Rethink Your Thinking on Suffering

Picture: White Ribbons

Pain: we take pills to ease it, hold prayer meetings to heal it, develop strategies to avoid it and do research to remedy it. We think up philosophies to explain it and theologies to understand God’s role in it. We may even doubt the existence of God because of it. But there is one take on pain that us moderns rarely consider:

That suffering could be part of God’s good purposes for our lives.

I’ve been thinking about this lately, having revisited some of the classic spiritual authors of yesteryear. In them I find an approach to suffering that surpasses my own superficial approach. I stub my toe and wonder why God has forsaken me. But they welcome pain as God’s shaping force for ours and others’ good.

‘How Sweet it is to Suffer with God!’

Take the 17th century monk Brother Lawrence, for example. Lame in one leg and acquainted with illness, the simple, experiential devotional life of this humble monastery cook became an inspiration to many. In The Practise of the Presence of God Brother Lawrence’s advice to an ailing friend includes this:

I do not pray that you may be delivered from your pains, but I pray God earnestly that He would give you strength and patience to bear them as long as he pleases…

I wish you could convince yourself that God is often (in some sense) nearer to us, and more effectually present with us, in sickness than in health…

He often sends diseases of the body to cure those of the soul…

I have been often near expiring, but I never was so much satisfied as then. Accordingly, I did not pray for any relief, but I prayed for strength to suffer with courage, humility and love. Ah, how sweet it is to suffer with God!

Brother Lawrence discovered a strength that could re-cast pain as something good. ‘Such prayers,’ he admitted, ‘are a little hard to nature, but most acceptable to God and sweet to those who love Him… I beseech you; comfort yourself with Him, who is the only Physician for our maladies.’

‘The Heart is Stretched Through Suffering’

It is telling that Thomas Kelly’s spiritual classic [amazon_link id=”0060643617″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]A Testament of Devotion[/amazon_link] was written after a season of illness and emotional exhaustion. A once driven philosopher, after his suffering he could write:

There is a lusty, adolescent way of thought among us which oversimplifies the question of suffering. It merely says, ‘Let us remove it’.

Some suffering, Kelly goes on to say, can be removed. But much of it can’t. And so we must face it squarely:

For if you will accept as normal life only what you can understand, then you will try only to expel the… inevitable suffering which is a part of normal life, and never come to terms with it or fit your soul to the collar and bear the burden of your suffering which must be borne by you, or enter into the divine education and drastic discipline of sorrow, or rise radiant in the sacrament of pain.

What is this ‘divine education’ or ‘sacrament’ that pain offers? ‘The heart is stretched through suffering, and enlarged,‘ he says. Our hearts are enlarged to feel the world’s need, to be burdened by it, and to respond to it as God (who is burdened by such suffering too) directs.

‘God’s Best Tool’

Or let me give a contemporary example.

In 1967 a diving accident left Joni Earekson Tada a quadriplegic. She subsequently went on a quest for healing—visiting faith healers, being anointed by oil, confessing her sins and following every scriptural injunction for a miracle. ‘I was calling my friends on the telephone and explaining to them that the next time they saw me they’d see me on my feet,’ she told me in an interview, published in Open House Volume 1. ‘I really was way out there on a limb with my confidence that Christ would heal me.

But he didn’t. And as a result, one of the most remarkable ministries to the disabled in history was born. Joni’s words have the spirit of yesteryear’s saints:

Christians sometimes want to erase suffering out of the dictionary. If you read the Bible you will see that it is often God’s best tool to make us more like Jesus. The choice is simply ours to yield to it and to allow him to use that suffering rather than complaining, avoiding it, escaping it, divorcing it—we’ve got all kinds of solutions for suffering except to embrace it as God’s will for our life. But when we do, what a difference his grace makes.

Embracing, Rather than Fighting, Suffering

I believe in divine healing. (In Unseen Footprints I tell the story of a man I know who was miraculously healed of AIDS.) I believe God is leading us to a future where there will be no more suffering or pain, and I believe we are to pray for ourselves and others when sick. Clearly, pain and suffering was never part of God’s original plan for us.

