The other parts of this series: Part I, Part II and Part IV.

Embracing Suffering

When suffering knocks at your door, you have two options:

1. Either you strongly assert its presence is unwarranted, you will furiously try to get rid of this unwanted guest and when you can’t, you will find yourself in the muddled swamp of self-pity, anger and despair. You may even be bitterly angry to the Sovereign God who allows this to happen. This perspective will get you nowhere, you will be utterly lonely in the treacherous journey coming ahead without God. Now you are left to your own devices to endure and make sense of everything.
2. Or you can acknowledge its presence, accept the pain and confusion, surrender the emotions to God so they will not drown and overcome you, have faith He is always with you and for you, and humbly prepare to accept the life lessons this season of suffering will teach you. Usually over time, the answer will become evidently clear to us. Even if it’s not, we could always take comfort from our Lord’s presence in our loneliest and most disoriented moments.

God intends to make our suffering purposeful, and He can produce something good out of it at the end. His purpose for mine is to expose my idols, fix my heart, make me holy and closer to Him. Consider this a privilege, with greater suffering, there is a greater opportunity to experience God more and to be made more beautiful than before. It’s true there is also a running risk to come out of it more battered, bitter and uglier than before. It depends on how our hearts respond to our difficult circumstances and how much we want to harden our hearts against God.

I used to think suffering is a disturbance or interference from the ‘normal life’. When I visited people in orphanages, hospitals or funeral homes, I wanted to go home and get on with my ‘normal life’ as quickly as possible. Suffering made me uncomfortable, and I had a deep-seated aversion to it. But now I learn to enjoy its presence, to stay, to linger and to learn from its wisdom. Suffering IS a normal part of life, we need to learn to face it biblically armed with His truths and grace. We are after all suffering sojourners treading our paths on this Earth while waiting for our Father to pick us up to our heavenly home.

1 Peter 4:12-13: Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.

 

Jesus is made perfect through suffering

Hebrews 2:10: In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. 

Hebrews 5:8-9: Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him…

God, the Father loves Jesus so much but did not shield Jesus from suffering. The sinless Jesus is even said to be made more perfect through his sufferings. If God did not remove sufferings from Jesus’ plate, how can we demand that He remove it from us as we claim to be followers of Jesus? God used suffering to make His own son Jesus perfect, and He still uses the same method with us too, His children. We as part of God’s family will share in Jesus’ suffering as well as his resurrection.

Embracing suffering is a sign we are part of His family, we experience what our Lord and brother Jesus Christ had while He was on earth. On this earth, we partake in his suffering but we set our hope that we will also partake the feast and celebration when His glory is revealed.

Philippians 3:10: I want to know Christ – yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

Romans 8:17: Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

 

A note: don’t judge or belittle other people’s suffering, everybody has their own portion. I struggled with financial issues which is ‘big’ for me but I can understand for some people my sufferings won’t account for much compared to theirs. The same set of life circumstances happens upon two different people will manifest different sort of pain with different intensity. It is not only because everyone has different weaknesses and personalities but also each person contends with a different set of experiences, expectations, and perspectives of life. We shouldn’t trivialize or resent other people’s sufferings, even though they don’t bleed as much as we did or their wells of suffering are shallower than ours. God in His sovereignty ordains and allows different portions of difficulties for each of us. When we judge them, they will feel more alienated and alone in their struggles. Instead, we can focus more on God’s agenda of growth for them.

 

The Goodness of Suffering

Now in my life, I see the benefits of suffering and how the pain makes you all the more ‘alive and kicking’ in your spiritual journey. Without pain, it is hard not to be complacent with our faith. Our spiritual attentiveness and vigilance will naturally slack in the absence of pain. Crossing the threshold from bondage to freedom, from worldly attachment to heavenly hope is through this doorway of suffering.

I don’t intend to jettison you with quick fix biblical platitudes that feel empty and disheartening, such as “God knows best, just trust Him”, “He loves you and with you”, “Things will work out for the good”, then expect you to shape up, rise above it and leave you be. I want to acknowledge your suffering, there is no big or small suffering. Suffering is suffering, which comes full-blown with all its painful and negative emotions.

It is hard to feel loved and see anything good when you’re in pain. Yet by God’s grace, we can supernaturally still feel God’s love amid our suffering, not out of it and also by His grace we can comprehend the goodness that comes with the suffering after some time. ‘By God’s grace’ means not because of our own efforts, but bestowed upon us undeservedly and miraculously by God. Paul advised Timothy, his son in faith: Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 2:1).

This section is to be continued in Part IV of the series…

 

The other parts of this series: Part I, Part II and Part IV.