In this section we look at a number of quotations, which suggest that there may be a purpose in suffering. As you hear, try to discover the meaning 'given to' suffering. Have in the back of your mind the question: 'Would the world be a better or worse place without suffering?'
CHARACTER FORMATION THROUGH SUFFERING
Some people suggest that suffering is important in producing depth of character. This is expressed in a number of ways.
David Watson, Fear No Evil “Suffering can often produce great depths of character, mature understanding, warm compassion and rich spirituality. Of course we should always strive to heal the sick and relieve the oppressed; and we should rejoice that in heaven we shall finally be set free from all pains and tears. But suffering can make us more like Christ. The sparkling radiance of a diamond is caused by a lump of coal subjected to extreme pressure and heat over a long period of time. Again, a beautiful pearl emerges when an oyster has to cover an irritating object with layer upon layer of smooth mother-of-pearl lining excreted from its own body.”
At 17 Joni Eareckson broke her neck in a diving accident and was totally paralyzed from the neck down.
“The suffering and pain of the past few years had been the ingredients that had helped me mature emotionally, mentally and spiritually. I felt confident and independent, trusting in the Lord for my physical and emotional needs.
Pain and suffering have purpose. We don't always see this clearly. The apostle Paul suffered for Christ. His experience included imprisonment, beatings, stoning, shipwreck and some physical 'thorn in the flesh'. The blessing of suffering is, as J. B. Phillips interprets Romans 5:3-5, '...we can be full of joy here and now even in our trials and troubles.’ Taken in the right spirit, these very things will give us patient endurance; this in turn will develop a mature character, and a character of this sort produces a steady hope, a hope that will never disappoint us.' I believed He was working in my life to create grace and wisdom out of the chaos of pain and depression.”
(Joni Eareckson, Joni)
Abdul Baha of the Bahai religion puts forward the following idea: “Those who suffer most, attain to the greatest perfection... People who do not suffer, attain no perfection. The plant most pruned by the gardeners is the one which, when the summer comes, will have the most beautiful blossoms and the most abundant fruit.”
SUFFERING AS A WARNING
Brother Carlo Carretto reflects upon the life of a drug addict he had recently helped while working in Hong Kong:
“I am reminded of the story of Pinocchio. He is made of wood, so is insensitive to pain. But when he let his leg loll in the fireplace near his fire, his insensitivity to pain became a great danger and threatened his life. It seems absurd to say it, but; what would happen if there were no pain to sensitize us in time, to warn us? What would have stopped the junkie of last night? What would warn the alcoholic of the disorder in which he lives?”
(Quoted in Jan Thompson, Reflections)
SUFFERING AS A POTENTIAL RESOURCE
Frances Parsons was a young mother in her twenties when she developed rheumatoid arthritis. Severely crippled, always in great pain, she was at times hardly able to move. In her autobiography, Pools of Fresh Water, she writes:
“On the face of it, it would appear that to have spent almost half my life being ill one way or another has been a wretched waste of time, but when I consider that I have experienced illness on organic, structural, depressive and psychic levels, in fact everything but terminal, then I see the accumulated experience as a great wealth to be shared with those who need it.
Some time after Stephen and I began our ministry to the sick, I was listening one day to a tape on which a cathedral choir was singing a collection of psalms, among them Psalm 84. As I listened to the words I was struck by the verse: 'Who going through the vale of misery, use it for a well, and the pools are filled with water.' Suddenly I knew exactly what that meant, at least in the context of my own experience. All those years of pain and suffering had not been wasted but rather were collected in a well to be drawn from whenever there was a thirst... I do not believe in a God who hands out suffering... I do believe, however, that God can and does use suffering.., if years of illness and pain had not taught me something of compassionate concern for the sick, then I could never acquire it from professional counseling training.”
FRUITS OF SUFFERING
This prayer was found scribbled on a piece of wrapping-paper near the body of a dead child at Ravensbruck concentration camp, one of the Nazi death camps in the Second World War.
O, Lord,
remember not only the men and women of good will, but also those of evil will.
But do not remember all the suffering
they have inflicted upon us;
remember the fruits we have borne
thanks to this suffering -
our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility,
our courage, our generosity,
the greatness of heart
which has grown out of all this;
and when they come to the judgement,
let all the fruits that we have borne
be their forgiveness.
TURNING TO GOD THROUGH SUFFERING
Some people discover a renewed trust in God when they are undergoing intense suffering.
“It is sometimes only through suffering that we begin to listen to God. Our natural pride and self-confidence have been stripped painfully away, and we become aware, perhaps for the first time, of our own personal needs. We may even begin to ask God for help instead of protesting about our condition or insisting on explanations.
I still do not know why God allowed (my cancer), nor does it bother me. But I am beginning to hear what God is saying, and this has been enormously helpful to me.
I am content to trust myself to a loving God whose control is ultimate and whose wisdom transcends my own feeble understanding.”
David Watson, Fear No Evil
“Before my accident, I didn't 'need' Christ. Now I needed Him desperately. When I had been on my feet, it never seemed important that He be part of my decision making - what party to go to, whether to go to a friend's house or a football game, etc. It didn't seem that He would even be interested in such insignificant things. But, now that my life was reduced to the basic life-routines, He was a part of it because He cared for me. He was, in fact, my only dependable reality.”
Eareckson, ]oni
‘The question we should be asking is not, 'Why did this happen to me? What did I do to deserve this?' That is really an unanswerable, pointless question. A better question would be 'Now that this has happened to me, what am I going to do about it?'
H. Kushner, ‘When Bad things happen to Good people’
GIVING SUFFERING A MEANING
Suffering so often appears to lack any obvious meaning: it strips people of dignity, leaving many powerless and vulnerable. Many feel that suffering does not have a meaning in itself, but we can give it a meaning. We can redeem the suffering from senselessness.
Dorothee Soelle, in her book Suffering, says that 'the most important question we can ask about suffering is whom it serves. Does our suffering serve God or the devil, the cause of becoming alive or being morally paralyzed?'
Thinking it Through
We have looked at people who have attempted to make suffering yield meaning, or at least to impose a meaning on it. These are not solutions to the problem of suffering. They are ways of using suffering.
Instead of pointing to meaninglessness in the universe, the existence of suffering could indicate just the opposite, as Richard Holloway believes: “I have come to believe that the only really compelling argument for the existence of God is the argument from suffering. I say argument, but it is no argument; it is deeper than that, it is protest, it is opposition, it is defiance. 'O God, if you do not exist, what becomes of all that suffering? It is wasted, wasted', and I will not believe that, choose not to believe it. If the universe is indifferent to the pains of its children, I rise against the universe and impose my faith upon it. I choose meaning.”
(The Sidelong Glance)
What do you think?