The Transformation of Suffering

It has been a tough several weeks around here- I won’t go into the specifics, but I imagine you have had weeks like that, too.  Some big, hard, unimaginable things (the kind that stops your breathing) and minor, irritating things collided in the perfect storm.  Amid all the chaos in and around my life at this moment, I have been listening to a short book by Elizabeth Elliot, Suffering Is Never for Nothing.  It is a wonderfully thoughtful book for anyone experiencing hardship and uncertainty about the future.  I found it free on Audible.  If you know anything about Elizabeth Elliot, you know she was familiar with suffering and could undoubtedly speak to the topic.

I particularly like the book’s title, Suffering Is Never for Nothing, because often my first thought during hard times is something like, WHY?  Why would God allow this?  What could this hard time possibly produce?  Why doesn’t God spare me and my loved ones from hardships?  How will this trial and testing be helpful?  But as I have walked with the Lord for many years now, I have found that it is in the hard times that I grow stronger in my faith and become a tiny bit more like my Savior.  When the hard times come, I remind myself that God has trusted me with this difficulty.  It is never easy, but God has never failed me yet.  I must tell you that He has been with me through some hard times and has brought me out the other side.  I do not always feel like one well-put-together person coming through the hard times, but I always feel His presence.   As Ruth Graham would say, “It is in the valley that the best fruit is picked.”  In other words, OUR SUFFERING IS NEVER FOR NOTHING!

Now, it would be easy to stop and say, well, isn’t this some cruel joke, following a God who puts us through hardships to make us more like Him?  But here is a basic truth of life: we learn, grow, and change through experience.  Not just the positive ones but the negative ones as well.  The most reliable soldiers are battle-hardened.  The finest cooks are the ones who have spent hours and hours in the kitchen.  The elite doctors are those who have years of expertise from which to draw.  And the Christian looks more like their Savior when they have endured hardships. 

¹⁶ That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. ¹⁷ For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!¹⁸ So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.  

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NLT

That is so hard but so true.  Our character is formed and shaped by the hard times of life.  As we traverse rough roads, our lives are molded to be the hands and feet of Jesus.  Our character is established, and our hearts grow in love for those around us. We begin to learn empathy for others.  All of this is the result of walking through the present troubles.  As Elizabeth Elliot said, when we go through suffering, we are transformed.  As Paul reminds us, our bodies may be dying, but our spirits are renewed daily.  And that renewed spirit is the result of the present troubles producing for us a glory that vastly outweighs the troubles and will last forever!  What a promise!  What a truth!  What a foundation we can stand on even in the hardest times of life as we plant our feet on the truth of Jesus and his Word.