They had not had any trouble with their teenager. He was a good kid. Made good grades. Played in the band. Wanted to be a music teacher after college. He’d only been driving a few months, but showed signs of being careful, a good driver. He even had a date awhile back. They were watching television. A bulletin came on. A horrible pile-up had occurred on the Interstate. Five people were dead. They were saddened by the news. Little did they know. A knock at the door. The policeman was as kind as he could be. “Your son is dead,” he said, “killed on the freeway a little while ago.” Devastation. Total devastation. How could this be? He was just here forty-five minutes ago. There must be some mistake. There wasn’t. Why? What had he done to deserve this. He was a good boy, never did anything to hurt anyone. What have we done to deserve this? Why this? Why us?

She has loved him since High School. Their romance blossomed during their college years. They married the third year in the university. She worked while he finished his last year. He got a good job and she had a baby. Happiness? Yes, sir! Then one day as she was cleaning she found it. On the Internet. Pornography. Of the worst sort. And a credit card she didn’t know about, one used to buy prostitutes. Devastation followed. Denial, finally admission. How could this be? How could he do that? Why? Oh, sure, it’s because of sin. But why me? Why now?

Regrettably, these and many other scenes like them happen every day. Suffering is part of life. Why do these things have to happen, you ask. Don’t ask me. I don’t know.

I do know that suffering is a given. It’s not a matter of if, but when. Suffering will come. I know that. And suffering is no respecter of persons. It eventually comes to everybody, nobody is immune.

And suffering is painful. I know that. It hurts. Sometimes a little, sometime a lot. And it’s not predictable. I know that. You don’t ever know when it’s coming. In fact, most of the time it blind-sides you. It comes at inopportune times.

And so, it’s not a matter of whether there will ever be any suffering in your life, but a matter of how you will handle it when it comes.

Suffering is a learning experience. At least for the person seeking to serve God. It teaches us, first of all, how good it is not to suffer. It teaches us that we are not so much in control of our lives as we perhaps thought (Job 1). It teaches us the value of putting our confidence in God and His word (Psa.. 119:71). It teaches us that God is in control, that He allows certain things, but doesn’t always tell us why (Eccles. 3:1-8).

Suffering is good discipline. The Hebrew writer, quoting Proverbs 3:11-12, says, “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Hi; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.” We don’t always know what is best for us. He does. “Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

Suffering builds character. But only if you are trained by it. Suffering either makes you better or it makes you bitter. James says it brings patience. “The testing of your faith produces patience,” he says (Jas. 1:2). Character is seen in the ability to look beyond, the ability to endure adversity with resolve and without bitterness, the ability to focus on the better in spite of the worse, the determination to do right in pernicious circumstances, and mostly character comes from experience and the wisdom it produces, coupled with simple faith in God and His providential care. Suffering produces character if it is endured in faith.

Suffering turns us toward God. When a man suffers, he’s much more likely to look heavenward. Suffering makes us long for something better, a place where there will be no suffering, no sorrow, no pain, no heartache. Just a little suffering can make heaven more desirable, more real (Rev. 21:4). And, paradoxically, it can make hell more real, too. Who can have pain and suffering in the here and now and not envision how it might be if such were an eternal existence?

“It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Thy statutes” (Psalm 119:71).

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