, men are more needy when suffering, eh? LOL LOL why do you think that happens?
I agree with you when you say that God does not force humans to transgress, but He does allow them to, so that He can see how strong they are and mainly how deep their loyalty to Him is. Sins are part of Free Will.
You speak of Fatalism: Jesus came with a mission, didn't he? We know this because there is a prophecy speaking of God's two Plans. If there is a prophecy it is because it was written above that a certain event will happen, and if it happens it is because God pre-designed it. Since the Bible is full of such examples, I'd say that Fatalism is biblical. Jesus' mission (for example) is Fatalistic and Biblical, yes?
Is it just you, or do Christians (in general) insist upon blaspheming by saying that Jesus is God? Jesus is God's servant, at best he is God's child (by the way he was conceived); but he could never be Hashem.
This argument is further supported by the Bible itself: Jesus addresses an outter entity, not himself; he calls God "father" and not himself. God, in Person, spoke of the servant He'd send...He didn't say, He'd come as human.
I agree with you when you say that the relationship with God changes the way one engages with suffering.
LSus, congratulations. I thoroughly enjoyed this post :D!
Cheers
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