How should you handle suffering?

In my upcoming series on the book of Genesis, I am going to preach on how God made the world good (Genesis 1), but also why the world is broken (Genesis 3). You do not have to read the Bible though to know either of these facts, you simply have to observe the world around you. In it you will see the beauty of a sunset and on the news each night you will see war and heartbreak. 

Each one of us will experience both, but when we experience suffering, pain, grief, and injustice, what would God have us do?

First, the numerous laments in scripture from Job, to the Psalms of lament, to Jesus weeping with his friends make it clear that it is okay to acknowledge the brokenness and pain in the world and in our lives. Sometimes people hurt us, and we need to be honest about the pain and anger we feel. Other times, disaster or illness occur and we don't even have someone to blame, so we need to cry out to God and ask why. Finally, some times we know it was our own sin or foolishness that caused our pain, but shame, guilt and pain are still real. We need to be honest with ourselves and also find safe people who will help us express what we are really feeling. Furthermore, we need to become those safe people for others, who learn to listen and let others cry out to God without trying to teach them or condemn them, especially when they are in a place where their emotions are so raw that they would not be able to hear instruction.

Second, we need to regularly cultivate an eternal perspective on reality. If this world was the final reality then lots of pain would be meaningless and a lot of unjust actions would never be made right. A lot of the hopelessness in our world comes from the idea that right now is all there is, and sometimes our current reality sucks! Paul tells the Thessalonians that while we grieve fellow believers who have died, we do not grieve as those with no hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13), and the Corinthians that because Christ has been raised we have hope that outlasts this life (1 Corinthians 15:19-20). 

Finally, this perspective that this life is not all there is, also informs us that our lives are not just about our current happiness and avoiding pain. We belong to God and were made by Him for His purposes, and He calls us to live for the good of other people. In a good plan of God, when we learn to live for the good of other people, we take our eyes off of our problems and it actually helps alleviate our own suffering. God calls us to live sacrificially for other people and this often causes us to lose current benefits and sometimes even leads to direct suffering for us, but because we have a purpose beyond ourselves we can learn to endure pain and discomfort. The more we learn to live out of love for God and others, we even learn like Paul to have joy no matter the circumstances (Philippians 4:12).

If we have this perspective, then God will use suffering to create in us a faith that is more precious than gold (1 Peter 1:6-7).