It is not that trials are necessary, but that grieving is necessary so that we might find joy and dependence in Christ alone. Feeling our weakness is a necessary experience, being wounded as Christ was wounded. Under crushing reality, our pat answers and trite opinions do not suffice.
Ray Ortlund (6.mar.11)
God does not allow hard times so that we "learn a lesson," "get stronger," or "earn our stripes" - Christianity is not fraternity pledgeship. God allows trials so that we get past our man-made systems (of religion, government, or economics), turn to Him, and experience who He really is. As Calvin said, "We are blind both to who we are, and to who God is, though we have strong opinions." Suffering hurts in a large part because it challenges those opinions by slamming them up against reality.
When Paul writes about "rejoicing in suffering," he tells us to rejoice because it reduces us to hope based on our weakness:
More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame ... for while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. (Paul's Letter to the Romans, 5:3-6)
"rejoice because it reduces us to hope based on our weakness" ... well said, Max. Great food for thought.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand sometimes suffering hurts simply because it hurts. Trying to see it as something else is a mind game we play with ourselves to keep from thinking about the pain.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Kurt - suffering hurts because it hurts. I'm glad you clarified - I was not clear enough in my post! The sentence starter for this post was NOT "We suffer because ..."; I think that too often people try to find a lesson, outcome, or other reason behind hard times.
ReplyDeleteRATHER, I had envisioned a root thought more like: "Because we suffer ..." For when it does hurt, it shows us something: because we hurt, we are weak. We are not as invincible as we thought we were, and the great opinions we had may not be either. All of our thoughts about life, religion, or society existing for our benefit are shattered. It is only from this weakness that we are really capable of something like hope, which definitionally lies outside of ourselves.
Hope this is clearer ... I'm still quite the beginner at expressing myself in writing for a public audience. A much better writer on the topic, if you're interested, is C.S. Lewis in his "the Problem of Pain," particularly chapters 6 & 7.