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Understanding the Purpose of Suffering—God Uses Our Pain to Transform Us and Others 

  

THE LIE: “Good people don’t suffer.”

THE TRUTH: All people suffer because we live in a broken world, but our pain has a greater purpose in God. 

When I get to heaven, I want to ask Jesus why some people seem to suffer for all of their lives. It’s an emotional question, I know, but truthfully, I’ve never been fully able to make sense of why good people suffer. This chapter is my attempt to wrestle through that question. If you’ve ever struggled with this, you’ve certainly asked the same hard question too.

An obvious answer to the question, “Why do good people suffer?” is that no one is really good. In one sense, this is biblically accurate and true. The Bible is clear on this; in our own weakness, apart from the saving grace of Jesus Christ, we are completely void of any merit or goodness in and of ourselves.

God works in our weakness because our weakness is our witness to the world. This is what I repeated to myself when I was going through the darkest season of my life. In other words, it’s not our strength that makes people curious about our faith. It’s how we react in our weakness that makes people pay attention. Our personal heartache and suffering allows us to speak to others facing hardship. 

When we have been where others are going, when we are permitted to suffer greatly, we are better able to speak life and give life because of the loss and death that has touched our own. I believe there is a side to suffering we miss when we focus solely on our pain rather than on God’s greater purpose. If you can see the purpose behind the pain, you can find the way out of this lie. 

Suffering also has the redemptive power to change the person who is enduring it. Nothing has the power to transform us into humble, tender saints like suffering. Reject the lie that good people don’t suffer. They do, every single day. The truth is, when we suffer, God can do something redemptive through it—there is always a bigger story encompassing the painful place in which we find ourselves. And while we may not focus on or even be aware of the bigger God-story in the midst of our suffering, the God-story is still there.

Take a few moments to consider what the purpose of your pain might be? Remember that your struggles are not without purpose.