Is there value in suffering? 

One of the most perplexing parts of the Bible for me is the experience of JOB.  I thought that when I first looked into reading this biblical book that I was going to learn some great insights as to why there is suffering and what its causes and cures might be.  In the days of Job, it was always assumed that someone was suffering because they had done something wrong and that they were being punished for it.  In other words, suffering was the result of wrong thoughts and actions. 

Thus, when I read the book of Job, I was extremely disappointed that I did not get any resolution to this issue.  It just seemed that God arbitrarily decided to make Job’s life miserable for no other reason then He just felt like it.  It was made quite clear up front that Job was a good guy and no fault was given as to why he was made to suffer.

The only clear point that stands out for me in this whole book of Job is that if you stick the course, hold fast to constructive values and actions that you will come out better off in the end.

To me there is some value in suffering:

• It tends to humble us
• It can strengthen our ability to endure and stay the course
• We often discover skills and abilities we never knew we possessed.
• We can be more confident and appreciative of life, particularly of the “small things” that we used to take for granted.
• We can become more compassionate for the sufferings of others, and more comfortable with intimacy so that we have deeper and more satisfying relationships.
• One of the most common changes is that we can develop a more philosophical or spiritual attitude to life.
• Can lead to a “deeper level of awareness.”
• Greater patience
• Reduced fear

Suffering often leads to our need to question our selves and our beliefs.  We are forced into a deeper level of stress and soul searching.   We question things that we just took for granted before.  Frequently we can come out of this dark hole into a whole new appreciation for every thing around us.  Changes we would never have made if we continued the same way before the suffering came along.

In his book “The Prophet”, Kahlil Gibran makes a similar point when he writes that, “The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.”

I have experienced some of this in my life.  For years from the time I was in my twenties until my fifties I suffered from sever digestive issues.  Constant pain and at times internal bleeding.  This led to a humbling of myself and to cause me to reflect on my life and think about what is important and what is not. 

I am not advocating that you should go out and seek suffering.  Instead we should understand that some suffering is inevitable and instead of standing in our own morose we should see it as an opportunity to grow spiritually and emotionally in ways that we would never have thought possible.  There is a bright and shining light at the end of the tunnel.  We just have to get through the tunnel.