Information Related to "How Good Can Come From Suffering"
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How Good Can
Come
From Suffering
Sigmund
Freud worked as a counselor to deliver people from psychological difficulties.
Yet he was honest enough to admit that his ability to help was limited. He confessed
that he “cured the miseries of the neurotic only to open him up to the
normal misery of life” (Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death, 1973,
p. 271). Freud was right: There is no such thing as a trouble-free life.
Since we cannot avoid all suffering, we must keep in mind that it can and often
does produce good results. It’s easier to endure suffering and pain when
we view them as challenges than when we think of them as unbearable curses.
It has traditionally been a tenet of Western culture, and rightly so, that some
difficulties are beneficial in that they can help us mature and become better
people. However, author Richard Kyle reminds us that much of Europe, Britain
and the United States has entered the post-Christian era, in which “Christianity
is no longer the definer of cultural values” (The Last Days Are Here
Again, 1998, p. 25).
The post-Christian mind-set rejects the traditional biblical view that hardship
and pain—though unpleasant and undesired—can work to ultimate good.
Expressions such as “By standing firm you will gain life” (Luke 21:19,
NIV) and “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God”
(Acts 14:22, NIV), though true, are no longer widely accepted.
The Bible plainly teaches that adversity can produce beneficial results. Even
though Christ was the Son of God, He, too, “learned obedience by the things
which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal
salvation to all who obey Him” (Hebrews 5:8-9). Even secular history provides
many examples of individuals and nations that, under conditions of duress, overcame
difficult circumstances to achieve greatness. Sometimes one determined individual
has provided the spark needed for nations to endure hard times and achieve praiseworthy
objectives.
A prime minister powerfully serves
his country
Sir John Keegan observed this to be true with Winston Churchill and Britain
in World War II. In 1940, during the darkest days of the conflict, Churchill
stood valiantly to rally the beleaguered British people. “In a series of
magnificent speeches, appealing to his people’s courage and historic greatness,
he carried Britain with him.” Through his powerful words, he imposed his
“will and imagination on his countrymen” (U.S. News & World
Report, May 29, 2000).
Stiffened by their prime minister’s resolve, Britons withstood a horrific
pounding by Hitler’s luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain and turned
a time of trial and impending defeat into triumph in what Churchill called his
country’s “finest hour.”
Keegan writes that the British, under the threat of invasion, “wholly exemplified
how a finest hour should be lived. They dug the dead and the living from the
rubble, manned their beaches (and) tightened their belts” (ibid.).
Will Durant observed that “a challenge successfully met ... raises the
temper and level of a nation, and makes it abler to meet further challenges”
(The Lessons of History, 1968, p. 91).
The British experience demonstrates the necessity of pulling together and supporting
each other during adversity. Dr. Brand tells how he prepares for the worst:
“The best single thing I can do to prepare for pain is to surround myself
with a loving community who will stand beside me when tragedy strikes”
(Brand and Yancey, p. 236). He notes that “suffering is only intolerable
when nobody cares” (p. 257).
God reveals that suffering carries with it a noble purpose: It should help us
to grow in brotherly love. “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill
the law of Christ,” writes Paul (Galatians 6:2).
When our concern flows out toward others, suffering, as undesirable and painful
as it is, can be a profitable experience. We learn the reality that “no
discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces
a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it”
(Hebrews 12:11, NIV).
Facing difficulties
The belief that affliction can yield considerable benefits has almost disappeared
in Western culture. It is largely replaced by the idea that suffering or any
unpleasantness is unfair and to be avoided at any cost.
Perhaps this notion is partially bequeathed to us by our living in a quick-fix
society that teaches us we deserve to have a pill for every ache and a fast
solution to every problem. It is also part of a victim mentality—a refusal
to take responsibility for one’s actions or circumstances—that can
weaken a society that succumbs to it. Any society that recognizes that sometimes
life is not fair and definitely not always easy—and courageously responds
to challenge—grows stronger.
In the modern view, pain is sinister, an enemy that must be avoided. We can
view it that way, or we can see it as a warning that we need to change a behavior.
If we cannot avoid it, then perhaps we can accept its challenge and become a
stronger, better person.
Sometimes we can do little but endure a trial and let it polish our character.
Counselor Norman Wright wrote that “crisis is not always bad. It can become
a turning point in your life for the better ... (It) carries with it opportunity
for growth and change” (How to Have a Creative Crisis, 1986, p.
15).
