Thinking about Suffering

My first book is now being proofread and edited and will hopefully get to a point where I can say that it is now completed. That's cool.

But I'm starting to think about what to write next.

I'm starting to think about suffering.



In the last year I have been privy to a wonderful secret. I have always been a Christian and had a foundational understanding of faith and what it means to be a follower, but in the last year, I feel that God has let me in on a secret.

It's a suffering secret.

I don't know whether I should say it. On one hand, I should of course, because it's a glorious secret that has opened my eyes to the purpose of suffering. On the other hand, if i blurt it out then you will have received the knowledge without having to go through the same process I had to. The process is primary to understanding the secret and allowing it to transform your life.

But I've never been really good at keeping secrets.

The Bible talks a lot about suffering. We all know that right. But here's what I've discovered.

When we are happy and healthy, and our loved ones are happy and healthy, we take God for granted. I feel at my furtherest away from God and my flattest in my relationship with Him, when everything is going swimmingly.

When we are struggling and suffering, and our loved ones are struggling and suffering, we rely on God for help and endurance and. I feel the closest to God and the most complete in Christ, when everything is going terribly.

When Tom was born three months prematurely, I spent three months resting in the shelter of the Almighty's shadow. I journalled, prayed, struggled, battled, read scripture, memorized scripture...

The day he came home from hospital was the day I put away my journal. I was so happy that I thanked God for what he had done for us, and then let me relationship with him drop.

But here is where the penny dropped. I've been counselling a 15-year-old girl (with the help of our FEMALE chaplain) over the past 8 weeks. She was very much a non-Christian girl. She got sick and while she was sick, she started to think about what her purpose in life was and got to a point where she decided to become a Christian. Her wide-eyed wonder of God made me realise that if it wasn't for her suffering she would not be a Christian. The beauty is, that she understands this secret too. She is now non-plussed about her illness because she knows that in heaven there will be no pain and suffering.

What's more important, 60 years of suffering on this planet, or infinity years of glorious worship in heaven? Well duh.

Anyway. This has started me thinking about suffering. Ultimately my question is going to be; 'Should we be praying to God, to give us more suffering?'

Hmmm. I think I might write a book on suffering.

I'll call it, 'The Secret to Suffering'.

But not just yet.