Suffering Well: the predictable surprise of Christian suffering

Mags Moss | August 2012 - Highfields Book of the Month
By Paul Grimmond (2011) Matthia Media

"Suffering is not really a philosophical problem.  Suffering is experienced, not just contemplated; it’s often an event in our guts before it’s a problem in our heads."

How do we understand our own suffering; how can we meaningfully support others who suffer; what answers have we to a world groaning under global catastrophes? What do we say to those who question our faith in an all-loving all-powerful God?  And how do we define suffering anyway?

Paul Grimmond helpfully unpacks what we mean by suffering.  We are inclined to weigh up degrees of suffering – but how do we understand this in the light of Jesus’ words that in this world we will share in his suffering.  Can you compare torture and persecution with ridicule in work, fractured relationships, sudden loss of health?  Grimmond makes the point that comparisons are unnecessary, what matters are our values about suffering.  

What does the Bible teach about suffering that would inform our theology of suffering?  The author asserts that we are captives of the culture we live in, our thoughts and beliefs too often moulded by the way the world responds to suffering.   The valuing of intellectual freedom views suffering as the greatest evil, to be avoided at all costs. This then forms the basis of our morality and so is seen as a big obstacle for faith in God.  As a result we read our bibles in the light of these 'cultural' stories rather than reading these stories in the light of what the bible teaches us. Is our thinking about suffering sufficiently shaped by God's word?  We must let the Bible say what it actually says rather than what we would like it to say.

The author does not shy away from dealing with the difficult issues of the causality of suffering and the connection between suffering and ceasing from sin.  That suffering happens not because God is out of control but because he is in control of all things. This is a hard saying - that God not only allows but causes to occur, everything comes from his hand.

He admits that understanding the Bible’s teaching on suffering from God’s perspective can take a long time to ‘take root in our souls’ but our goal and purpose is to be like Jesus.  While we share in Christ’s suffering we also share in his abundant comfort – most clearly defined by an abiding rest in the Sovereignty of God.

This is an important, practical exhortation to wrestle biblically with a most emotive issue.  To learn what the Bible really has to say about suffering and so to think biblically and not according to cultural norms.   To trust in God that he knows best and to rest in the hope we have in him.  We must learn to suffer well.