Excellent reading on suffering from the Biblical Counseling Coalition……
In our ministry at Titus 2, the transition from avoidance of suffering to the willingness to engage with it and reframe it as purposeful is an opportunity to learn and grow…… This is the context that allows emotional emergency to give birth to spiritual emergence. It gives understanding and meaning to the experience of redemption.
My introduction to this view of suffering came about early in my Christian renewal 30 years ago after reading Necessary Losses by Judith Viorst.
The Necessity of Suffering
“Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God” (1 Pet. 4:1).
Christ Chose Suffering
God sent His only Son to save us. We celebrate this wonder each year at Christmas, exchanging immaculately wrapped gifts adorned in silver and gold ribbons that shine in the blinking lights of our Christmas trees. We give to remember what’s given.
Jesus willingly chose to be given to us. In so doing, He chose pain and suffering over the perfect and perpetual comfort He had in fellowship with the Father and Holy Spirit. He chose the path of pain, difficulty, hardship, sorrow, grief, and torture in order to bless us and honor the Father. Though we celebrate His coming with joy, one can only dare to imagine what it felt like for the Son of God to become like us.
Jesus took the road of suffering for the Father’s glory and our good. As His followers, we are called to a similar path. We are Christians, which means little Christs. If we are willing to bear this title, we must also be ready to accept the suffering that follows. It is a suffering that is unwanted yet necessary.
Unwanted Suffering
Human beings generally hate suffering. I think this is inherent to our design. We were built for the Garden of Eden and live daily in a sort of Gethsemane. Every time we face suffering, something in us screams that this is not the way it is supposed to be. We look for and ask God to give us a different way, yet He refuses. In these moments, we are invited to lean into faith and believe that the shadowy path of suffering leads to a greater good.
This is a challenging recalibration, to let faith alter our view of pain—to believe the present difficulty does not mean God is displeased or that we are on the wrong path. Rather, we embrace that the existence of resistance is often evidence we are following in our Savior’s footsteps. We learn to want the unwanted, just like Jesus did.
Suffering’s Fruit
The greatest good mankind ever received came through the path of greatest horror and suffering. Through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, we are provided new life. His suffering and sacrifice produced inconceivable blessings and benefit for those who are His. This is the course of suffering in God’s hands.
Suffering is not accidental or arbitrary. God sovereignly reigns over the timing, type, and intensity of the suffering we face. He is not absent in it. Rather, He is present and has tailor-made our present pains for His purposes. This is why the apostle Paul invites us to celebrate in our suffering:
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom. 5:3-5).
Suffering by God’s design produces fruit in our lives that can be acquired by no other means. It is through the crucible of suffering that we develop endurance, grow in character, and learn to cling to hope. This hope, settled in Christ’s atoning and sanctifying work, will not disappoint us.
Suffering & Counseling
As those who care for and counsel others, we have the joyful yet tension-fraught work of helping to reframe suffering. The pains of our lives have a purpose. Though we may deeply desire to be rid of them, these pains are part of God’s perfect plan for us. Our job is to help our counselees be honest about their pain and simultaneously receive it as part of God’s good work in their heart.
This is no easy task and must be done with patience and gentleness. Yet, the truth that every trial, pain, or sorrow is purposed, designed, and given by God brings with it a light of hope that no present darkness can extinguish. God is at work in our suffering, and none of it is wasteful or arbitrary. It all matters, which means we can be patient until our heavenly Father has finished His work, remembering that the fruit of these trying times is worth it.
“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:17-18).
Questions for Reflection
- How do you usually respond to suffering in your life?
- As you think back on your life, how has the suffering you faced impacted who you are today?
- What Scripture or promise from God is most helpful for you when suffering enters your life?