By Jaymi Firestone
As I’ve grown, I’ve come to realize that more often than not, life is tough. The millennial generation calls it, “adulting.” And let me tell you, it’s not easy. Bills continue to come each month. Loved ones pass away. Situations arise that aren’t expected and they require hard decisions to be made, or cost more money than we are prepared to spend.
Let’s face it, life on this earth isn’t the easiest. Even if we try to stay positive and look for the silver lining, it’s still a hard fought battle every day to get through the things that are thrown at us. Satan uses the tough stuff in life to bang us up and get us down.
If you’re suffering right now, you don’t have to pretend it’s all good. You don’t have to add “but praise God.”
When Jesus was hours from crucifixion, He didn’t sing in the garden or act hyper-spiritual. He was sweating blood. He asked God for a way out. But, Jesus ultimately went to that cross with joy. Not some shallow consolation that knows no pain, but rather a joy deepened by sorrow and recognizing the hurt of humanity.
The Bible doesn’t give us a false idea of suffering. In fact, it offers a sobering, realistic perspective on suffering. If affirms that suffering is unthinkable, tragic, staggering, and oppressive. Nowhere in God’s Word did He forbid tears, nor did He portray them as a sign of weakness. Actually, God recommends them when alongside those who are suffering.
God is always trying to make us more human, not less. You can and should cry out in agony. In that honesty, God is establishing great character in you. Such a Christian is both happier and sadder all at the same time, because they long for a better home and already have one.
“God didn’t give us a placebo, a pill, or good advice. He gave us Himself. He came. He entered space and time and suffering.”
– Peter Kreeft (Making Sense Out of Suffering)
God has allowed suffering in our lives, but none that He hasn’t already endured Himself through Jesus. He has himself gone through the whole human experience from trivial irritations with family members, to cramping restrictions of labor and hard work, and finally to the worst horrors of pain, humiliation, defeat, and death. When Jesus was a man, He lived life as one. He was born into poverty and died into disgrace, and thought it all worthwhile to save each of us.
In Revelation 21:4, God gives us a beautiful reminder though, ““He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”
So rest assured through your suffering that despite facing trials of many kinds in your life now, God has a place waiting for us where our suffering will be no more, and our longing will be fulfilled.
He has overcome.
