The Cross Helps Me Make Sense Of Suffering

The Cross Helps Me Make Sense Of Suffering

We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. –Romans 8:28

It is often a struggle for me to make sense of suffering. I am strongly tempted to label so much of the suffering I see around me as senseless tragedy. Do you ever wonder if there is some other way God could accomplish his purposes in the world that wouldn’t have to hurt so many people? More significantly, do you wonder if God could accomplish his purposes in your life in a way that wouldn’t have to hurt you so much?

It is clear to me from Scripture that God loves us, that his loving plan for us sometimes includes suffering, and that he uses this suffering for our ultimate good and his own glory. I believe that. I accept that. But I can’t say that I completely understand that, nor can I definitively explain it.

There’s only one thing that enables me to accept what I cannot understand about my suffering and the suffering of this world: the Cross. I look at the Cross and the enormous suffering it represents, and I am humbled and ashamed that I think I could know better than God what is good and right and purposeful. I see that there is a larger plan at work that my heart and my mind can barely comprehend. But mostly I see that the Cross is the ultimate example of God’s ability to work all things together for good—even the most wicked deed darkness ever conceived. And if God can work together the cruel death and enormous suffering of his Son on the cross to bring about the greatest good of all time, then perhaps he really can do something good in and through the suffering in our lives too.

Either everything works for good or nothing makes sense. It is the “everything” in Romans 8:28 that is both stumbling block and blessed solace. “Everything” means there is not one thing that falls outside of this promise—not incest, not suicide, not murder, disfigurement, or divorce. I would never say to you that these things are good, and neither does God. But with full confidence I do say to you—if you love God, he will use even the worst thing you can imagine for your ultimate good. And if you doubt that, simply look to the Cross.

My Redeemer, I choose by faith to believe that you are using even the most bitter experiences in my life to bless me. Thank you for the glimpses you give me of your good purposes in my pain.

DIGGING DEEPER