The Bible reminds us that in trials we should look beyond the present and focus
on the potential benefits: “Perseverance must finish its work so that you
may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:4, NIV).
Don’t let trials overwhelm
We are not saying that one should suffer if he can avoid it. But, when we cannot
avoid it, we need to learn how to deal with suffering and, if necessary, accept
it. If we do not learn to do this, our trials can lead to greater problems should
we make life-altering choices as a result of the anxiety brought on by the trials.
As Dr. Martin writes, “stress and anxiety ... can prevent us from sleeping
properly and make us more inclined to smoke, drink excessive amounts of alcohol,
eat too much of the wrong sorts of food, omit to take our medicine, neglect
physical exercise, consume harmful recreational drugs, indulge in risky sexual
behavior, drive too fast without wearing a seat belt, have a violent accident,
or even commit suicide” (The Healing Mind, 1998, p. 55).
The high suicide rate in many nations may in part reflect people’s inability
to accept that life can be difficult.
A message of good news
The Bible tells us that God allows suffering to serve a divine purpose. Christians
know that their Savior, Jesus Christ, suffered and died for them and that they
must follow in His steps, which include suffering (1Peter 2:21). Jesus endured
agony and died so God could forgive us of our sins and give us eternal life,
during which we will reign with Christ (Revelation 5:10). Knowing this can enable
us to better come to grips with life’s struggles.
“If we endure,” Paul reminds us, “we shall also reign with Him”
(2Timothy 2:12). Christ will return to earth to rule—and eventually bring
an end to sadness and suffering.
Jesus’ message was one of fundamentally good news that focused on the Kingdom
of God (Mark 1:14-15), which Christ will establish at His return. He will institute
a time of worldwide peace and happiness. Isaiah prophesied of the peace and
joy of that coming Kingdom: “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My
holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the
waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9).
When the knowledge of God is restored to humanity, and Satan’s influence
banished, the pain that resulted from following the devil rather than God will
cease (for more details be sure to request our free booklet The
Gospel of the Kingdom).
The earth will at
last find lasting peace.
A marvelous future
God is now calling only a few, relatively speaking, from the masses to be a
part of His Church. He regards them as the firstfruits of His spiritual
harvest (James 1:18)—chosen, if they remain faithful, to reign with Christ
in His Kingdom. But He does not call everyone now (Romans 11:7-8,25-26). “No
one can come to me unless the Father who sent Me draws him,” said Jesus,
“and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:44).
When Jesus spoke of raising up His own at the last day, He was talking about
His second coming. Paul offers these additional details: “For the Lord
Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel,
and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we
who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds
to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore
comfort one another with these words” (1Thessalonians 4:16-18).
When we understand and accept God’s plan of salvation, we find great comfort
in this truth. When Jesus comes, those who have repented and accepted Him as
their Savior and yielded their lives in loving obedience will find comfort.
Their suffering will be no more. God will give them eternal life in a new body—a
spirit body—that will know no suffering (1Corinthians 15:35-54).
We will then realize something we can understand only in part while alive in
the flesh, that “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to
be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).
Those who come to understand the great purpose and calling of God still find
that life at times is painful (verse 23), but they understand why. They look
forward to the time when God will give them eternal life and enable them to
reign with Christ in the Kingdom of God. Paul encourages us to “comfort
one another with these words” (1Thessalonians 4:18).
Painful lessons
Paul notes that Christians, like Christ, must suffer: “... To you it has
been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to
suffer for His sake” (Philippians 1:29).
Peter reminds Christians that they should expect to suffer because God can use
suffering to help purify us from error. “Therefore, since Christ suffered
for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has
suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the
rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God”
(1Peter 4:1-2).
As Christ explained, His followers can expect to suffer. But God sometimes allows
us to suffer because pain teaches us to refrain from sin even under the
most difficult circumstances.
When God allows us to suffer because of our wrong choices, He is actually acting
mercifully. Why? Because the consequence of continuing in sin when we know better
(if not repented of) will be death for all eternity.
“Before I was afflicted,” says the writer of Psalm 119, “I went
astray, but now I keep Your word” (verse 67). He reminds us that suffering
is a reminder of the consequences of sin, that suffering can produce long-term
benefits we may not discern while we deal with our physical or emotional pain.
Pain’s important purpose
Dr. Brand worked for years treating leprosy patients in India and America. During
his labors he arrived at an astonishing conclusion concerning the pathology
of leprosy.
