Thursday, October 27, 2022

Can You Give Me a Reason for Suffering?

Thursday, October 27, 2022

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort.  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.  2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Paul must have had a reason for praising God in the middle of suffering.  Writing a letter to the church folk at Corinth, that reason for his suffering (and theirs) became transparently necessary to human living, and the cause of Christ.  That may sound like a circular argument without reason…suffering brings God’s comfort, and God’s comforting allows us to bear pain…but even if it appears circular, it is backed-up by sound theological understanding. 

The God-reason behind suffering has to do with living in a fallen world, in which there is no escape from suffering.  God did not create suffering to torture us, or just because we’re evil, and we need to be punished.  Rather, it is because of sin’s nature, and therefore we, in our sin nature, are prone to wander, suffer, and feel the pain of our folly.  We live in relationship with the other 7 billion souls on this planet, and so we are also going to suffer when we’ve not actually done something to deserve the pain.  Let’s face it, you didn’t get the Corona Virus because you stole a dollar from your Mom’s purse, and you don’t get the flu because you had an impure thought.  These are part of living in proximity to those who have the illness.  Sometimes we’re the winshield, and sometimes we’re the bug…stuff happens!

If suffering is unavoidable (and we know that to be true, despite unceasing human attempts to avoid pain at all costs, and at the expense of relationship, rest, fortune, or even reputation), well, what are we to make of God’s part in allowing pain?  Is it just a reminder of how bad we are?  Is it to teach us to behave?  And, if it’s just a capricious thing God does, because God can do it…why would Paul praise a God like that?

Well, lots of questions to be answered; most of the answers are unsatisfactory when your foot is killing you with every step, or your heart is failing, or your spouse just walked out on you, for what he said is the end.  Can you give me any reason or purpose for that suffering, which will give me even the slightest hope of continuing to live with purpose?  I mean, what’s the sense, if there’s no purpose?

The purpose in our suffering is often known only to God.  Paul had wrestled (like Job wrestled) with his thorn in the flesh[1] only to have God tell him he would have to wrestle with it longer…God’s grace would have to suffice for now.  History tells us Paul finally came to terms with his suffering and pain, and even death.  In Paul’s deep reasoning and understanding of God with us, and our need for His presence and purpose, and even our need for suffering, Paul’s letter to the Roman Christians gave the answer in a deeply-personal testimony of God’s answer to our dilemma with pain and suffering:

Oh, what a miserable person I am!  Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?  Thank God!  The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.  Romans 7:24-25a

For You Today

In Paul’s answer about being freed in Jesus Christ, he also points to his former letter to the Corinthians, where he beautifully describes the purpose for the whole process:  Just as Christ came to heal us in our pain of sin-sickness, we, in our suffering, fulfill His ministry to comfort and heal others.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

       Suffering   and   When Pain Speaks

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©  

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