(Praise on TBN video)
I can’t help thinking about all the suffering in our world, with newspaper headlines blaring about renewed hostilities in the Middle East, a rampant pandemic in India and surrounding countries, continued grieving and loss over those who have fallen victim to COVID-19, and the ongoing tit-for-tat racial violence afflicting our formerly “United” States, etc.
Can there be anything “good” in this seemingly endless and intractable string of woes? Surprisingly, some leading thinkers believe so …
But there is a caveat. If the atheists are correct and there is no God, then human suffering has no ultimate meaning, nor does life itself, for that matter.
In fact, there would be no such thing as “good” or “bad” (as absolute moral principles) at all — everything just evolves to enhance survival value. If we are simply the product of random biological processes, then ultimately, we “higher life forms” are no more significant than pond scum … so “Rock On!” for tomorrow we go “poof.”
But, alternatively, if everything in existence, including you and me, is the handiwork of a loving “Intender” — and a caring, engaged one at that — then suffering must have some mysterious purpose in God’s scheme of things, as counterintuitive as it may seem to our miniscule three-pound brains.
In my April 29 column, “When Bad Things Bring About Good Ends,” I quote John Lennox, who said, “At the heart of Christianity there is suffering … God has not remained distant from human suffering but has become part of it … we have Christ’s resurrection stating unequivocally that death is not the end … This casts a totally different light on suffering.”
Renowned author and pastor Rick Warren recorded the touching video, “My Son Matthew’s Suicide & How Ministry Flows from Deep Pain.” One might wonder, would this level of soul-scraping anguish destroy him, leave his ministry in tatters, cause him to give up on God?
Listen in:
Among Warren’s observations: “In God’s garden of grace, even broken trees bear fruit … and we’re all broken;” “Your greatest ministry will come out of your deepest pain … and I’m not going to waste the pain;” “Our greatest witness to the world is how we handle pain … not the good times.
While nothing can bring his son back, Warren survived his loss and blessed others through his overcoming faith in the goodness and sovereignty of God.
Attorney Mike Kerrigan recently published an inspiring example of the strange redemptive power of suffering in a Wall Street Journal commentary headlined, “My Mom’s Christian Lesson: ‘Offer It Up.’”
“Her purpose,” he wrote, “was to ensure that I never let suffering go to waste.
“Throughout my adolescence, my Irish Catholic mother said three important words to me more times than I can count. I don’t mean ‘I love you,’ although she did frequently tell me that, even when I wasn’t very lovable.
“It was three different words: ‘Offer it up.’ You didn’t make the starting lineup on varsity, despite training hard all summer? Offer it up. SAT scores came back lower than you’d expected? Offer it up. Teenage heartbreak going into senior prom? That’s right, offer it up.”
Kerrigan explained that his mother was inviting her eldest son to participate in redemptive suffering, uniting life’s daily setbacks to Christ’s sacrifice on the cross to serve his purposes in the world. Hers was “a practical mysticism designed to ensure nary a drop of suffering — never in short supply in our broken world — go to waste,” he said.
Indeed, we do live in a broken world but for those who join up with Jesus, better times, “they are a comin!”
The Apostle Paul exclaimed in Romans 8:17-19, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the eagerly awaiting creation waits for the revealing of the sons and daughters of God.”
How About You?
I don’t know how things are with you right now, but suffering has been making regular visits to our home lately and we take great comfort from the words of the Apostle Peter, who wrote in 1 Peter 4:11-13, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though something strange were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that at the revelation of His glory you may also rejoice and be overjoyed.”
Have you personally experienced the mysterious redemptive power of suffering through triumphant faith in the living God as revealed in Jesus Christ? He’s just a heartfelt prayer away.
— D.C. Collier is a Bible teacher, discipleship mentor and writer focused on Christian apologetics. A mechanical engineer and Internet entrepreneur, he is the author of My Origin, My Destiny, a book focused on Christianity’s basic “value proposition.” Click here for more information, or contact him at don@peervalue.com. Click here for previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.