Leprosy victims suffer the curse of having their extremities—fingers, toes,
feet and even nose and ears—deteriorate and waste away, but no one knew
why. Before Dr. Brand’s research, doctors assumed lepers were cursed with
“bad flesh.” Dr. Brand’s remarkable discovery was that the problem
lies in leprosy bacilli, which attack the nerves of body parts, triggering a
process that leads to the death of the nerves. When this occurs, a patient who
incurs the slightest wound—even a bruise—to an afflicted area feels
absolutely no pain. Consequently he continues to use the damaged body part.
This repeated use aggravates the wound. Eventually the tissue becomes so damaged
that the flesh actually dies and sloughs off.
Dr. Brand began treating the wounds of lepers by protecting them, sometimes
with casts. The wounds would often heal and not suffer further damage. The protected
flesh would become sound again, even though the leper did not regain sensation
in the affected body part because the neural tissue had permanently deteriorated.
Dr. Brand concluded that pain is a gift from God that alerts us to the fact
that something has gone wrong.
The doctor’s determination applies to most diseases, not just leprosy.
When we hurt, we should respond to our body’s signals and take measures
to relieve the pain and eliminate the underlying cause. “I had no idea
how vulnerable the body becomes when it lacks a warning system,” concludes
Dr. Brand (Brand and Yancey, p. 121).
Spiritual lessons from suffering
We can draw a spiritual parallel to Dr. Brand’s discovery. Some suffering
is the result of our own sins or foolishness. Sometimes the result is the automatic
trigger of negative and painful consequences in our bodies. God sometimes allows
such discomfort—and suffering—to cause us to pay attention to what
we are doing and induce us to change our behavior, attitude or convictions.
Much mental and physical pain is the result of breaking God’s commandments,
knowingly or unknowingly. As a psychiatrist said, “half the people who
go to clinics with physical complaints are really saying, My life hurts”
(ibid., p. 251).
Sometimes we sin but
we do not immediately hurt. God may bring the sin to our attention by allowing
a subsequent painful trial. “... The Lord disciplines those whom he loves,
and chastises every child whom he accepts” (Hebrews 12:6, NRSV). The Scriptures
contain many examples of men and women whose lives demonstrated this principle.
In allowing discomfort to bring mistakes and character flaws to our attention,
God is no different from any other loving parent. Fathers and mothers who love
their children invest time and effort teaching and enforcing lessons for their
good. God does the same because He wants us to learn (Hebrews 12:5-11).
God sometimes allows us to suffer so we will learn right from wrong, so we will
realize our dependence on Him and His instruction. Therefore we should not be
surprised when life, even for a Christian, includes stress and trials (1Peter 4:12-13).
In other circumstances suffering may occur not as a result of sin per se, but
because God sees a need to refine and strengthen a part of our character. As
a muscle will atrophy without use, so can our faith and character atrophy if
not properly exercised.
Peter writes of the value of trials when he explains: “In this you greatly
rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all
kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than
gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine
and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed”
(1Peter 1:6-7, NIV).
Learning to depend on
God
We should realize that, although God allows trials, He is not indifferent to
us when they come. God is a Father. Even more than a loving human father, He
finds no joy in seeing His children in pain. How does He feel toward us at such
times? “You can throw the whole weight of your anxieties upon him, because
you are his personal concern” (1Peter 5:7, The New Testament in Modern
English). These words let us know that sometimes we must depend entirely on
God for the strength to endure.
When we hurt, God wants us to come to Him. He promises He will help us when
we do. Paul wrote that God comforts the downcast (2Corinthians 7:6), but we
must ask Him for that help. He promises that He will not allow us to be tested
beyond our limits and will provide us either with the relief or the strength
we need to endure (1Corinthians 10:13). We need to take God at His word and
go to Him with this promise, especially when we sense we are near our breaking
point.
We need to realize that God often protects those who seek Him. “If the
LORD delights in a man’s way, he makes his steps firm; though he stumble,
he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand” (Psalm 37:23-24,
NIV).
Read the whole of Psalm 91 with this in mind. We should ask God to protect us
and our loved ones. He hears the prayers of the righteous (James 5:16; 1Peter 3:12), and He does protect and bless His people. However, no one is immune to
the vagaries of time and chance. When those affect us negatively, we should
ask Him to shelter us from suffering that exceeds our ability to endure and
to give us the strength to endure what we must.
