The Advantages of Suffering

Reformed Perspectives Magazine , Volume 4, Number 35, December 18-25, 2002 The Advantages of Suffering o Suffering, the great equalizer, brings us to a point where we may realize our urgent need for redemption. o Those who suffer know not only their dependence on God and on healthy people but also their interdependence with one another. o Those who suffer rest their security not on things, which often cannot be enjoyed and may soon be taken away, but rather on people. o Those who suffer have no exaggerated sense of their own importance, and no exaggerated need of privacy. Suffering humbles the proud. o Those who suffer expect little from competition and much from cooperation. o Suffering helps us distinguish between necessities and luxuries. o Suffering teaches patience, often a kind of dogged patience born of acknowledged dependence. o Suffering teaches the difference between valid fears and exaggerated fears. o To suffering people the gospel sounds like good news and not like a threat or scolding. It offers hope and comfort. o 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 for anything. From a message by Sister Monica Hellwig, reprinted in Phillip Yancey's Where Is God When It Hurts?