So when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselvees in Athens. We sent Timothy, who is our brother and God's fellow worker in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. You know quite well that we were destined for them. In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted. And it turned out that way, as you well know. For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was agraid that in some way the tempter might have tempted you and our efforts might have been useless. But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you. Therefore, brothers, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith.

Several weeks ago I received a phone call. The wife of a dear friend had an aggressive cancer in her abdomen. The doctors did not prescribe any treatment. She was going to die and it would be soon. My friend played a formative influence in the development of my Christian faith during my early twenties. He was one of my groomsmen in my wedding. They were sincere, devout followers of Christ. They had five children under the age of fifteen.

On any given day, any seemingly ordinary day, one can experience the most wonderful delights or one can experience the rug being pulled out from under one's life.

Suvvering knows no schedule and is no respecter of persons. Suffering will enter every one of our lives. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonian believers regarding trials, saying, we were destined for them (v.4b).

When we suffer, others are often unsure of what to say or even awkward in their reaction to us. They might say things like, "All things work together for good," "Remember, give thanks in all things," and even "God must have a plan for you to allow this to happen to you." And even though we can experience personal and spiritual growth during and after times of suffering, most of us who suffer deeply would trade that growth  for the stability we experienced prior to the pain.

The Bible speaks of suffering as something that must be "set right;" it must be redeemed. God will surely do this one day. But in the mean time we must deal with suffering.

Suffering comes to us in many forms. Relationships can cause us great pain. Someon dies or leaves us and we suffer. Someone with whom we have a relationship hurts us - deeply. Maybe your family of origin has caused you significant pain. Maybe it's your marriage - it has failed to realized the dreams and hopes you had for it. Maybe your pain is from a marriage that has ended. The pain might be connected to a wayward child. Your suffering might be due to the loss of health that you once took for granted. While we may not be able to forecast the location of the suffering that looms in our future, we can predict that one day we too will live in the valley of suffering.

When we suffer, questions inevitably come to mind. Maybe it's due to our basic humanity that the first question that occupies our thoughts is "Why did this happen to me?" If we take a little time to reflect, we can see that often we cause our own suffering. If we don't perform well at work we can lose our job. If we neglect our health (diet, exercise, rest, etc.) we will reap physical problems. If we are abusive or neglectful in our dealings with others we will find ourselves disconnected relationally.

But the hardest pain to deal with is the pain that doesn't come from a clear cause and effect. This type of suffering shatters our idea that we are in control. That if we can be smart enough or good enough or spiritual enough or something enough, then we can escape suffering. But it is inevitable that suffering will find its way into our carefully ordered lives.

Gerald Sittser is a professor and author who wrote about the suffering he experienced when a drunk driver slammed head-on into his car. In that horrific accident his wife, one daughter, and his mother died. He wrote about what he called the "terror of randomness" and of not being able to find an answer to the "why?" As he processed his pain he arrived at another emotional and cognitive question: "Why not me?" Do any us have the right to believe that we should be excused from suffering?

Instead of demanding answers that are buried in dark mystery, it is more helpful to move to the emotional place of deciding how we will respond to our suffering. The Bible is replete with examples of the faithful doing the honest thing by going to God with their pain and questions. The Psalmists bared their pain-racked throbbing souls to God in the Psalms of lament. They poured out their hearts, "Why God?" "How long?" and even more plaintively, "Where are you?" Upon reading these seekers after a deeper faith we see that the biblical model is to not pretend to be okay if we are not okay. Many of us need to cry saltier tears, ask God harder questions, go to the valley of sadness and loneliness and express the wail of our souls. Maybe some of you need to find a safe, trustworthy friend to sit with you and just listen to you. We are commanded to "mourn with those who mourn."

Christ calls us to follow him and that means to live in the "ways of Christ." If we are to be continually transformed into the image of Christ it means that we are to be ever increasing in our ability to love. But with the ability to love comes the possibility of experiencing pain. The more we love the more pain we open ourselves to. That's just the reality. But the alternative to loving is to shut down and die relationally, emotionally, and spiritually. C.S. Lewis wrote, "To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in the casket - safe, dark, motionless, airless - it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbation of love is Hell."

Yes, we are called to love for to love is to live, to embrace life as it should be. If we refuse to dream, to love, to risk, we die.

In our suffering, God can seem too quiet or even absent. This confuses us and even increases our pain. The message of the Scriptures is that the God of the Bible is the God who joins the suffering ones. Jesus was the "man of sorrows," well acquainted with suffering. He took our sin and our suffering upon himself. Nicholas Wolterstorff, Yale University professor wrote about the death of his twenty-five year old son in a mountain climbing accident and its effect on him, "It is said of God that no one can behold His face and live. I always thought this meant that no one could see God's splendor and live. A friend said, 'Perhaps it means that no one could see God's sorrow and live. Or perhaps God's sorrow is His splendor.'" Maybe the greatest mystery of suffering, or our suffering, is that the omnipotent and omniscient God of the universe not only sees our suffering but he enters into our suffering with us.

After we have processed our suffering and touched the heart of God we are better able to live and move in this suffering world. Christ tells us to put our trust in him that he knows not only the direction we are traveling but the ultimate destination. He reminds us that although we must live in this troubled and suffering world he has overcome the world. This means that not only is there hope at the end, but in the journey we can live and love and cry and grieve and serve and hope. Because we know that we live by his grace we choose to place our simple, small, even shaky trust in the One who loves u so much that he gave his life for us so that we could be with him today and forever. And at the end of the Book God tells us, A loud voice from the throne of heaven will say, 'Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the older order of things has passed away. ... I am making everything new." (Revelation 21:3-5)

In that day, not only will we be fully redeemed, suffering will be as well. This is our hope in suffering that we shall see that day.

(references: Gerald Sittseer, A Grace Disguised; C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves; Billy Graham, Hope for the Troubled Heart; John Ortberg, Storms of Life; Nicholas Wolterstorff, Lament for a Son)