God remains in control
Studies have shown that a person’s ability to endure pain is aided by a
sense of control over it. We should do what we can to ease, manage and gain
control over our suffering. Then we can realize we are not pawns subjected to
the whim of pain, and we can choose to retain control over our attitudes and
our responses to our pain.
As God’s servants we must learn that ultimately God is in control, and
He is merciful. He is willing and able to deliver us. His ears are open to our
prayers (1Peter 3:12).
But He expects us to rely on His judgment and timing and trust Him implicitly.
“We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we
suffered in the province of Asia,” wrote Paul. “We were under great
pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.
Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that
we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered
us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our
hope that he will continue to deliver us” (2Corinthians 1:8-10, NIV).
Life free from pain?
In the meantime, perhaps we can grasp the wisdom of James’ words: “When
all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives, my brothers, don’t
resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends! Realize that they come
to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance. But let the
process go on until that endurance is fully developed, and you will find you
have become men of mature character with the right sort of independence”
(James 1:2-4, The New Testament in Modern English).
James’ words may sound unrealistic to inhabitants of the Western world
because so many live with the illusion that we should be able to abolish pain.
James lived in a society in which people regularly and frequently confronted
suffering. They were more accustomed to the benefits of suffering than we.
A pain-free life is impossible. We need to face the reality that God can teach
us valuable lessons through our suffering. This does not mean suffering will
ever be pleasant. Even when we consider the prospect of pain in advance and
mentally prepare ourselves for it, when it arrives we experience a rude awakening.
Pain intrudes into our life with stabbing
reality. It is the unwelcome enemy, or so it seems.
But suffering and trials can be helpers, in the spiritual sense, in preparing
us for God’s purpose and His Kingdom. Sometimes our reconciliation to suffering
occurs more fully after the fact—after we have endured it and understand
the spiritual maturity it can produce in us.
The only ultimate deliverance from pain and difficulty comes from God, from
praying to and trusting Him. Just before Jesus suffered the torment of His crucifixion,
He prayed, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me;
nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39).
Peter reminds us to remember the benefits of facing adversities: “And the
God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have
suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm
and steadfast” (1Peter 5:10, NIV).
Focus on the future
When we realize the benefits that can accompany our suffering, we can better
endure it. Victor Frankl, a psychotherapist who survived the Auschwitz death
camp in World War II, discovered the importance of finding meaning in life,
especially in the worst of circumstances. He observed that prisoners who could
focus on a goal were far more likely to survive.
Though we may find it difficult to grasp the spiritual benefits of suffering,
we will ultimately be able to fully comprehend them when we receive eternal
life in God’s Kingdom (2Peter 1:11).
In that Kingdom we will gain immeasurably more than we ever lost through suffering
in this life. As Paul explains, “I consider that our present sufferings
are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18, NIV). He reminds us that “God causes all things to work together
for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose”
(verse 28, New American Standard Bible). God inspired Paul to write this, and
we must believe it!
Suffering helps us fulfill our potential as children of God (1John 3:1). With
God’s help, good can result from it. A poet puts it this way: “You
have each been given a bag of tools,
A formless rock and a book of rules; And each must make ere life has flown,
A stumbling block or a stepping stone.”
That stepping-stone is the way to God’s Kingdom.
Preparing for an inheritance
Paul tells us that, in addition to being children of God, we are “heirs
of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:16-17). If we are heirs,
then we have an inheritance. The Bible reveals our inheritance not as a future
of idleness and leisure but one of great responsibility.
The Scriptures reveal
that we will, in a real sense, inherit our Father’s property and business.
We have much to learn from our Father. He wants to give us time to grow. He
wants to teach us what we will need to help us develop the character we will
need.
No shortcut to this process exists. Knowledge is not enough. Character cannot
develop overnight; it takes time and considerable effort. That is why Paul tells
us that “indeed we suffer with Him (Christ), that we may also be glorified
together” (verse 17). Even as Christ learned and was perfected by the things
He suffered (Hebrews 5:8-9), so we learn and become perfect through our adversities,
to the end that we will share an inheritance with Him in the Kingdom of God.
The awesome promise of this shared inheritance—sonship in God’s eternal
family (Romans 8:14-23)—helps explain why we must suffer. If our future
were simply to lie around heaven and gaze upon God for eternity, He could take
us now or leave us here and protect us from any kind of adversity and pain.
Such a role would require nothing on our part.
But our future is much greater than that. The greater the responsibility He
has in store for us, the greater are the challenges to get there.
© 2001 United Church of God, an International Association
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