Maybe you aren’t suffering. Perhaps you have in the past. If not, you will in the future.

Suffering is part of the human condition. There’s no escaping it. It won’t go away.

And, believer, you aren’t exempt from it. If anything, suffering is more common to Christians than not. That is typically not a part of a Christian evangelistic plea: “Acknowledge that you’re a sinner. Pray to receive Christ, believing He is Savior and Lord. Confess those sins and inherit eternal life. And suffer for the rest of your earthly days.”

Maybe you like to keep it real, just not that real.

These are tough days. I’m not going to rehash the challenges of the moment, other than acknowledging that things are in a mess. What intrigues me so is that it’s not just Tony challenges, or family challenges, or even national challenges. We are talking universal global challenges. My stars.

In spite of universal suffering, it’s still personal. Pain has come home to your private roost.

So here are the questions, and if you say you’ve never asked any of these, I’ll bet you’d lie about other things too. (That’s a joke. Sort of.)

• Why does God allow me to suffer?
• Why is this happening to me?
• Is God testing me?

These may be personal questions, or questions on behalf of your family, or even on a broader scale.

Suffering isn’t easy. It’s unwelcome and disruptive and unwelcome. It can be crushing.

Folks don’t ask those questions when things are going their way. Why should they? When life is good, when you’re being blessed, when every day is full of sunshine and smiles (and maybe even rainbows and unicorns), there’s no need to even consider suffering, now is there?”

And then – boom! Ka-POW! You find yourself to be a hurtin’ puppy. Then we ask those questions.

Listen – I was raised in a Christian home and in a wonderful, nurturing church. I don’t know if this was communicated to me overtly (I’m pretty sure it wasn’t) or if it was just part of the Christian journey that wasn’t explained to me. But, subconsciously, I just felt that if I was one of God’s children, if I was doing my best to live for Him, and if I was obedient to Him and His teachings, then things would be fine. No worries, mate.

That sounds wonderful. I mean, who wouldn’t want to get in on a deal like that? Freedom from pain and suffering? Cool. Break me off a piece of that.

Only thing is, it’s not biblical. I guess we’re afraid we’ll scare people away from the faith if we spoke this particular truth.

It’s not like Jesus didn’t give us a head’s up. He told the disciples over and over what they could expect, and they stood there with their fingers shoved up their noses to the second joint, saying, “Huh?”

Us too. We say we get it, but I’m not sure we do. Because suffering is, well, bad. And then we have a come-apart when it enters our lives because it’s not supposed to be that way. So we think.

So, in response to that “why?” thing, here are three reason why we suffer. This isn’t an exhaustive list, but it does give us some pegs to hang some truths on.

1. We live in a fallen, broken world. With that comes struggles on every front – mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. No arena of our lives is exempt. We get anxious and depressed – mental. We feel like crying or are at the very least numb – emotions. We get sick with cancer or Covid or a cold – physically. And God seems like He’s light years away, because we can’t hear Him, or He’s not telling us what we want to hear – spiritual. Take it back to Eden – we live in a world where things are seriously screwed up. I know it, and you know it. Things are just wrong, and we’ll call it what it is – sin.
2. There is evil in the world – personal, invasive, and personal. It’s called sin, see, and it affects us and those around us acutely. Sin brings suffering. I tell folks (and myself!!) that there is enough grief in the world without voluntarily bringing it on ourselves. My counsel, then, is “don’t sin.” Duh.
3. God allows suffering, but one day all suffering will end. I’ll file this one under “blessed hope.” Your suffering will end when you are freed from this physical existence and then spend eternity with Christ. No more suffering, pain, tears, heartache … that’s quite the deal. Or, suffering will end when Jesus returns. Not a day goes by that I don’t murmur, “Come, Lord Jesus.” I don’t think that’s cowardly in the sense I’m trying to escape my own personal challenges. I’m just tired, y’know? – and ever mindful this world is not my home. It feels more alien and uncomfortable day by day.

So what can you do about suffering?

1. You rejoice. Talk about counterintuitive! How can you rejoice when you want to assume a fetal position in the corner and stuff yourself with Ding-Dongs? Short answer is that there is no short answer. What satisfies me is that when I share in Jesus’ sufferings then I also share in His glory. There’s no comparison between the two – ancient script in Romans 8:17-18 teaches this. Part of this, too, is knowing that suffering helps you persevere through the worst of times, and equips you for potentially worse times ahead. And it may just be that how you manage personal sufferings will help others with their own suffering.
2. When you suffer, it provides a platform for the message of God’s love and grace to be shared. So share it. I have sat through plenty of Bible studies that talked about God’s love, and I get that, because it is so sweet to be loved by Him. But that teaching about God’s love might take on a different meaning if I was a person laid up in an ICU on a ventilator gasping and gurgling for every breath. I want to experience God’s love always, because, selfishly, it makes me feel good. But if my life is escaping breath by agonizing breath, I don’t want to just experience it. I want it to be tangible enough that I can take hold of it.

C.S. Lewis, as always, is helpful here, and this is one of my favorite quotes:

We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

Hey, world, God is shouting at us. Do we have ears to hear and the courage to act?

Accept the truth. Speak the truth. And embrace and walk through your suffering.

Talk later.