Suffering & Healing
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Something we all long for, Christian and non-Christian alike, is healing. We want to come to a place in our lives where current or past hurts are forgotten, or at least remembered without the same overwhelming pain we’ve come to expect. When we think of healing, we think of words like wholeness, peace, and victory. Yet, as we go through life we can feel like one day we are thriving and the next our hearts have derailed into turmoil. Encumbered by a world where suffering and sin happen every day to some extent, healing can feel difficult to come by, but I would like to propose that some of the issue has to do with our expectations and definitions of healing. If healing is to be found, we might need to redefine what it looks like. If we define healing as the absence of suffering, then we are left choosing between denial or hopelessness: denial that suffering and sin occur or hopelessness that we can’t overcome them. Neither option affords the reality of finding some sort of healing even in the midst of suffering. On this subject, Christ has a lot to say.
Healing in the Midst of Suffering
This is Christ’s world, and we are his people. As we read in the first few lines of the Gospel of John:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:1-5).
John 1 describes the magnitude of who Christ (the Word) is and his Lordship over all of creation. As such, we live in and amongst the darkness of the world with his light to guide us and give us hope, for we cannot live or pretend to live any other way. The Lord of creation says this about suffering in the world and our hope in the midst of it: “In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). We often have the expectation that life will go smoothly, but Christ actually promises the opposite. We WILL have trouble. Yet, Christ says that even in the midst of all the trouble we face, suffering is not so big that he has not already handled it in an everlasting sense. He has and will overcome the world. We can find victory—one aspect of healing—right now, even if we have to claim Christ’s victory as our own.
Hope Despite Imperfection
One thing is certain: healing can be found now. But it might not be what we expected, and it might not be complete in this lifetime. Christ presents us with a difficult reality. We each must endure sadness, grief, and pain of some sort during our life, and to expect anything different is to live in denial. But he presents us with another reality at the same time that is hopeful: despite pain, we will have joy one day. Later in the Gospel of John, Christ says this:
“You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born, she forgets the anguish because of the joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy” (John 16:20-22).
Joy is another aspect of healing, and because of Christ it is everlasting and secure.
We are Not Alone in Our Suffering
And in the meantime, we are not left alone in our suffering. Still in the Gospel of John, Christ says:
“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” (John 14:15-17).
God has sent his Spirit to us. And it is the Spirit who comforts and guides, and through whom we are intimately connected with Christ, never alone or cast out. To expect anything less is to live in cynical hopelessness.
In the end, if we desire not just peace and comfort but also healing, Christ tells us that we find that in the Spirit. If we still find ourselves disturbed by suffering and a lack of healing, Christ tells us that one day it will come. And he who loved deeply enough to willingly suffer the cross can be trusted to deliver on his promises.
For further reading:
Check out these resources on Kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquered gold, silver, or platinum, making the pottery stronger than it was before it was broken.
https://www.vaneetha.com/journal/kintsugi-beauty-in-the-broken