Suffering for a Different Purpose

For some people suffering is pain.  Notice I didn’t say suffering is painful.  No – for most people suffering is pain. However, most people don’t recognize what they already know and believe.  I say that because the focus of suffering is not pain or any other feeling or emotion.  Rather, the feelings experienced in suffering point beyond the circumstance to something deeper.  At the core of suffering is the loss of something; most people just don’t know that they know this.    

Think about it.  Sickness is the loss of health and suffering enters the equation when the person realizes they have lost the ability to function as they once did.  The suffering is not the sickness; it’s the loss of health that bothers them. Divorce is the loss of a spouse.  Death is the loss of a loved one.  Getting laid off is the loss of financial stability.  Or even simpler, reaching for something in a cabinet when your fingernail catches on the edge of the wood and bends backward till it bleeds is the loss of physical comfort.  Truly, at the core of suffering is a loss of something, either physical, emotional or both. 

Despite all this I believe suffering goes even deeper than the loss of something.  It’s the realization that the control a person thought they had was all a perception.  As a result, suffering becomes not only the loss of something, but, the recognition that you never truly had anything in the first place.  Additionally, no one truly understands suffering or its source or purpose in its entirety and this truth for many leads to a life or cynicism or suicide.  Suffering reminds us that we are victims of whatever life inflicts upon us, whether we invite it or not.  We aren’t really in control.    

Control is a word that carries with it a connotation that is more comforting than true.  Control is a child’s blanket that he must have with him at all times in order to feel secure.  The blanket will not save him from pain or death or illness, but, it’s the illusion of comfort the blanket brings that the child is so attached to.  As a matter of fact, if while the child is wrapped up in his blanket I smash him flat with a sledge hammer wouldn’t the cleanup be easier?  I don’t know – you decide; pray for me and the kid’s family while you’re deciding.  The point I’m making is that worldly comfort is often times a product of the illusion of control.  Suffering reminds us of the very real and disturbing fact that we not only losecontrol, but, that perhaps we never had it in the first place.  Sounds like Paul meant it when he said we’re “destined for suffering.” 

In many ways, humans in general are destined for suffering regardless of who they belong to (themselves or God); we’re all destined to die physically.  Paul however, is settling the possible suspicion that choosing the gospel lifestyle means worldly comforts.  Quite the opposite, choosing Christ means suffering on the earth for those who follow.  How humbling that choosing the gospel lifestyle actually welcomes suffering as well as the constant reminder that the true disciple, as a result of the path chosen, is under the control of the will of God regardless of what His will deems appropriate for their life.  Could God be showing mercy by sending suffering?