Pastor's Pen - July 11, 2015

SUFFERING COMES FROM GOD????

People often ask me how they should be looking at suffering in their lives. “Is the suffering in my life God’s will? If it is God’s will, then I should grin and bear it, right?” When I was younger my mother used to tell me, “Ralph, since suffering and pain in your life comes from God, you should offer it up to God as a sacrifice. After all, Jesus suffered and died for you.” Why should we be exempt or free from suffering? We are not worthy of that freedom. After all, we are sinners. I lived according to this understanding of suffering in my life for most of my life.

As I have grown older and have become more acquainted with the scriptures and the ‘context’ of God’s Word, I now see suffering in a new way. Physical and emotional suffering and pain is often identified in the scriptures as having a relationship with evil. So suffering is not a good thing! Since God is a God of love, can suffering really be from God? Maybe it is God’s “tough love” for us.

I don’t believe that suffering is God’s will or God’s “tough love” for us.
The God I have come to know is a God of love and a God of healing. Look at Jesus! In the Gospels He is constantly healing people from sickness, disabilities and sin. He was and is “about healing.” He even died so that sin in our lives (our worst afliction) could be forgiven. God’s desire for us is “wellness” and “wholeness.”

We do suffer, but suffering happens in the course of life and living as human beings. It definitely happens! Suffering comes from many different sources (deliberate choices, accidental
happenings, human weakness, mental struggles, physical and bodily limitations, environmental poisons & happenings, etc.), but not from God. So we need to do battle with suffering and sickness in our selves and in other people’s lives. Having and using doctors, nurses, confessors, professionals, fellow believers and caregivers of various kinds in times of suffering is the will of God. Comforting the suffering, praying for them and helping them in whatever positive way we can is the work of God. In the midst of our efforts to do battle with suffering we can and should join our sufferings to Christ’s.

Fr. Ralph