Made to Suffer

"it's the sticks and stones that wear us down
that often save our lives."
-mutemath, break the same

i've been pondering about the nature of suffering, recently.

not that i've been in some earth-shattering season of my life, but rather i have been musing on the inspiration and application of things i've seen and learned from books i've recently read (the road, mccarthy; desiring God, piper), tv shows i watch (breaking bad, walking dead, lost) and movies i've recently seen (life of pi, the intouchables, the grey).

all these things started lining up as i've been teaching a class on sunday morning about refuting modern atheism. i wondered and i asked myself, "what's the biggest reason folks turn away from God, His full and unadulterated Word and His Son?"

surely there are several answers worth exploring. but its emotional weight seems to make the suffering we see in our world as good a candidate as any for the denial of God.

in all the media i listed in the first paragraph, we see suffering: some are fictitious, such as a zombie apocalypse, but others--like a plane crash in a frozen wilderness or a husband being dragged into the drug trade to support his family--those seem very real. in both real and imaginary cases, we can see their struggle. we taste their tears. we relate with their burning anger or sense of hopelessness.

we can relate, because we see that pain in our own world. why the holocaust? why 9/11? why school shootings?

and because we see that pain in our own lives. why this test result? why this broken relationship? why this stupid decision that now impacts the rest of my worldly life?

and so many a person sees all this and says, "if God is all powerful, if God is everywhere and can do anything, why would He do these things?"

it's important to stop right there and make clear: God is not a supernal, angst-ridden preteen with a looking glass burning up his trapped ants for amusement. we are precious in God's sight. rather, God allows calamity and unfortunate occurrences befall us. just look at job: he suffers a lot, but it's not at the hand of God (though it may seem to him like that's the case).

"'...but stretch out your [God's] hand and touch all that he [job] has, and he will curse you to your face.' and the Lord [in reply] said to satan, 'behold, all that he has is in your hand. only against him do not stretch out your hand.' so satan went out from the presence of the Lord" (Job 1:11-12). even though satan request it be God's hand that tests job with trials, satan is the tempter--the deliverer of hardships--in job's case. and God sets the limits of how far we can be pressed (1 Corinthians 10:13).

so that leaves us with a slightly different quandary. to steal language from john piper, "why has God ordained that evil be?" why does God allow us to suffer as His children?

doesn't He love us?

again, another tangent that i think relates: our culture has warped the definition of love. to love something in contemporary america means to tolerate the way things are, to accept and embrace what is without changing it. to not ruffle feathers or try to change the way people live, even if we believe it's wrong.

the Bible teaches that true love stands in direct contrast to this worldly way of love. true love loves enough to discipline, to cause subjective pain to better in the end. God sees the whole mosaic of redemptive history (thanks again to piper for his wording), so His love is full and complete--not temporal like ours.

example: parents love their children, but you better believe discipline sets them straight when they're exploring the limits and bounds of their world. this is done out of a love motivation; it's how kids learn and become knowledgeable of goodness and the best way to live (Hebrews 12:11). so it is with God's children: even if "bad" things happen to us, it doesn't mean God loves us any less; He is, after all, the perfect being of love (1 John 4:8).

now, rounding about to my main thought: just as God allows the pain of discipline to mold His children to look more holy and righteous day by day, so he permits struggle and heartache and natural disaster to occur. we only see the close up instant and say, "what pointless suffering. what a pity. what a shame." but God allows these things to happen, and ignites opportunities for the gospel, His love and His will to go forth into the darkness of our world.

while i never may have to struggle for survival out in the elements, or while i may never be on death row for my faith, i just as very well could be in those or similar scenarios. if that's the case, then my soul is better off for it. because i would be learning how to trust and rely on God. i'm much too comfortable in this life i've been blessed with, and i learn to rely on myself instead of Him.

so in faith facing my sufferings, whether relatively small or big, are all to the glory of God.

because, in fact, we are guaranteed to suffer (John 16:33; 2 Timothy 3:12).

in fact, we should rejoice at the chance to have our souls bent and stretched to give us God's blessings of endurance, character and hope--a full and complete soul that lacks nothing (Romans 5:3-5; James 1:2-4).

in fact, our suffering is temporary compared to the eternal hope of forever being with God (1 Peter 5:10; Romans 8:18).

in fact, a true, Bible-believing Christ follower's suffering is precious in God's sight and He will not leave them to face suffering alone (1 Peter 4:12-19; Isaiah 43:2).

whether you suffer now, in 30 years or somewhere in between, take heart knowing that God does not allow purposeless suffering. may this peace of God's grace and justice protect us now and down through life.