Of suffering
The advantages of suffering, by Monica Hellwig, a Catholic nun:
1. Suffering, the great equalizer, brings us to a point where we may realize our urgent need for redemption
2. Those who suffer know not only their dependence on god and on healthy people, but also their interdependence with one another.
3. Those who suffer rest their security not on things, which often cannot be enjoyed and may soon be taken away, but rather on people.
4. Those who suffer have no exaggerated sense of their own importance. Suffering humbles the proud.
5. Those who suffer expect little from competition and much from cooperation.
6. Suffering helps us distinguish between necessities and luxuries.
7. Suffering teaches patience, often a kind of dogged patience, born of acknowledged dependence.
8. Suffering teaches the difference between valid fears and exaggerated fears.
9. To suffering people, the gospel sounds like good news and not like a threat or a scolding. It offers hope and comfort.
10. Those who suffer can respond to the call of the gospel with a certain abandonment and uncomplicated totality because they have so little to lose and are ready of anything.
Suffering makes an arrogant person realise that he is not as strong as he thought, that he has weakness. Is it not ironic that it only in admitting weakness that true strength is gained?
Pain and suffering have been my greatest teachers in life. Though I may have grudged it at the time, I would not be what I am today if it were not for the pain and heart ache that I went through in the past. For many years, I view pain and suffering as something that was preventing me from living a happy life, that contentment and happiness meant the absence of any pain and suffering. After a while, I came to the realization that the suffering is a part of life, which only made things worse.
I started asking the same question everybody asks; why are we made to suffer? If God was a loving God, why would he create us and leave us to suffer? Why? Why am I suffering? Sometimes it felt like a punishment for the horrible things I have done in life. Other times, it felt as if God was trying to teach me some sort of lesson in life. But most of the time, it felt completely meaningless.
I read this: Faith means believing in advance something that will only make sense in reverse
And only after all these years, do I understand the value of those sufferings. They made no sense at the time, but now, they seem to make perfect sense. I would almost go as far as to say that because of my sufferings in the past, I am happier in the present and in the future. Not because I think the worst has passed, we can never know that. But simply because learning how to cope with pain, and extract value from it has done so much from me. The realization that there is value in all suffering, just waiting to be found and harness is not only comforting, but empowering. I do not look forward to continued suffering, but I do know that whatever suffering I do encounter in life, as painful as it might be, once I emerge from it, I will emerge a stronger person. What I really mean to say can be summarized in these words:
"..... Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."
Romans 5:3~5
posted by Compulsive Blogger @ 5:55 pm
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