No one likes pain. No one likes to watch pain. We try to avoid it in any way we can. We don’t understand it and feel we don’t deserve it. It makes us ask the question, “If God is so loving, why is there suffering in the world?”
It’s a fair question and I’ve asked it myself many times when it feels like the things I am going through are unfair. I’ve asked it when I’ve seen others suffer through heartache and pain.
Any thoughts that I have in answer to that age old question are based on what I know about the character of God –
1. God is all powerful and all knowing. He has the ability to prevent or to allow any event or circumstance. He sees it and is fully aware of its effects. (Psalm 147:5 – Great is our Lord and mighty in power; His understanding has no limit.)
2. God is a God of purpose. He has a reason for everything He does or allows. (Jeremiah 29:11 – For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”)
3. God is love. Everything that comes to us, first comes through the filter of His incredibly loving hands. Anything that touches us has touched Him first. (1 John 4:8 – ….God is love.)
Based on those truths, what is His purpose for allowing pain, suffering and grief? I’m sure His reasons are more than I can ever comprehend, but these are the things that He has shown me both through His words (in the bible and from great teachers) and through the experiences that He has brought me through.
God uses suffering to bring our hearts back to His – How many times have I turned my back on Jesus or ignored His whisper in my ear? How often have I gone my own way out of utter selfishness? God uses pain sometimes to get us back on track. To remind us that He is calling us to something greater than where we are heading. To bring our attention back to Him. Remember the old adage, “There are no atheists in foxholes”? We tend to cry out to and look for God when we have no where else to turn – when our pain is too much and our aching souls long for relief. It’s a drawing in measure that comes from God’s savior love for us.
(Check out Paul’s story when you get a minute – Jesus used suffering in His life to completely turn him around and set him on an amazing path that completely changed his life and made him fall head over heels in love with Jesus. And even his name changed :-)…Acts chapter 9)
God uses suffering to protect us – I like to refer to this as ugly grace. We go through something to protect us from something worse. The painful situation that we encounter is necessary to save us from disaster. Maybe we are on a path to destruction by our own doing and God puts obstacles in our way so that we don’t suffer the impending fate of a poor decision. Like a parent’s prayer that if our children are going in a wrong direction that they will get caught and face the consequences early so that something worse doesn’t happen down the road. Or maybe it’s a simple as a flat tire that prevents us from the accident that would have happened a couple of minutes later. Not pleasant at the time, but something that makes us look back and be thankful that it happened because it actually saved us. It’s a protective measure that comes out of God’s parental love for us.
(Check out the book of Jonah and his story in the bible – Even though he was running from God, God used a huge fish to save him from the certain death of the raging waters that he was thrown into. Three days in a fish’s belly. Now that’s UGLY grace….)
God uses suffering to include us in a process that brings Him glory and credit – Sometimes what we go through is not corrective or protective. It’s to bring a greater story that gives God all the credit. The strength and joy that God can give in the middle of a horrible situation is testimony to the fact that He loves us and gives us more than what we need to come through pain and tragedy. When my son Mitchell died was a great example of this. His dying was not corrective or protective. It was directive. It directed people’s attention to God to see what He would do for us in that situation. People came to know Him and His great love through that situation. Nearly fifteen years later, God has used and is still using Mitchell’s story over and over again in people’s lives in the most miraculous of ways. (That is story in itself, believe me!)
(Look at John Chapter 9 and the story of the blind man that Jesus healed. When asked if it was because of his sin or the sin of his parents that he was blind, Jesus said, “Neither this man nor his parents have sinned, but this has happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”)
I heard a phrase last night that I liked. It was, “you have to have a little ugly to have change.” I like that. Whether it’s corrective, protective or directive, the ugliness of the pain is part of the process in experiencing the beauty of a change that needed to occur. A change that is meant only for our benefit and good and the good of others around us. It’s our choice how we want to respond to that pain.
And isn’t it good to know that Jesus gets suffering? He went through unspeakable pain and agony and undeserved shame and ultimately death for the greater good of saving our souls. He recognized that the pain had a purpose. And in our lives, we can know that, too…
