We don’t enjoy seeing anyone suffer but we are all touched by it. No one is excluded. Some know pain more than others but we all will hurt during our lifetime.
One day it will all be over. For the Christian, there is hope. The Lord will deal the final blow to death and suffering. Right now, God has another purpose. He is giving mankind opportunity to choose Him or to resist Him. It is a choice which a good God gives us. For those who know the Lord, we know that our bodies will deteriorate with age. Yet inwardly we can be strengthened day by day.
No, we do not like pain and suffering. It helps to know that one day it will be gone. Oh, what a day that will be. Meanwhile, the Lord will do His work in your life and in the lives of others. It may include pain and suffering but it is for a reason and only for a season. There are things we would not know about ourselves or God if we had no pain. We would not know comfort in our lives. We would not understand enabling grace. There are depths of intimacy with the Lord that would never be reached otherwise.
Recently I spoke of several things in this life that I do not like. Maybe I was complaining a bit but there are things I wish were different. How much pain do people have to go through in this life? I don’t enjoy pain or seeing people hurt. There have been events in my life which have caused me great pain. No one likes pain but, suffering is everywhere in this world. There is the expression, “no pain, no gain.” It is true in our walk with the Lord too.
The good thing is that one day there will be no more pain. Our sufferings work for us an eternal weight of glory.
Monte Leavell 