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The Goodness of Suffering

Posted by Jason Williams, Lead Pastor on

After receiving a phone call this morning from a young mother who is facing the possibility of a difficult medical diagnosis, I find myself inescapably pondering the goodness of God in the midst of suffering. As I listened to the honesty and frailty of her struggle, in a strange kind of way, my heart began to stir with affection towards God’s goodness.
 
As people of faith, we believe that God is powerful enough to produce purpose out of suffering, especially when it’s happening to someone else. But what happens when we can’t find the purpose? What do we do when we feel like the psalmist who is crying out for God and feels abandoned in the midst of suffering?
 
“How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
 How long will you hide your face from me?” Psalm 13:1 ESV
 
Although suffering can derive from a multitude of sources, the Bible indicates that God is the gatekeeper of suffering over our lives. As with the story of Job, God allowed Satan to engulf Job’s life in suffering and loss. God was not the author of the suffering, but he was the gatekeeper who allowed Satan’s attacks to reach the life of Job. And somehow this story fits into the meta-narrative of the Bible that declares that God is good.
 
How is God good in the midst of suffering that He allows? As a Bible teacher, several answers come to mind. To begin with, suffering in our life can be used to encourage someone else. But this can’t be enough. Why would God allow suffering at all if the only purpose in suffering is to help those who are suffering? That seems more like a chaotic chain reaction than a helpful explanation. We also know that suffering causes a sudden re-assessment of priorities, values and affections. Through suffering, we are immediately confronted with what really matters in life. When a terminal diagnosis is presented, the man who neglected his children in the pursuit of making a great name in his career, suddenly wants to quit work and play catch with his son. The elderly man on his deathbed says to the young father by his side, “If I could go back, I would have spent more time with the ones I love.” In this light, suffering can be seen as something necessary to recalibrate our lives when we lose sight of what really matters. But could there be something deeper to be had in the pain and darkness of suffering? The Bible uses the metaphor of fire to describe the role of suffering in the lives of God’s children.
 
“And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’” Zechariah 13:9 ESV
 
In this explanation, God declares that the suffering of our lives serves to refine the priorities, values and affections of our lives, but not towards the things of this world, towards God himself. The people who were to experience the suffering described in Zechariah’s prophecy didn’t become better husbands or wives. They didn’t become better employees or friends. They didn’t work less to be the family more. As these people experienced suffering, they became better lovers of God. Through the trials of suffering they learned to seek God. And as the sought after God, they found Him. It was in the fire of affliction that they were able to truly see God as their only hope, and in turn he declared over their lives, “They are MY people.”
 
As I listened to the young mother this morning share her fears about her own suffering, I heard something beautiful. She shared with me that this morning as she got in her car to head off for the day, she became somewhat paralyzed in her darkness. As she sat there in stillness and cried out to God, something amazing happened. The presence of God became so near and so clear that she said to me, “Jason, I know God was there!”
 
As we continued to talk through the purposes of God in suffering, and what God may be using this for in her life, I couldn’t get over those words, “God was there.” Could that be the main point? Regardless of what else He means to teach us and refine out of our lives, the main point of suffering is to remove the tainting dross of everything in our lives that hinders our hearts from beholding what is truly beautiful: He wants for us to see Him.
 
 “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:6-7 ESV
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