Making Sense Of Life Prt 2: Human Suffering

Last week we spoke about the nature of moral and natural evil as we try to make sense of life. If there is a good, all-powerful, all-knowing God who created the world, why does evil also exist? In review, Augustine defined evil as:

The absence or deprivation of good…the effects of evil tend to be destruction and disorder – a twisting or scarring of nature, and of souls.

Holman’s Bible Dictionary defines evil as:

That which is opposed to God and His purposes or that which, defined from human perspectives, is harmful and non-productive.

These definitions imply that anybody and anything that harms others, opposes God, destroys, or brings disorder can be considered evil. Moral evil is reflected in the injustice, greed, corruption, cruelty, and heinous crimes perpetrated in society today. Natural evils such as earthquakes, tornadoes, and tsunamis also bring destruction, diseases and disorder to the earth, resulting in the harm of human lives and nature. Augustine had rightly observed that life is not as it was originally meant to be.

Today we are going to be looking at the topic of suffering in this two-part series on Making sense of life. I’m going to talk about 3 things when it comes to suffering:

Making sense of suffering

Seasons of suffering

Hope in the midst suffering

Let’s look at point one:

1. Making sense of suffering

All of us have personally experienced or at least witnessed various levels of suffering which have come through natural or moral causes. I think we can all agree that human suffering is an unavoidable part of human existence. Yet it is one thing to understand this intellectually but when we are affected by it personally it can be harder to make sense of it on an emotional level.

Ulrich Diehl, wrote an article on the psychology of suffering called Human Suffering as a Challenge for the Meaning of Life. Diehl observed that the hardest thing to handle when it comes to human suffering “is when one is not able to experience or grasp any meaning for it.” Vicktor Frankl, an Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor said:

An essential part of the emotional, cognitive and spiritual suffering of human beings, is to find meaning in it. Finding meaning in suffering is important for people who are seeking emotional relief, a healing cure for their wounded souls or a restitution of their mental health.

Tim Keller described the word “meaning” as having two overlapping senses. The first has to do with purpose - something has meaning if there is an intention behind it. The second has to do with significance - something has meaning if it signifies, points to something beyond itself. People want to find meaning and purpose in every aspect of life, especially when it comes to suffering. I don’t believe any person in their right mind looks forward to suffering, nor do we want others to suffer so we seek ways to alleviate our own pain and suffering and the suffering of others. But as Keller pointed out, we can and will endure pain if it is pointing to some higher purpose beyond itself. If we know what it is all for. The question is: “Where do we find that meaning and purpose behind suffering?”

As we know, one’s worldview determines how we will try to make sense of life. Today we are going to focus on what the biblical or Christian worldview tells us about the purpose of suffering. The Bible sheds light on the fact that we live in a broken world and that suffering can be attributed to being in opposition to God or people making wrong choices whether intentional or in ignorance. The source of our suffering can be physical, emotional, and spiritual. The Bible gives examples of people who have suffered unjustly and those who were on display for the world and the spiritual realm to witness. However, the Bible also teaches us that God can redeem any pain and suffering in the lives of people and use it for His ultimate good purpose.

But what does this have to do with our life experience? There are times that our Christian worldview can be overrun by our emotions especially when the hurt and anguish we experience is prolonged. When C. S. Lewis lost His wife Helen Joy to cancer, it rattled his faith. He said:

I was not in danger of ceasing to believe in God. The real danger is of coming to believe such dreadful things about Him. The conclusion I dread is not 'So there's no God after all,' but 'So this is what God's really like.

These feelings of grief or suffering can ravage our ability to reason through a situation, especially when that situation devastatingly affects our lives.

The question is: How do we speak to our own hearts or to someone else who has suffered greatly, and out of that suffering begins to doubt the nature of God? What do you say to a parent who has just lost their child to a drug overdose or to a family who has lost a loved one in a car accident?-We know this is not how life was supposed to be, yet in these moments when a person’s emotions are so raw no philosophical, intellectual, biblically correct answers could ever hope to alleviate or cure his or her own suffering or speed up the grieving process. What is needed is a friend who is willing to be a patient, compassionate listener, someone who is willing to walk alongside them, and who will continually lift this person up to God in prayer while they work through their pain. What they don’t need is for us to try to offer solutions, make judgments about the situation or person, or to leave them to suffer in their pain alone. We went for a hike last weekend and someone had a minor fall and I saw how everyone ran to help this person with disinfectant sprays, wipes, bandaids, etc. Then everyone continued on the hike walking around this person for a while, in a sense protecting them. It was a beautiful picture of the healing process that can take place in the body of Christ. Whether physical, emotional, or spiritual when we walk with the person who is suffering and comfort them with the comfort we have received it becomes part of the healing process.