The Sense Behind Suffering

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“Praise be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-5)

Reading these verses reminded me of a life experience that a missionary colleague shared with me some years ago. She and her husband were serving overseas. They were expecting their first child—actually children plural. She was carrying triplets. The babies, all boys, were perfect when they were born. But none of them survived. She was RH negative, and the medical personnel were unaware, or unprepared, for the implications of that reality during her pregnancy or when the babies were born.

I asked her what that terrible tragedy meant to her as she looked back on it years later. Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 were what she referenced when she explained that her tragedy had become a way for her to help others going similar losses in their lives.

Paul found reason to praise God even in his difficult times. It was not the trouble itself that was praiseworthy but rather it was the understanding that God was compassionate and would comfort him in the midst of whatever he was going through. Paul also rejoiced that while good would come to him in those troubles because God’s promise of compassion and comfort was guaranteed, that good could be, needed to be, was, transferable to others.

It might be difficult to trace its origins since it has become somewhat of a catchphrase, but "pain is never wasted" is not just empty rhetoric—not in God’s books. We accept the suffering, not so that we can use it to gain sympathy and play the victim, but so that we can give compassion in the name of Jesus and demonstrate what He has done in our lives to make us victors despite the pain.

So writes Paul in Romans 8:34b-37 when he says: “Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

To comfort in this way, even in the midst of our own suffering, is possible because Christ Himself is interceding on our behalf so that we are overwhelmed by His grace in our times of greatest need.