God and Suffering (Pt. 1): One Counselor’s Perspective
In the first part of his series on understanding God and suffering, Peter Ruffini, LPC examines his own experience of suffering and forms a theological framework for the topic.
Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am faint;
Lord, heal me, for my bones are in agony.
My soul is in anguish.
How long, O Lord, how long?
(Psalm 6:2-3)
There is no good way to explain succinctly and exhaustively the position we humans are in. We live in a broken world of broken people; at some point in the journey, suffering inevitably comes our way. Some sufferings are small and dull—others are sharp and unimaginably large. Often it feels like our suffering has no meaning—especially no good meaning. Resolution to this idea can feel hopeless.
My own experience of suffering
Like everyone else, I’m no stranger to suffering. In the youthful ignorance of my 20s, I would compare scars and brag that I’d seen more in my life than people three times my age. “War stories” were badges of honor and proof of how tough I thought I was compared to friends in my old circles. When I committed my life to Christ, I turned from my old ways and sought to glorify him through a repentant heart. Life didn’t get easier, but the self-sabotaging repercussions of my old patterns of thought and poor choices stopped.
Then in 2017, my world turned upside down in a matter of moments, throwing me into a three-and-a-half-year season of intense suffering. When this biggest and darkest storm hit, I realized how much different it was from my past trials. Not only was there nothing I could do to get out of it but I didn’t do anything to cause it. I was utterly helpless and confused and for someone like me, that was almost the hardest part.
When things didn't change and days turned into weeks and weeks into months and months into years, I realized that God wasn’t going to rescue me—at least not anytime soon. I spent much of my time asking him, what did I do to deserve this? Where are you, God? Why did you let this happen? I thought the more I prayed the more I could persuade God to have mercy and lift the difficult circumstances from my life. But he didn’t, and for the longest time, I couldn’t understand why he would allow anyone to endure such anguish.
Suffering hits us all
“As human beings we cannot escape it.
From the first cold shock that brings a howl of protest from the newborn infant down to the last anguished gasp of the aged man, pain and suffering dog our footsteps as we journey here below.”
— A.W. Tozer
I’m sure we can all relate to this in some way. Pain, be it physical or emotional, is an intrinsic part of what it means to be alive. Anguish, heartache, trauma, grief, or turmoil—no matter how we describe our own unique experience of suffering, we all want to avoid and find relief from it.
At some point in our lives, we’ve all wondered why an all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving God would allow tragedy into our lives. Non-believers will point to calamity and declare that “God must not be real.” Believers can be led astray by “feel good” or “prosperity” theology, which falsely teaches that the person suffering does not have enough faith to find a way out on their own.
Christians, like everyone else, will inevitably suffer in this life. Being in Christ does not end our temporary suffering on earth. The only place in the Bible where God says he will not give you more than you can bear is in relation to temptation.
If God is good, then why is there all this suffering?
Despite the fact that the topic of suffering is not popular among believers, the Bible has a lot to say about it. Surprisingly, most of it is encouraging. John 16:33 says, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” God never promises us an easy life. Here, He’s telling us clearly that we will have tribulations, but he then commands us to take heart, or have courage, because no matter what we go through, He is bigger than our problems.
Sometimes other people cause our suffering, while other times we cause our own. God gave mankind the gift of free will—the gift of choice. Instead of programming us to mindlessly do his bidding, he created us uniquely in that we can decide on how we will live our lives. He made us for the purpose of relationship, but we have the freedom to choose to ignore Him, harm our neighbor, or act foolishly—all of which have negative consequences (Genesis 50:20). As C.S. Lewis so succinctly puts it, “The sin both of men and of angels was rendered possible by the fact that God gave us free will.” This means that other people can choose to hurt us, and probably just as often, we can make poor choices that lead to our own suffering.
Creation itself is broken because of Adam and Eve’s original sin. Disease, famine, drought, war, disasters, death—all of these exist because we live in a fallen world. In Romans 8:21, Paul writes “creation itself” is in “bondage to decay.” From the beginning, everything and everyone is subject to this condition. No one, even God’s most faithful, are not exempt from knowing and witnessing suffering. King David, Job, Moses, Peter, Mary, Paul, Martha, Saul, Joseph, Jesus… pick almost anyone from the Bible and you will find that they knew anguish. Still, God used their pain for a good purpose. In the same way, God does the same for us when we go through the difficult seasons of our lives.
Looking ahead to Part 2: What does God think of suffering?
Even with a rationale for suffering, the enduring of suffering still takes its toll. And it’s worth asking, if suffering will always be a part of this existence, what does God think about it? What does God think about me as I suffer? The next part in this series will take on these questions.