Recently I was watching a travel program about the wine
country of southern France. The host of
the program was interviewing one of the many winemakers in the area and asked
her what makes for really good wine.
Surprisingly, she said the best wine comes when we make the vines suffer. What she meant was that some of the best
grapes are produced by vines grown in the harshest of conditions and the
rockiest of soils. I see a correlation
between this and the growth of people.
We would think a life with ideal conditions present would only thrive
and be productive. But this isn’t always
the case and in some people not true at all.
The reality is that the stress of trials, troubles, and tribulations
often results in our best growth as persons.
As I have been reading and meditating on scripture recently,
I have been noticing just how much the New Testament speaks about suffering in
our lives and its greater purposes. That
said, our broader culture and even church culture often gets this perspective
wrong. Here are 5 of my observations
about how Christians get this wrong and how we should think personal suffering:
1. Mistaking the consequences of wrong-doing
for godly suffering. According
to Peter, suffering justly for one’s
sins is not the same as enduring suffering that is unjust. Only suffering that
is meted out and endured when it is undeserved is commendable to God (1 Peter
2:20-21). This is not to say that
suffering for your own wrong-doing is not without pain or purpose in the
Christian life. The writer of Hebrews
reminds us “It is for discipline that you have to endure. God
is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not
discipline? If you are left without
discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children
and not sons” (Heb. 12:7-8). Such
chastisement does cause us pain and suffering, but it’s done for our training
in righteousness not our destruction.
The correct response to this kind of suffering is to repent, apologize
and/or make restitution if a person has been hurt by your wrong-doing, and actually rejoice that God loves you too
much to let you go undisciplined.
2.
Believing that personal suffering is without
any purpose. Several years ago I
was at a conference in which Joni Eareckson Tada was one of the invited speakers. Joni’s story is fairly well-known (her bio
here: http://www.joniandfriends.org/jonis-corner/jonis-bio/)
through print and film, but her life achievements are prolific and her activism
broad despite the fact that she has been quadriplegic for the past 47
years. What was striking to me as a
person in the audience that night was she never once alluded to her condition
but spoke with great excitement about what God was doing around the world. I harbor no doubts that Joni doesn’t have
days that are frustrating and dark because of her physical condition, nevertheless,
she seems to operate from the perspective that her particular suffering has
been used by God as means of shaping her for greater purposes. My home state of Oregon has the dubious
distinction of being the first in the nation to legalize physician assisted
suicide. The mentality that promoted this
law (it was a statewide referendum) and has taken advantage of it, is one in the
same: life has meaning only if you are enjoying it. If you are suffering bodily or psychic pain
to the point you are no longer enjoying your life, then a prescription may be
offered you to end your pointless suffering.
In the Bible, Job’s faithless wife suggested much the same thing when
Job lost his health. Job’s faithful
response was we must accept both blessings and trials because ultimately they
issue from God (Job 2:9-10). Once again,
the proper response to suffering is having the mentality that all that comes
our way has been allowed by God and serves the purpose of testing and purifying
your Christian faith (1 Pet. 1:6-8).
3.
Thinking you are all alone in your suffering. By far, self-pity is one of the most powerful
weapons Satan has at his disposal to wage war against your faith. Trouble strikes our lives and causes us
pain. At first we are optimistic. “This trial will pass soon or God will
intervene somehow and then I’ll be happy again,” we think to ourselves. But life’s problems rarely resolve quickly
like they do on television. As we go
further into the journey of suffering, there is a subtle voice that seems to
speak in our minds with a slight hiss.
“Sssseee, God doesn’t care about you and your ssssuffering, He’s too
busy blessing everyone elsssssse!” As we
listen to this voice, self-pity sets in and soon afterwards is joined by its
fraternal twin self-indulgence. We are
all alone in our troubles and might as well do something to ease the pain. To this kind of attack, St. Peter writes “Resist him (the devil), firm in your faith, knowing that the same
kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the
world( 1 Peter 5:9.) The truth is, if
God really has singled you out among all the people in the world to suffer, you
probably would be justified in feeling sorry for yourself. But the reality is that all of us live in a
broken world with a lot of broken people and therefore should wisely expect
that the pain of this brokenness will intersect our lives from time to time. We should probably be more shocked that we
don’t suffer more than we do. The point
is you are not alone in your suffering.
God and everyone you know has endured or is enduring something painful
in their lives. The key to knowing this
for certain is to be transparent about your struggle with others rather than
isolate yourself. You will be surprised
what you’ll learn about others who you think are totally happy and blessed when
you candidly share with them your sorrows.
Do this and you will pray for others, will have uncommon perspective,
and defeat the enemy’s strategy of destroying your faith though self-pity.
4.
Thinking that suffering trials actually
destroys a person’s faith. Both
Paul and Peter teach us that trials actually build endurance, character, and
hope (Rom.5:3-5: 1 Peter 1:6-8.) James
carries this same idea noting the outcome of our testing produces steadfastness
and deep growth in our souls which should be a source of joy (James 1:2-4.) That said, many of us know people who have
walked away from the faith as the result of a trial. So, how does this square with scripture? The trial of suffering is an instrument
whereby the reality of our faith is tested.
Everybody would follow Christ if every prayer was answered and every
Christian encountered nothing but blessing at every turn. But the New Testament repeatedly teaches that
true faith is believing without first seeing or trusting in the promise of God based on his character not the results
we see (Heb. 11:1; 2 Cor. 5:7.) What
happens in some people is that they receive the message of the gospel with
great joy because of what it offers them, but when that joy is put to the test
by troubles, their faith simply withers (Mt. 13:20.) Put another way, trials are a means of
revealing the true nature of our faith.
If it wasn’t real, it will be removed.
If it is real, a trial will, despite the pain in the moment, in the long
run strengthen and temper the faith of a believer.
5.
Thinking that your suffering is more than a
momentary light affliction. In 2nd
Corinthians 4:16-17 Paul writes “So we do not lose heart. Though the outer nature is wasting away, our
inner nature is being renewed day by day.
For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal
weight of glory beyond all comparison.”
As a pastor for many years now, I have watched many dear people endure
things you just never get over. The loss
of beloved children in accidents, businesses that took a lifetime to build
suddenly failing, a dream retirement never realized because of early on-set
dementia, the heartbreak of a father
dying just weeks before his first child was born and the list could go on. These kinds of wounds never go away this side
of heaven. You get through these things
(sometimes), but you honestly never get over them. But we must never forget the reality of
eternity. If you belong to God and God
has an eternity to bless you (which He will), then whatever sorrows you must
bear by His appointment, though difficult now, are by comparison very momentary
and very light. We keep our hopes in
eternity for that is where they are rightly placed because that is our true
destiny.
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