Making Sense of Suffering
I am sure all of us can relate with
suffering, whether it’s through physical ailments, financial struggles, broken
relationships, death of loved ones - the list goes on. I was particularly
stretched to my limits of enduring suffering this year. It was one of the
lowest points of my life. Life seemingly had no purpose as I was deeply drowned
in the fact that I was suffering so much and there was no way out. But praise
God that He is close to the brokenhearted (Psalm 34:18) and thanks to Him, I
might have a glimpse of understanding on how our suffering is not meaningless
in Him.
Stop Searching for the Reason
As part of my defense mechanism for
making sense of suffering, I needed to justify why I had to go through so many of
life’s struggles and challenges. Why me? Why this and not that? Why God why? I
thought if I knew the reason behind all the suffering, it would make sense and
make me feel better. It seemed like a natural response when faced with
suffering. But it revealed how little faith I had in Him. Why do I need an
answer or reason to trust Him after Jesus Himself went through the ultimate
suffering? I failed to focus on God’s will, which is what Jesus perfectly
exemplified in Gethsemane (Luke 22:42). Francis Chan’s quote from Job 11:7 sums
up my first point: “Can you worship a God who isn’t obligated to explain His
actions to you?”
I stopped searching for the reason
of my struggles, and found myself reminded of completely trusting Him with
whatever story He is creating through my life’s journey. (Jeremiah 29:11)
To be Purified as Gold
Suffering is part of refining our
character as gold. I heard it a lot and believed it up until I went through it.
Then I started doubting how it could possibly be good for me. But I was saved
again by God’s unrelenting grace when suffering revealed my sins: how highly I
think of myself and think that I don’t deserve all of life’s burdens. I wasn’t
walking closely with Him. I wasn’t intimate with Him. Through utter dependence
on Him, I was able to personalize the meaning of His character-building process
in which He is sanctifying us from within for our own good. (James 1:2-4)
This is Not Our Home
There must be a place without
suffering since we all long for that. And suffering is a constant reminder that
this world is not our home. God never promised a life of
comfort. If we look at the Bible, we see how everyone went through suffering
and how it’s not the point.
The point has always been how God is glorified in our life and that it is His story, not ours.
Paul’s bold statement “For me, to
live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21) shows how we ought to
fix our eyes on Christ in our life while looking forward to eternal unity with
Him after this “short” affliction on earth.
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