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3 Reasons Why Christians Suffer

None of us likes to suffer. Yet all of us suffer at one time or another. Pain is part of life. A few weeks ago a much-loved Christian woman from my hometown was involved in a vehicle roll-over and did not survive. The Christian community was stunned. She, her husband and their family were on a mission’s trip where they were going to help in an orphanage in Mexico. Their family has made many such mission trips over the years.

I was talking with an acquaintance who knew the woman in the fatal accident. She said the words we all think at times like this, “I don’t know why God allowed this to happen. We don’t know why.” She shook her head in sadness. I had written the draft for this blog post a few days before the passing of our Christian sister. Its words were fresh and I thought about them as we spoke.

Three Reasons for Pain and Suffering

God uses suffering to demonstrate His work in people’s lives:

The A.M.E. church in South Carolina did that. They chose to forgive the shooter who gunned down many of their members at the end of a prayer meeting. By their actions they demonstrated to the world that God reigns in their lives despite a despicable tragedy. I saw newscasters in awe of these humble people whose first reaction was to forgive because God forgives. They cared for the soul of even the murderer. People of God embrace the difficulty and use it to reach others. Through their actions, they show the presence of God.

John 9:1-3

God has a purpose in the suffering; He uses it to encourage others:

People don’t have to like what is happening to them, but they can accept it and re-purpose it for the good of others. The person who is suffering with a long-term situation or illness can encourage other people walking a similar difficult path. God uses their life to demonstrate His goodness and who He is. It brings glory to God when the person who is suffering finds their hope in Him and then shares that hope with others. This is seen in Christ’s own redemptive story. Christ was glorified through His suffering and death on the cross, and it brought glory to the Father. The resurrection was the fulfillment of His glorification.

2 Corinthians 1:3-6

God draws us to Himself during the suffering:

God uses tragedy and pain to help us learn to grasp onto what God gives us. He teaches us to to rest, trust, let go, and find our help in Him. We learn to do this when all else fails. The crisis–health, family, financial, spiritual–brings us to Jesus with a new openness. During these times, we come to realize that the rituals mean little until we find Jesus as enough for daily living. Then we become tender to His ways.  Through the sustaining of God, we learn to trust Him for the endurance and the outcome.

Matthew 11:28-30

These are only a few of the reasons Christians suffer. We can resent suffering and often we do in our fleshly self. Our spiritual self is quick to see that a greater dynamic is being accomplished beyond what we can see at the moment. Our one life can become living life to someone else when we choose to face the challenges through faith in God, and it gives hope and strength to them. This gives meaning to the suffering and also enables a sense of God helping through the trouble. There are times when we look back and realize God did something amazing despite all the pain.

~To God be the glory.

Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World by Henri J.M. Nouwen (Crossroad Publishing Company, 1992)

The words written by Henri Nouwen in this thoughtful book, Life of the Beloved, helped a friend of mine through a trying time in her life. She later shared Nouwen’s book with me. “Beloved” is a warm term to describe the relationship of God with His children. Henri Nouwen wrote this book for a friend at his friend’s request. His friend wanted something for himself and his secular friends that would describe what Nouwen had found in his religion, written specifically for those whom do not understand the relationship component of “God with Us.” This is a warmly written book, almost fatherly in its calm treatment of the spiritual, much like a teacher will do with a skeptical student when the teacher goes in through the back door to approach a difficult-to-grasp concept. It reads like a personal communicant on God and how God fits into real life in a personal dimension. Spiritual in tone, this book is not about religious practices or the deep yearning, and it is not about doctrine or an intellectual pursuit. It is about what it means to be a beloved child of God, someone who finds their value in God, and not through doing or in prideful acts.