Hurricanes, health problems, grief. Why does God allow suffering?
Life feels impossible, practically undoable, for so many. From hurricanes and extreme loss to failing relationships and financial stress. All around us, we see so much suffering. And we have so many questions about why life hurts. We want answers to why it happens, and we want relief from how we feel.
Why does God allow sin and suffering to pass through His hands into our lives? Why does He permit that which He hates to come to fruition? We know suffering should not surprise us, but somehow it still does. We know that the promise of Scripture is that we will suffer, but this is not one of the promises we like to showcase. We like promises of flourishing and overcoming, not suffering. Yet both are true.
We see this in Christ, our suffering Savior. Everything He accomplished for us, the rebellious, was through suffering, "being obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." (Rom 5:19) . But suffering did not have the final word. He defeated death and destroyed the one who has the power of death. Christ suffered (by His own choosing) for our sin so that He might bring us to God. The suffering of Christ, the holy Son of God, was purposed for the rescue of undeserving sinners to be in real and vibrant relationship with God.
As much as we dislike it and do everything we can to fight it, we will suffer on this side of heaven. Christ assured us we would. Life in this world, wrought with sin and the rejection of a holy God, will reap pain and destruction. Life can be brutal, and the heartbreak can feel unbearable.
And though none of us would willingly choose this suffering, we can find immense hope and relief in believing that God works through it to serve many purposes in our lives, one of the most beautiful being greater intimacy with Him. He somehow feels more personal and present in our pain.
It has recently struck me, as I’ve walked through my own valley, that when we consider how we experience a deeper life with God, we don’t tend to (or want to) list suffering.
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For example, we know we go deeper with God through a daily practice of repentance. We know we go deeper with God through a pursuit of holiness. We know we go deeper with God through the daily rhythms of speaking to Him through prayer, worshipping Him in our daily lives, and mediating on His Word. But do we know we go deeper with God through suffering? In fact, is it possible that it is through identifying with Christ in His suffering for us that we come to know Him in a profoundly new way, and that we experience a depth with Him we would not obtain any other way?
The testimony of those who have gone before us in extreme suffering would tell us this is true. My own experiences of suffering would also testify to the tenderness and nearness of God in deep pain, and allow me to echo the words of the Apostle Paul, "I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord…… that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead." (Phil 3:8-11). There is a sweetness we can experience in Jesus through our suffering, if we will allow it to assure us of all He chose to suffer to be in relationship with us.
This isn’t to put a bow on how brutal life can be. I remember our family losing almost everything in Hurricane Sandy in 2012. I remember the fear and despair and anger. But I also remember Him feeling inexplicably near and fully able to hear all that I needed to bring to Him and say to Him. No, my encouragement for us isn’t to pretend our pain isn’t real, but rather, to see and take hold of the sustaining power of God’s love and presence when we endure that which breaks His heart with ours.
Let us not lose hope, friends, for our suffering Savior now reigns sovereignly above all that we suffer. And through Christ, the Great Overcomer, we too will overcome. Until then, we can experience God more intimately when we serve those who are suffering.
We can experience God more intimately when we seek God in our own suffering. And we can discover a God who is thoroughly aware of all we suffer, intimately near to us in it, and fully able to carry us through it.