Living in Haiti for the past ten years has really forced me to develop a clear theology of suffering. With pervasive poverty on a daily basis, the 2010 earthquake that took the lives of nearly 200,000 people, and the long list if human injustices that occur on a daily basis throughout the country, I’ve really had to think through prayerfully and with the help of the Bible, how suffering fits into the Christian worldview.
Even beyond the seemingly meaningless suffering that’s in the world, having a theology of suffering is essential to everything Christian, because suffering is at the heart of the Gospel message that we preach. The fact that the climax of human redemption in the story of the Bible comes through Jesus’s suffering and death makes suffering a critical axis against which the various aspects of the Christian worldview are oriented.
While there is no way I’m able to treat in any sort of detail the issue of suffering in the world from a Christian perspective in this venue, I do want to say this: that suffering is never a waste, because God doesn’t waste anything. Not only is suffering not a waste, but history shows that suffering is one of the primary tools that God uses to reshape and heal the broken world.
This doesn’t mean that God causes suffering! Rather, it means that God is able to use anything for his plans and purposes for his good creation. It is through the suffering of his only Son that he redeemed it all. If he can do that through Jesus’s suffering, can you imagine what he can do through yours?
Are you tired of suffering today? Are you worn out from bearing the burden of others who suffer? Be strong and courageous, don’t be dismayed, God never wastes anything, especially our suffering.
We see this quite clearly in the story we find in 1 Samuel 1. In this story there is a woman named Hannah whose suffering. Hannah is being mocked by her husband’s other wife because she is unable to conceived. The text says, “And her [Hannah’s] rival used to provoke her grievously to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb…therefore Hannah wept and would not eat” (1 Sam. 6–7).
The story goes on to tell us that Hannah takes her suffering to God and asks for a child so that the suffering would stop. Hannah promises God that if he causes her to conceive that she would dedicate the child to His service. The text tells us that God heard Hannah’s prayer and she bore a child. This is the story of the birth of Samuel.
Samuel, the Bible tells us, was a critical character in leading Israel out of their worst days (the period of the judges) and into a better future. Samuel, in other words, was a game changer.
We learn from this that from Hannah’s suffering, God changes the state of Israel. This is the same with Jesus. I also believe that this can be the same of the suffering of the people of God today.
God doesn’t waste anything, especially our suffering. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is rendered useless to God–not you, not me, and certainly not suffering.
