Essay 84 (7-30-05)

LEARNING FROM SUFFERING

Ouida and I have a longstanding ritual of reading to each other at breakfast, except these days, due to my vision problem, she does most of the reading. The other morning we read something about suffering, and the point was made that suffering is often a good teacher. Ouida recalled a poem, and she came up with enough of it that I could find it in Bartlett. We share it with you.

I walked a mile with Pleasure,

She chattered all the way,

But left me none the wiser

For all she had to say.

I walked a mile with Sorrow.

And ne’re a word said she;

But, oh, the things I learned from her,

When sorrow walked with me.

Ouida and I seldom recall our own sorrows, especially the more devastating ones. They are still too painful. Perhaps we learned from them, but if so it is ambiguous just how. I am not sure we always learn from sorrow and suffering, but I accept by faith that God is with us and that he works for good amidst adversity. God can be working for our good even when it is not clear to us that he is doing so..

My ambivalence on this subject is challenged by a testimonial by the late Malcolm Muggeridge, the British cynic who came to Christian faith from skepticism. He became something of an apologist (defender) for Christianity. His statement about learning from suffering is one of the most amazing things I’ve ever read. I share it with you.

Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at the time seemed especially devastating and painful with particular satisfaction. Indeed, I can say with compete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my seventy-five years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my existence, has come through affliction and not through happiness

In other words, if it ever were possible to eliminate affliction from our earthly existence by means of some drug or other medical mumbo jumbo the result would not be to make life delectable, but to make it too banal and trivial to be endurable. This, of course, is what the Cross signifies. And it is the Cross, more than anything else, that has called me inexorably to Christ.

I am impressed that one of Muggeridge’s stature would trace the important lessons he had learned in life to things he had suffered. If he is right that suffering leads to life-enriching insights, then we have something of an answer to both a philosophical and biblical problem. Why is there so much suffering in a world over which an omnipotent God rules, especially the suffering of the innocent and righteous? It is the question the book of Job raises but does not answer. If Job could have seen his tragic situation as a unique kind of education – important things about life that can be learned no other way – he would at least have had an answer. Not that he would necessarily have accepted it, for he might still have asked why those things could not be learned some other way!

But Job’s comforters suggested no such answer. Nor did God when he at last spoke. His comforters had but one answer – men suffer because they have sinned – just as men prosper when they are righteous -- an answer the book rejects. God himself gives no answer – only that Job should not question the ways of God. Ironically, Job did learn something significant from his ordeal, and that was that he was not to question the ways of God.

Nonetheless, Muggeridge – and Ouida’s poem – do postulate a significant truth about life. Tragedy and suffering often lead to victory, depending on our response to the suffering. And, yes, we may well learn great lessons through difficulties and hardships. "No pain, no gain" is an arguably valid rule of life. I’ve had colleagues on campus through the years who liked to talk about the ordeal of their graduate work. They have doctoral degrees, and they want you to know that they came through suffering. We describe life in different ways. A Harvard professor talked of "living precipitously," while others in more down-home language speak of "being willing to get your nose blooded" and "If you are run over by a Mack truck, get up and keep going." Or you’ll hear "Nothing ventured, nothing gained." They are talking about life, and they are saying there is something to be learned and gained by taking chances and roughing it.

The problem is that the race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong. As hard as some people try, they never make it. Even when they make great sacrifice and do all the right things. We all know people who deserve wealth, health, and success who have known nothing but disease, hardship and defeat. It is sometimes the case that suffering leads only to ruin and despair,

Years ago I was back at Princeton to take a short course on the problem of suffering from the renowned British scholar John Hicks. We surveyed all the "answers" from Augustine to Tillich. The professor found none satisfactory. He spent sometime – with some emotion – detailing the suffering in the world, along with inexplicable tragedies. Though a Britisher, he was smitten by the Kennedy assassination, and mentioned that, along with world hunger, children dying of starvation, endless wars and bloodshed.

He referenced Dostoevski, the Russian writer who graphically described the horrors of injustice and suffering in Russian history in his novels – such as soldiers snatching babies from their mothers’ arms, tossing them into the air, and catching them on their bayonets, all for sport.

The professor’s impassioned recitation of man’s inhumanity to man got our attention. Then he told us that he had no answer, except in view of eternity. If there is another world, he reasoned, where it is all made right, then I have an answer. Injustices have to be accounted for. The wicked soldiers must give account for their treatment of those mothers and babies. Those who have suffered cruel injustices for righteousness’ sake will be rewarded. In God’s tomorrow of reckoning everything will be made right.

From the biblical perspective we may conclude that suffering is a necessary part of God’s eternal plan. The prophets spoke of a suffering servant who was to come (Isa. 53:10-12) The Messiah’s mission is described in such terms as "it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day" (Lk. 24:46). His followers were also called upon to suffer (Lk. 9:23). Paul rejoiced in his sufferings, for in some way they "filled up" what was lacking in the afflictions of Christ (Col. 1:24). Suffering is related to entering into the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22). Nature itself – "the whole creation" -- "labors and groans with birth pangs" as it awaits its redemption (Rom. 8:29). The apostle couples suffering and glory as if they go together: "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us" (Rom. 8:18).

The thesis with which we began – that we learn through suffering – is indeed biblical. Jesus is said to have "learned obedience through the things which he suffered" (Heb. 5:8), and he was made perfect through suffering (Heb. 2:10). And Paul states it as a general truth that "tribulation produces perseverance" (Rom. 5:3). We are even told that "we are not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake" (Philip. 1:29).

It is a puzzling truth. None of us goes out looking for suffering. We in fact find it our mission to alleviate human and animal suffering as much as possible. Suffering is an evil to be dealt with. We praise anesthetics as a monumental medical discovery because it makes possible surgery that would otherwise be intolerable. We go through life "popping pills" in pursuit of painless existence. We even have constitutional guarantees against "cruel and unusual punishment." Even executions are to be painless!

And yet we see that suffering is part and parcel of life. Muggeridge claimed that life would be boring and intolerable without it! Except for pain, injustices, diseases, problems, etc. there would be no challenges. And suffering seems to be endemic to our faith. When the Lord called Saul of Tarsus to be an apostle, he said, "I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake" (Acts 9:16). He didn’t call Paul to abundant joy but to grievous suffering. And yet the suffering led to joy! That is why he could say, "I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake, For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor. 12:10).

It is one of those glorious paradoxes of Scripture. We become first by being last. We win by losing. We become strong by being weak. We become mature by being childlike. We become master by being servant. We affirm ourselves by denying ourselves. We find joy through suffering.

Even though our Lord spoke of suffering as inevitable (Jn. 16:33). it is not something we pursue. We rather accept God’s call, and we go where he leads us. When suffering comes, we accept it as concomitant to the call. And we don’t question it or try to explain it. We accept the mystery, and we rejoice – because of the joy set before us.