SUFFERING, REASON FOR

Suffering can do several things in the life of a believer. First, it can “burn out the dross,” or purify us and lead us to greater holiness of life. But it can also “burn in the promises,” or lead us to a closer dependence on God and his faithful promises to us. Burn it will—but look also at what the burning is for.1344

There are many benefits in knowing a foreign language. One of the chief benefits lies in the increased ability to understand and be understood. If a person knows only one language, he is tempted to think that everything he communicates is understood. However, if forced to translate an idea into another language, he must consider various possible words to use and their shades of meaning as well as all of the other elements of the language. This effort opens up a door, allowing him to communicate with many new people.

Suffering is like knowing a foreign language, since things that one usually takes for granted in a normal flow of life must be thought through in new ways in a time of suffering. For those who have lived with suffering, a door of ministry is opened wide to a world of hurting people.1345

The Weaver

My life is but a weaving between my Lord and me,

I cannot choose the colors he worketh steadily.

Oft times he weaveth sorrow and I in foolish pride

Forget he sees the upper and I the underside.

The dark threads are as needful in the weaver’s skillful hand

As the threads of gold and silver in the pattern he has planned.

Not till the loom is silent and the shuttle cease to fly

Shall God unroll the canvas and explain the reason why.1346

“Men seek an explanation of suffering in cause and effect. They look backward for a connection between prior sin and present suffering. The Bible looks forward in hope and seeks explanations, not so much in origins as in goals. The purpose of suffering is seen, not in its cause, but in its results. The man [in John 9:3] was born blind so that the works of God could be displayed in him” (Francis I. Anderson, Job [Downers Grove, Ill: Inter-Varsity, 1976], p. 68).1347

The following quotation is from a Christian man who has been an invalid all his life, one of those lonely and obscure people who live in constant pain, who do not know what it means to be able to use their physical body in any way without pain and suffering:

“Loneliness is not a thing of itself, not an evil sent to rob us of the joys of life. Loneliness, loss, pain, sorrow, these are disciplines, God’s gifts to drive us to his very heart, to increase our capacity for him, to sharpen our sensitivities and understanding, to temper our spiritual lives so that they may become channels of his mercy to others and so bear fruit for his kingdom. But these disciplines must be seized upon and used, not thwarted. They must not be seen as excuses for living in the shadow of half-lives, but as messengers, however painful, to bring our souls into vital contact with the living God, that our lives may be filled to overflowing with himself in ways that may, perhaps, be impossible to those who know less of life’s darkness.”1348

In the midst of the movie The Hiding Place, there is a scene set in the Ravensbruck concentration camp in Germany. Corrie ten Boom and her sister, Betsy, are there, along with ten thousand other women, in horrible, degrading, hideous conditions. They are gathered with some of the women in the barracks in the midst of the beds, cold and hungry and lice-ridden, and Betsy is leading a Bible class. One of the other women calls out derisively from her bunk and mocks their worship of God. They fall into conversation, and this woman says what so frequently is flung at Christians: “If your God is such a good God, why does he allow this kind of suffering?” Dramatically she tears off the bandages and old rags that bind her hands, displaying her broken, mangled fingers and says, “I’m the first violinist of the symphony orchestra. Did your God will this?”

For a moment no one answers. Then Corrie ten Boom steps to the side of her sister and says, “We can’t answer that question. All we know is that our God came to this earth, and became one of us, and he suffered with us and was crucified and died. And that he did it for love.”1349