Ouch!

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” (II Corinthians 1:3-4)

Thoughts… Why do we suffer? The easy, theological answer is that we live in a world broken by sin, and the sad fruit of sin is suffering. Suffering was not a part of God’s original plan for human beings, and in the world to come, suffering will have no place whatsoever. But in the meantime, since sin entered the human race through Adam’s sin, suffering will be a part of the human story until the Day of Redemption ushers in that eternal sin-free, pain-free age.

On a personal level, however, answers to suffering aren’t that easy. When suffering hits close to home, all those nice, neatly packaged theological explanations go out the window. Oh, they’re still true, but they don’t take away our pain. When there is a tragic death, or a disheartening diagnosis, or a child rebels, or the pink slip is handed out on Friday, and our heart cries out, “Why God? Where are you in all of this?”, we don’t need to hear, “Well, because Adam sinned, sin entered the human race and suffering was the consequence…blah, blah, blah.” We hurt, and at that moment, life stinks!

Yet through our experience of suffering, in hindsight we notice a depth and a quality to our lives that would not have been otherwise possible. Through our disappointment and pain, we have gained some priceless treasures. One of those priceless treasures that Paul speaks of in these verses is the discovery of a wonderful dimension of God that cannot be experienced apart from pain: “the God of all comfort.” How would we know what his comfort is unless we really needed his comforting?

That has certainly been true for me. My deepest trials have produced my deepest experiences in God. I have learned more about God when going through the valley than I have on the mountaintops. I prefer the peaks, mind you, but in hindsight, I would not trade the “valley of the shadow of death” for anything in the world. It is there that I have found “the God of all comfort who comforts me in all my troubles.”

Another of these priceless treasures that Paul mentions here is a greater understanding and empathy for fellow sufferers. The ministry of care and counsel to which each of us has been called as followers of Christ is incomplete until we ourselves have experienced God in our pain.

As I have discovered deeper dimensions of God in painful times, there has also been the forging of a greater ability to understand the pain of others who are going through valleys of their own. Out of my pain and suffering, I am now able to come alongside them, not as a theologian, but as an empathetic friend and fellow sufferer. I am able to give counsel, comfort and encouragement not from what I learned in a seminary textbook, but in the school of hard knocks. I am able to give aid and comfort with “the same comfort I myself have received from God.”

Why do we suffer? We know the answer to that. It’s just that we don’t like it. The more important question is, “is there purpose in our suffering?” Of course there is, but we need to trust God and cooperate with his plan in order to bring out those redemptive purposes in our pain. When we do, we find that at the heart of our pain is a purpose.

Did you know that a beautiful pearl is formed when a grain of sand embeds itself in the wall of an oyster. In its pain and suffering, the oyster secretes a milky substance that coats the grain of sand and makes it bearable. When the substance hardens, there is a beautiful pearl. You might say that at the heart of every pearl is a pain.

At the heart of your suffering is a pearl of invaluable worth. It’s a difficult journey getting from the pain to the pearl, but allow your trust in God and your patience with his sovereign plan to make the journey bearable, and one day you’ll be truly able to thank God for it.

Prayer… Dear Father, thank you for working everything out for my good and for your glory. I don’t like everything that I go through, but I like what you are producing in me. I’d rather have your perfect plan fulfilled in my life than avoiding the pain that is sometimes a part of that plan. So I will embrace my suffering and lean into you as you develop yet another pearl of great price in my life.

One More Thing… “No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown.” —William Penn