How We Find God Through Suffering

(The book that I reference throughout this post)

There is one thing in life that unites us all, more so than our universal love of fast food, and that is suffering. Whether one likes it or not, regardless of how hard one tries, suffering is unavoidable. Whether it's a horrific accident, a natural disaster, a strained relationship -- we all suffer.

From a Christian perspective, this book attempts to answer the real hard hitting questions: why do we suffer? How can God allow suffering? and What should we do with our suffering?

(Source: https://blog.cph.org/study/job-an-overview?hs_amp=true)

The underlying theme for this book is the story of Job. It is a pretty popular tale: a righteous, devout man has all of his blessings stripped away from him, and he struggles to understand God's reasoning behind it. Job is eventually blessed with new things due to his faith, but of course, this has evoked the age old question: how could God allow such things to happen to one of His devout followers?

First of all, we need to understand why this question arises in the first place: it is a result of how we perceive suffering. We as a species "have an aversion to suffering." Nobody wants to experience pain and negative feelings, so we go to great lengths to avoid uncomfortable and sorrowful situations. "Suffering, however, often serves as an unwanted reminder that reality does not operate according to our preferences."

And when we cannot avoid suffering, we then attempt to ignore, minimize, or moralize our suffering.

Again, as humans, we can only understand suffering as much as our knowledge and perceptions allow us to. ... we insist that reality operate according to the predictable economy of reward and punishment." Or, more simply put -- "If you are suffering, you have done something to merit it."

As humans, we also have the habit of reducing or compartmentalizing suffering. We have a terrible tendency to treat suffering as a contest, ranking our experiences and dictating whether or not someone is entitled to their grief. This habit is so horrible that we even attribute our perceptions to God! "When we resist classifying it as suffering, we embrace the misconception that God is interested only in the more tragic situations in our lives."

This becomes a very dangerous mindset because "... we are dictating to God what He should or shouldn't care about."

Worst of all, we can attribute our own desires and beliefs to God: "God was a projection of everything good and hoped for in the human heart. ... it loses its strength the moment God is not something we want Him to be."

However, God does not operate according to OUR desires. God never stated that we would never experience suffering. He never said there would be exemptions from it, and He never promised to stop it, or save us from it. There is a reason for this: "Pain might even be one of His primary avenues for reaching people." Some people might think this is a cruel and senseless thing to do, but "... our hearts are so hard and stubborn that nothing else will do the trick."

In fact, "...God-sent afflictions are often merciful intrusions designed to wake us up and break the chains of slavery to self-reliance."

God wants to free us from ourselves. While we are all sinners, we are still only human, and "... we need something bigger than our abilities and our strength and our explanations." When we reach the brink of our limitations, we begin to realize that "... if we are to find any help or comfort, it must come from somewhere outside of us."

This is vital because when left to our limitations, we begin to form "... unworthy idols that can never deliver on their promises, even when they're ostensibly good things, like health, family, and status," and "sin is building your life and meaning on anything, even a very good thing, more than on God."

With this new information, let us now go back to the story of Job. After Job loses everything, he talks about it with some friends. His friends are all under the belief that some secret sin has warranted Job's suffering, but Job can find no fault with himself -- rather, he begins to demand an explanation from God: "If he can just understand what God is doing, he'll be okay."

(Source: https://apologeticspress.org/the-book-of-job-5429/)

The only problem is, explanations are ultimately a substitute for trust, and that isn't how God operates. God wants people to trust because of FAITH. "This is the key to God's silence. God wanted Job to trust Him ... He knew that it was the only way Job would ever survive his hours of darkness."

Imagine if God had told Job, "This is the reason behind your suffering, and you will soon be rewarded for it" -- then Job's choice to trust God would be meaningless.

"The Lord mercifully put to death Job's final idol -- the idol of explanation. God liberated Job from the prison of Why."

"God is calling us to trust that there is more to it than we can see. ... there is a battle being fought in the heavenlies. Trust in God, not explanations from God, is the pathway through suffering."