Suffering as a Means of Grace?

A few Fridays ago I had shoulder surgery and man has it been a time of growth and many realizations. Like, who knew you used so many shoulder muscles to sit up? Who knew it’s so easy to fall over when you are in a sling? Who knew walking would engage shoulder muscles… don’t I walk with my legs?? Obviously I have no idea how the human body works but that’s beside the point! On top of physical realizations there are spiritual and mental realizations I’ve had as well. Such as, I am a bigger baby when it comes to pain than I thought as well as I would sleep all day if I could. I’ve realized I have almost no patience when it comes to allowing things to heal properly and I knew this before but I am seeing it even more that I have the hardest time allowing people to help (much apologies to my future wife, I am working on this I promise)! I don’t like feeling physically vulnerable, I convince myself that I can do it all on my own I just need to work harder, be more disciplined, wake up earlier, stay up later, etc… So it’s safe to say that the past couple weeks have been pretty eye opening for me and I won’t lie it’s been pretty frustrating but if there is one thing I remember very clearly from my counseling training is that the emotions and feelings I am experiencing are simply revealing the state of my heart. We may not want to admit it (and by we, I mean me) but I really only experience frustration because I miss the thing(s) the Lord is trying to teach/reveal to me and I fall for the lie that all of this is happening for no reason. But when my heart is set on the Lord believing with full confidence by the faith that was given to me that he allows all things to happen for a reason, not some random, careless reason but a beautifully orchestrated, sovereignly provided, and flawlessly executed reason that both glorifies himself and proves to be beneficial for us. If I truly remembered that pain and suffering is merely a vessel for God’s grace then anytime suffering would come knocking on the door I would joyfully let it in. That’s what I believe James is talking about when he says for us to “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials” (James 1:2). However, in order to do this we must know three things: why suffering exists, why can good come out of suffering, and why should we rejoice in the midst of suffering?

First, why does suffering exist? The quick answer is sin. Suffering did not exist in the garden before man sinned. We saw God and his goodness for what it was, beautiful. However, once Adam and Eve sinned our view of God and how he operates was tainted. On top of getting kicked out of the garden we traded confidence for doubts, knowledge for questions, and belief for unbelief and on top of all of this pain and suffering entered the world. People get sick, people die, famines spread across the globe, and hurricanes destroy homes. People hate their fellow man and divide each other. Abuse is real and people are enslaved by a grotesque desire to control and own another human being. Babies are murdered and parents divorce each other. Addiction destroys lives and people are neglected. All because of one single word, sin.

Secondly, why can good come out of suffering? I get it, I’ve asked the question “how could anything good possibly come out of this?” many times before. It is a familiar question that God gets asked as we are lying in bed on those cold, dark nights where all we feel is despair. It is a question that is hard to shake sometimes but notice something. The question I am asking isn’t “can good come from suffering” but “why can good come out of suffering” implicating that yes, good can and will in fact come out of all things we experience even the suffering (we will address this in point three). Good can come out of suffering because of one single word, God. God said he will use it for good and therefore it will come true, why? Because God is truth (Jn. 17:17b). At the end of the book of Genesis we see a character named Joseph; you know, the guy who was left for dead and sold into slavery? Did I mention that was all by his own brothers? Well, to make a long story short, Joseph didn’t stay that way long and eventually became a leader in the land in charge of storing up food for a great famine that was going to happen. His brothers, the same brothers that threw him in a pit and sold him into slavery sent him by way of messenger a request to be forgiven, Josephs response? “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good“(Gen. 50:20). Can you imagine the grace it took for this to be his response?! What is meant for evil can and will be turned for good. Josephs brothers had the intent to kill Joseph, (which is evil), but God had other plans and in his infinite wisdom gloriously used it to save the lives of many all the while growing Joseph’s faith (which is good). The wild thing about all of this? God still does this. He still uses every single thing that happens in our sinful world to do two things. To glorify himself and to build us up into the likeness of himself. So, it is safe to say that the God who sustained Joseph in the pit is the same God that will sustain you in your “pit” so that one day you can come out the other side looking more like Him.

Lastly, why should we rejoice in the midst of suffering. The authors of scripture have plenty of reasons why we should but for the sake of this we will focus on a few that have really helped me in the past, and well, currently. First, let’s lay some foundation work. The reason we should rejoice in the wake of suffering is that God uses it to do something in our lives. We can rejoice in the midst of suffering because of one single word, sanctification. Now, what he might be working on could be difficult to figure out but I do know one thing for sure and that is that God allows no suffering to enter into our lives without a reason to produce or kill something in us. Suffering can most definitely come into our lives with the intent to kill something sinful in our lives whether that be lust, pride, anger, discontentment, disobedience or a plethora of other things. On the other hand suffering can most definitely come into our lives with the intent to produce something good. Dependency, love, grace, mercy, peace, endurance, etc. I’m sure you get the point. In most cases I would argue that God allows suffering to come into our lives to do both. To remove something and produce something at the same time because if we just simply remove the thing that was toxic and don’t replace it with something good then odds are that toxic thing will just grow back. Another foundational truth that we must be aware of is that nowhere in scripture are followers of Jesus promised an easy, pain free life. It is actually the complete opposite.

In James 1 we see a promise of suffering. “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (Jas. 1:4). James is trying to get us to see that one of the reasons we should rejoice in the midst of suffering is that though we are promised trials, steadfastness can and will be produced within us. Not only is God doing something in our lives he is doing something specific in our lives. Romans 5 speaks along these same lines. “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…” (Rom. 5:3-5a). So, why should we rejoice in the midst of suffering? Paul answers it. We should rejoice because it builds us up! We should rejoice in our suffering because it changes who we are from the inside out. We should rejoice in our suffering because God desires for us to grow. So, to simply put this big idea. God sovereignly allows pain and suffering to come into our lives to produce in us an unwavering faith, endurance to run and finish the race well, a character that reflects that of Jesus’, and a greater hope that will never put us to shame because we confidently know that the Lord is using all things to glorify himself and to grow us.

Now, I am aware that some of you might not be here. Some of you might be very familiar with the middle of the night because you just can’t stop thinking about what’s going on. You might be withdrawn or not fully present during the day because your mind is fully consumed by the circumstance you are facing. You might be one of those people who are yelling to the heavens “God, where are you?” If you are one of these people I truly hope that this has encouraged you. I pray that when you are up in the middle of the night staring at the ceiling asking God where he is that you would remember that God is near to the broken hearted and has seen every tear that fell and though you might not feel like it now there will come a time that you will look back and stand in awe of what God has done in and through you. To those of you who are reading this who are not currently facing challenging times be ready to remind those that the God who experienced the ultimate suffering did so willingly so that our suffering would ultimately have purpose.