All praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the source of every mercy and the God who comforts us. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. You can be sure that the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. So when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your benefit and salvation! For when God comforts us, it is so that we, in turn, can be an encouragement to you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer. We are confident that as you share in suffering, you will also share God’s comfort.
I think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and completely overwhelmed, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we learned not to rely on ourselves, but on God who can raise the dead. NLT
What do we expect out of life? I think that our expectations mold us, control our responses to our circumstances, determine what we find valuable. We probably should ask ourselves what we expect . . . from relationships, from circumstances, from life itself. I think that the answer might be extremely revealing.
I think that, as American Christians, one of the things we expect is happiness. Our very nation was founded upon the idea that one of the purposes of mankind is to be happy:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
I think, though, as Christians that we need to ask ourselves (1) if this is truly Biblical as it relates to the purpose of creation; and (2) if this is true for Christians themselves. Is the goal of our lives to pursue happiness, perhaps at all cost? Has God given us that right? Because, if it is a God-given right, then we can pursue it with a free conscience.
(I want to add a note here. I believe that the United States is a wonderful country and that democracy is the best of all possible choices for government when people refuse to submit to a theocracy under the Almighty God. This isn’t a commentary against the United States, but rather an exploration of the mindset of us as Americans.)
Paul obviously didn’t think that God was going to somehow “fix” life and take out the suffering. In fact, Paul tells us two very important things about suffering in this passage:
(1) God doesn’t create suffering, and
(2) God provides comfort when we do suffer.
“God blesses the people who patiently endure testing. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. And remember, no one who wants to do wrong should ever say, ‘God is tempting me.’ God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else either. Temptation comes from the lure of our own evil desires. These evil desires lead to evil actions, and evil actions lead to death. So don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters. Whatever is good and perfect comes to us from God above, who created all heaven’s lights.” (James 1:12-17a NLT)
And, to be honest, I think that a great deal of our suffering—the suffering we have as Americans—comes as a result of our own actions, but even more, as a result of our own expectations. What do we expect should happen in certain situations?
We live in a society that insulates itself against suffering. That’s why insurance and lawsuits were designed . . . to lessen the hardship impact of circumstances that caused loss in our lives. It used to be that people expected life to be hard and simply picked themselves up and began again when bad things happened to them. Now, we struggle with the idea that bad things might happen to “good” people and try to make sense of it.
The fact is, bad things happen to good people (and to bad people) simply because we live in a sinful world. That was a fact accepted by Paul and the other apostles. They never questioned why God didn’t intervene; rather, they accepted suffering as part of the lot of life and rather depended upon God to make such a life doable by providing comfort.
“For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And even we Christians, although we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, also groan to be released from pain and suffering. We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as His children, including the new bodies He has promised us.” (Romans 8:22-23 NLT)
We know that, even as Christians, we sin. Others around us who aren’t Christians sin even more. Even the very planet we live upon is affected by sin and groans to be released back into a state of perfection (reconciliation with God). Even if God could (or would) prevent us from suffering from every act of another sinful human being, the only way He could protect us from the results of living on this planet which itself is groaning would be to remove us from this earth.
There is no escape from suffering in this life.
That needs to be our expectation. And rather than wasting our time, efforts, and resources trying to escape suffering, we should instead be embracing the comfort of God which is promised to us. Rather than deluding ourselves into believing that we can somehow make life wonderful and devoid of pain, we should be instead be looking forward to that wonderful time when we are absent from this corrupt, pained body and present with the Lord Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:50).
Rather than asking ourselves how we can avoid pain and suffering, we should be instead focusing upon learning to lean upon God as He walks us through the shadow of (even) death and yet we don’t fear the evil around us, because He is with us (Psalm 23).
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