But I also believe that my approach to suffering today is often shaped more by my therapeutic culture than by the upside-down logic of God’s ways. Silly really. Because when I look back at my own life I can see that my greatest growth in character and empathy for others, and my greatest discoveries about the nature of God, have come after a season of significant pain.

Pain can lead us to God.

Painful wilderness experiences can make us more like Jesus.

So, will we embrace suffering as God’s best tool to change us, let Him enlarge our hearts through it, and pray like Brother Lawrence that God’s sweet purposes would be accomplished in our seasons of suffering?

***

Question: What do you believe about God and suffering? Tell me now.

Comments:

  • April 18, 2012
    Ben Colman

    Hi Sheridan. I like that you’re exploring this timeless and difficult question. Job’s friends seemed to have ready (simplistic?) answers for Job, but Job himself needed God’s personal intervention to provide a heavenly perspective to his suffering. You wrote: “Painful wilderness experiences can make us more like Jesus.” … I think this is partly true – if we choose to respond well and turn to God in the suffering. Others endure suffering for years and become embittered with God, disheartened and discouraged. I think when it comes to sickness, we need to be careful not to assume that because somebody has not received healing, therefore God has caused or allowed the sickness. I disagree with the words of Brother Lawrence that “He often sends diseases of the body to cure those of the soul”. Jesus – who demonstrated the Father’s nature completely – went around doing good and healing people, not afflicting them. He also commissioned his disciples to do the same in the power of the Holy Spirit. There may be a myriad of complex issues at play as to why somebody isn’t healed, (including spiritual resistance, hope vs. faith, symptom vs. cause of sickness) but there is not one biblically recorded instance of Jesus saying to a sick person “no, I won’t heal you – it’s better for your soul that you remain sick.”

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    • April 18, 2012

      Thanks Ben. I think you’re right about the importance of our response to suffering being the key to whether we become Christ-like through it or not. Plenty of people suffer and indeed do not grow as a result.

      I also wince at Brother Lawrence’s close connection between suffering and God’s hand, and yet it was this link that brought him so much personal solace – the suffering wasn’t meaningless. Ultimately Romans 8:28 talks about God using all things for our good. The key aspect as our participation with him in that, whether they are directly ‘from’ God or simply ‘used’ by him.

      I’m not quite so convinced about the ‘Jesus healed everyone who came to him’ idea. It definitely seems that way from verses like Matthew 4:24, but then he only healed one of many who were crippled (that we know of) at the Pool of Bethesda in John 5. Jesus prayed for Peter’s satanic temptation but didn’t remove him from it (Luke 22:31). There is too much suffering of the saints throughout the rest of the New Testament (Paul’s thorn in the flesh, etc) to hold that Jesus always removes suffering/sickness from us.

      What we can know for sure is that Jesus *will* fully heal and relieve the suffering of all who follow him – one day. The question is timing. For some it will be today; for others, tomorrow; and for many, in heaven. In the meantime, will we allow him to shape us through that suffering as we wait?

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  • April 18, 2012
    @Stroopwaffle from Twitter

    I posted this on Twitter but Sheridan asked me to put it here too: I wrote this last year about illness and God etc. (as someone who has acutely suffered 24/7 for over 7years): http://www.jkrowbory.co.uk/2011/06/muddling-through/

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    • April 18, 2012

      Anyone who reads it will understand why I asked for this link to be posted. A deep meditation on God and suffering from someone who knows pain intimately.

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  • April 18, 2012
    David Young

    Verifiable evidence for this person you claim was ‘miraculously healed of AIDS’: Got any?

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    • April 19, 2012

      Julian kept all doctor’s records. The story is in chapter 6 of Unseen Footprints if you’re interested.

      Another story you may be interested in is Sean George’s – one of the most medically confirmed miracles I’ve come across, given that the event happened in a medical clinic with equipment recording the whole thing. https://sheridanvoysey.com/listen/interviews/search/?q=sean+george

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      • April 19, 2012
        David Young

        Which peer-reviewed medical/scientific paper could I find these records in?  The date of publication would also be useful.

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        • April 19, 2012
          David Young

          For ‘paper’ read ‘journal’.

