Exploring the Concept Suffering

My Struggle with Suffering

I grew up in a Christian family. One that emphasized going to church every Sunday and underscored the importance of praying before every meal and bedtime. While these practices were a good way to instill Christian principles, they did not give me an accurate depiction of who God was and how He saw me. At that time, I, like many people today, thought of God as a distant ruler who granted us our requests if we prayed hard enough and made a decent effort to avoid major sins like stealing and murder.

Needless to say, after acting on this principle and coming short every single time, I grew disappointed, dejected, and eventually disinterested in God –especially since bad things still happened to me despite my fervent pleas and attempts to be good.

Suffering Sucks

Sadly, by the time I was old enough to understand the importance of establishing and fostering a personal relationship with the Father for who He was and not for what I could get, I was too angry with Him to care. After all, how loving could God be if he allowed suffering and gross inequality to plague the world? How wise could He be if He allowed all human beings to be born with an inclination to sin? Most importantly, why was the entire human race confined to a broken world because of the pride and rebellion of one fallen angel? Couldn’t God just have punished Satan and stopped him from corrupting His beloved creation?

In my limited scope of thinking, the only thing I grasped was the fact that though God purported to be in control of the entire universe, He chose not to interfere with the affairs of life. Which in my book made Him responsible for every single betrayal, disappointment, and hurt that destroyed relationships, ruined families, and prompted people to commit crimes and immoral acts that ruined their lives and disenfranchised the lives of many others.

Questions of Suffering 

As an avid over-thinker, thoughts like these haunted me constantly and over time, I developed a cynical outlook on life that was bolstered by a victim mentality. Internally, I questioned God on His principles related to suffering.

Why were some people rich, while others were destitute and poverty-ridden? Why were some people hated for something as trivial as their skin pigmentation when they had no control over how they were born? Why did innocent children die young or tragically, while seemingly immoral people appeared to live full and abundant lives?

I wish I could tell you the answers to these mysteries were revealed to me as I developed my faith in God, but that was not the case. The hard truth is we may not know or understand the answer to these questions on this side of eternity, but they give us no excuse to grow angry with God. And since pain and tough times are sure to come, separating ourselves from the only one who can give us peace in the season when we experience hardships and trials is self-sabotaging, to say the least.

Jesus and Suffering

The most practical examples that teach us how to handle suffering are exemplified in the life of Jesus. The very principle of ‘God’s will over mine’ is reflected in the life of Christ who took the form of a bondservant so He could bear the sins of the world and give us access to His Father.

But because Jesus was human, He felt emotions too. To put it quite plainly, He knew what it was like to weather the storms of life and understood wholeheartedly the gut-wrenching agony that suffering and pain brought on an individual. In fact, in  describing the son of God, Isaiah 53:3 notes He was “despised and rejected by mankind.” 

Besides food and water, some of the most vital necessities that humans need to function are love, acceptance, and the feeling that they belong. When these areas are lacking, it usually brings about emotional, physical, and mental suffering in one way or the other. Now let’s backtrack a bit. Jesus Christ was passionately hated and pitifully disregarded by men.

He was truly a man of suffering who was well acquainted with pain. And how did people treat Him back in his day? “Like one from whom people hid their faces and held in low esteem” (Isaiah 53:4). Imagine, the king of the world, spat on and disregarded by men.

Let that sink in for a moment. The savior of the world gave up His heavenly throne to save His beloved creation and they repaid him through rejection, ingratitude, and mocking. Here’s the most perplexing part, this was a fate He chose willingly. Yes, Jesus chose to suffer willingly because He knew His temporary displeasure would bring about everlasting redemption for the entire universe. 

If you're anything like me, you might have struggled to relate to the humanity of Christ. That is to say, you often wonder: ‘How could the son of God who had access to supernatural power relate to my suffering?’ After all, how could the man who healed the lame and sick and raised the dead possibly be able to relate to my hopeless situation?  But Jesus was just as much human as He was a part of the Holy Trinity. And because of this, He felt the fear and pain of His impending death just as deeply as we feel the toils and daunting dilemmas of our own life today.

The Garden of Gethsamene

The story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane is one of loneliness, struggle, and pain. After eating the last supper with His disciples where He informed them of his impending death, Jesus left with Peter, James, and John for the olive mill.

When they arrived, He instructed them to sit while he went to a different area to pray. It was said that Jesus had begun to grow sorrowful and troubled at this time.

“My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch. And then going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him.” –Mark 14:34 NIV

Imagine knowing the exact moment you were going to die. Not only that, imagine knowing exactly how you would die and the amount of pain and suffering you would have to endure before you gave up the ghost.

The average person would probably become paralyzed with fear and anxiety. I don’t know about you, but if I found myself in a situation like that, I probably would have combust trying to exert all my power and energy thinking of ways to alter my fate.

And who could blame me? After all, I’m only human –and so was Jesus. That is why although He was all about His Father’s work, there was a point where He still struggled to accept the immense suffering He would have to endure to fulfill His plan for redemption.

A few verses later it states:

“Abba, Father, he said, Everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” –Mark 14:36 NIV

The Garden of Gethsemane was an olive grove where the fruit was squashed and crushed to make oil. Biblical scholars say Jesus chose to visit this location because it would be where His fleshly desires would be crushed, so He could produce new oil and develop the strength He needed to fulfill the will of His Father.

It is crucial to note Jesus came to the garden feeling sorrowful and distraught. Even as He prayed to His Father His emotional condition did not seem to get better right away. Still, He persistently petitioned God with his fervent prayer three times.

At one point, Jesus even fell on his face as He spoke to God. This is one of the most prostate positions a person can take when they are requesting something from someone. This humble position also shows us Jesus was not only distressed, but excruciatingly fraught for intervention. But here’s the main lesson: After praying to God three times, Jesus accepts His fate and instead tells His Father to let His will be done.

If Jesus had allowed His emotions and a fear of suffering to persuade Him not to lay down His life, the entire world would have been doomed. Death, sin, and the grave would have had the last say and the devil would have had a field day stealing, killing, and destroying mankind. The worst part is, there would have been no hope –absolutely no silver lining– for the entire human race.

While nothing we do can ever compare to Christ’s sacrificial atonement when we choose to make the most of the obstacles in our lives, the lessons we learn and the perseverance and grit we develop will be used to help another person on their journey.

Because we live in a broken world, pain and suffering are inevitable, but God never wastes experiences. Instead, He uses our most heart-wrenching  circumstances to draw us closer to Him. Then, He strengthens us with the skills we need to persist, endure, and persevere.