Note from Randy: A reader wrote our ministry, “Why do I suffer in pain so much? Is there something I can read to gain perspective?” This is a wonderful answer from Doreen Button, one of our EPM staff.
Thank you for reaching out. I am sorry you experience so much suffering from the pain in your life. You did not specify whether this pain is physical or emotional, although both are very serious, and one can lead to the other in many cases. Pain is a universal symptom of the death Adam and Eve put into motion in the Garden (see Genesis 3). Ever since the original humans turned their backs on Eden and chose to climb to the top of their own personal dunghills and shake their fists in God’s face, we have followed their example and each of us suffer the consequences of sin and independence from God.
Jesus offers us rescue from that sin and relief from that pain (at least the emotional pain, and sometimes the physical pain as well, and ultimately from both). He invites us off that smelly pile, through a door where light and love reign. He offers to wash away the filth and clothe us in His own robes of righteousness!
When we turn our face toward Him, asking Him to run the show while we step out of the spotlight in love and obedience, we receive His peace.
Are you familiar with the story of Jesus sleeping in the boat during a life-threatening storm (Matthew 8)? That’s the kind of peace I’m talking about. I’ve experienced it, so I know it’s not just religious pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking. The more I practice looking at Jesus, no matter how stormy my circumstances, the more that peace permeates me. It’s simple, but not easy to give up our little kingdom and allow Him on the throne which only He is suited to occupy.
Our enemy wants us to keep giving God the finger because it suits his purposes. When we’re absorbed by the itch and the emptiness, searching for any way but God to relieve our pain, whether we are “believers” or not we become ineffective for God’s Kingdom. When we choose to relinquish our throne and choose moment by moment to seek God’s Kingdom, we become fruitful, and God uses us to multiply His Kingdom population. Isn’t it amazing that the Creator of everything would use us “cracked pots” for purposes that resonate throughout eternity?
You may have heard of a famous preacher named Charles Spurgeon. His wife suffered great pain and wrote, “At the end of a dull and dreary day, I lay resting on my couch as the night grew darker. Although my room was bright and cozy, some of the darkness outside seemed to have entered my soul and obscured its spiritual vision. In vain I tried to see the sovereign hand that I knew held mine and that guided my fog-surrounded feet along a steep and slippery path of suffering. With a sorrowful heart I asked, ‘Why does the Lord deal with a child of His in this way? Why does He so often send such sharp and bitter pain to visit me? Why does He allow this lingering weakness to hinder the sweet service I long to render to His poor servants?’ These impatient questions were quickly answered through a very strange language…”
Susanna then describes how they discovered the source of this mysterious sound: “My friend exclaimed, ‘It’s coming from the log on the fire.’ The fire was unshackling the imprisoned music from deep within the old oak’s heart! …The intense heat of the fire wrenched from him both a song and a sacrifice at once. Then I realized: when the fires of affliction draw songs of praise from us, we are indeed purified, and our God is glorified…my soul found sweet comfort in the parable so strangely revealed before me.”
God uses our pain to draw us close to Him. As C.S. Lewis wrote in The Problem of Pain, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” We can choose to listen to Him or to turn a deaf ear and reap the potentially eternal consequences of ignoring the One who loves us so much, He gave everything to invite us back into relationship with Him. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6). That’s His invitation and His roadmap into God’s eternal, loving presence where He will “wipe away every tear” and “sorrow and sighing are no more”!
In Eugene Peterson’s New Testament paraphrase, The Message, he wrote, “Since Jesus went through everything you’re going through and more, learn to think like him. Think of your sufferings as a weaning from that old sinful habit of always expecting to get your own way. Then you’ll be able to live out your days free to pursue what God wants instead of being tyrannized by what you want” (1 Peter 4:1-2).
You asked for reading suggestions. Randy has written volumes and spoken dozens of times on the topic of evil and suffering in our world, both its purpose and its certain end. He’s also experienced a great deal of suffering from evil actions taken against him. One of my favorite books of his on this topic is The Goodness of God. It’s the smaller version of his comprehensive book If God Is Good…Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil. You might also appreciateJeremy Linneman’s article on our website, “The Surprise Blessing of Suffering and Trials.” After Randy’s wife, Nanci, died following a four-year battle with cancer, Randy spoke about his journey at his church: “An Eternal Perspective on Suffering, Loss, and Grief—Randy Alcorn on 2 Corinthians 4:17-18.” You can watch the video here.
Without knowing more about your situation, I can only guess if these thoughts and resources will be of help to you. I pray that you will find peace, even if you don’t find answers. Job went through suffering at a level I can’t even fathom. God spoke directly to him and never answered his questions, but He did show Himself sovereign, powerful, faithful, and in my mind the most important: He saw Job, was with him in his pain, listened, and cared about what was happening to him. And if Job was satisfied, in the depths of his suffering, we can be too.
Photo: Unsplash