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          • April 19, 2012

            Tell me which medical/scientific journal will even consider researching a ‘miracle’ case. Seriously. The idea is too ‘religious’ to even be considered by most, as you may well know.

            But do please listen to Sean George’s story. Sean is a specialist physician in general medicine, his wife is a GP, he was surrounded by medical personnel when he died and returned to life – colleagues who verify his story – and all his vitals were recorded. His story has been featured in (secular) West Australian media, including journals for the WA medical field. 

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            • April 19, 2012
              David Young

              That is a pathetic excuse.  It’s the same as the creationists claiming that nobody will publish their ‘academic’ work when in reality they have never even submitted a paper for publication in the first place.  Either you have verifiable evidence that a person had AIDS and now does not as a result of being ‘miraculously healed’ or you do not.  If you do, name the source where it can be examined independently.  Otherwise stop telling lies.

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              • April 20, 2012

                ‘Lies’? Steady on with the accusations. Both cases I’ve listed have documented medical verification. The fact that they haven’t been written up in the Lancet or BMJ is a requirement you are stipulating. If that’s your standard before believing something, fair enough. But not everything that is true has had a peer-reviewed journal article written about it.

                Farewell.

              • April 20, 2012
                David Young

                Yes, and this guy I met once claims he has invented a perpetual-motion machine but for some reason it can only be shown in a low-quality YouTube video because the establishment will steal the idea if he patents it, there’s a worldwide oil-company conspiracy, the secret service will kill him etc. etc. In reality, you have not got a shred of evidence for the claim that anyone has been healed of AIDS because, if you did, the evidence would not only be freely available but would have been picked up on by practically every news organisation in the world.  It’s typical of a Christian to tell lies if they think it will bolster the image of their imaginary friend.  It’s also typical of all claims for supernatural intervention to be spectacularly lacking in anything in the way of tangible evidence.

  • April 19, 2012
    Jeashee

    I have always believed that suffering is the the mark of God in a tangible way reshaping  my attitude and thinking. I have learned more about God, myself, my family and this world through times of pain. I have not suffered much really when comparied to others, but I have also called on God in my unbearable pain one time and asked not so much that he heal my foot, but lighten the pain and I would endure the rest. I asked God not because I deserved it but only because of His mercy Daniel ref.. The next morning when I stood up, the pain was only slight. It still took many months but the pain was bearable. But this taught me to call on God in the day of trouble, and to remember more than ever that He walks with me through difficult times, more than through good. I loved reading your post. Be blessed!

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  • April 19, 2012
    Sandy Pluss

    I really enjoyed reading this & its a nice reminder about being in ‘this world’
    Thanks

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  • April 21, 2012
    Jodie Falco

    Your topics are so relevant and your explanations are easy to read and understand. Great reading for both the Christian and the Unsaved.   I will continue to keep reading 🙂

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  • April 21, 2012
    Deirdrewillis

    Sheridan, having known both chronic suffering and unbearable tragedy, I too readily identify with the concept of needing to’rely on God’ when there is no relief from suffering, which gives one both intimacy with God and an empathy for people in similar situations. However I believe that it’s being in the Presence of God (either necessarily  through  tragedy or joyfully through worship as in prayer, ministry, reading scripture and for me especially through music) that transforms us. I accept that there is  ‘mystery’ in the way God works yet I am convinced that scripture exhorts us to pray for God’s Kingdom to be a reality on Earth ‘as it is in Heaven’ and there is no suffering in Heaven.

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  • August 15, 2012
    Con Fused

    Confused. Suffering so real for the believer and the non-believer. Jesus suffered more. If He suffered for us, do we really have to continue in it? Are we missing something?

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    • August 17, 2012

      Jesus suffered for us in that a) he experienced the same suffering we do in this life (actually, as you’ve said, far more) and so he can fully empathise with us, and b) so we shouldn’t need to take the punishment our sin against him, ourselves and others deserves. The fact is, though, that suffering comes from other sources too – from living in a fallen world and from the evil actions of others. And until heaven comes, suffering from these causes will continue. But God can heal, use and redeem all suffering for his greater purposes. That’s what the saints of yesterday are talking about.

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