Suffering

I need to begin by stating very clearly that this subject is beyond the scope of any honest person who uses words to help the living. I almost told a good friend that I didn't want to attempt this article. I know he has suffered greatly, in physical pain, and I would surmise emotional and mental pain. I know very little of suffering as I think of friends and brothers and sisters who share my faith. I will not quote or use other writers to validate my points or ideas. What I will write is based on my own experience with suffering and coming alongside those who have suffered and allowed me into their world.

Suffering, What is it? Suffering is an attack on the senses of the person. I use the word, attack, to describe the ferocity of intent. Suffering comes in the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual dimensions of living. It can affect all four areas of our life, or just one or two. Many people who suffer fight in more than one dimension. My suffering seemed to encompass every area of living. One of the most severe wounds of the one who suffers is in the sense of, aloneness. Even surrounded I am alone. Alone in the pain. Even with the people that love me the most, my pain is mine. The darkness is mine. The questioning is mine. The silence of unanswered prayers is mine. Every aspect of the suffering belongs to the one who suffers.  Suffering is common to man yet it is distinctly individual. My suffering is never to be compared to the suffering of others, in the aspect that mine is worse than yours. Yes, there will always be people who suffer much worse than I. I have already stated how little I know of the subject.

Some suffering despises logic and understanding. Reasoning and logic will never answer why suffering abounds. Why do innocents suffer from hunger and disease. Who do millions starve and die? The answers of greed and corruption have been used for centuries. We know we have the resources to feed the hungry of the world. When we lived in Zambia I drove past a government depot that had thousands upon thousands of pounds of corn rotting in the sun. A person will go nuts trying to figure out why this happens. Couldn't God bring all of this madness to an end? Is there anything He cannot do? With an Old Testament wave of His arm He could strike down every corrupt leader and overturn every evil domain. Yet, He does not.

Suffering, Never Intended to be-Suffering was never intended to be part of the human experience.  It is now, not as it was. The created world was to be an icon of the Creator, perfect in every way. The first man and woman were created and set in their paradise to have communion and fellowship in perfect harmony and peace with God. With the created order came the will of mankind and the angelic world. The scriptures teach of chaos is the cosmos. The spiritual rebellion that sent self seeking spiritual beings to their downfall and Lucifer to his eventual demise. The will that was given to mankind would lead to his own downfall and suffering. God said that He would make mankind in His own image. The ability to choose right and wrong, love and hate, is the greatest gift and biggest curse. When mankind chose self-satisfaction and selfishness suffering was the unknown and unseen invader in life.