When we’re suffering, we often ask “why?” But we won’t always be able to answer that question. “I shall know why,” poet Emily Dickinson wrote, “When time is over, and I have ceased to wonder why.”[1] God never told Job the reason for his suffering, but He assured Job he was in control, and that there was purpose in his trials. When Job challenged God, God pointed out how little Job really understood about the workings of the universe and asked him simply to trust God’s wisdom. The book of Job is not so much about why God allows suffering, but about how we should respond to it.

Instead of asking God “why?” we can ask ourselves:

• Could this suffering be the result of my own sin? And if it is, what is that sin? God doesn’t generally overwhelm us with a vague but pervasive sense of guilt. That kind of condemnation might come from Satan, but not from God. When the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, we’re not left wondering what that sin might be. And when the Spirit does convict us of specific sin, we should confess it and repent from it—not to bring an end to our suffering, but to reconcile our hearts to God.

• What might God be saying to me through this experience? Could there be something for me to learn here? Maybe it’s how to be more compassionate to others who suffer.[2] Maybe it’s how to more fully lean on God in times of weakness.[3]

• Could there be something God is calling me to do in response to the suffering I am experiencing or witnessing? In the video, Max’s pastor saw his suffering and gifted him with a camera. Somehow, the camera became a way for Max to cope with suffering, and to help others at the same time.

Our response to suffering can change others, change ourselves, and change the world. Suffering can be a catalyst to greater growth, greater faith, greater good. Theologian J. I. Packer writes, “How does God accomplish this purpose [of maturing us]? Not by shielding us from assault by the world, the flesh and the devil, nor by protecting us from burdensome and frustrating circumstances…but rather by exposing us to all these things, so as to overwhelm us with a sense of our own inadequacy, he drives us to cling to him more closely.”

Through suffering we learn patience, endurance, trust and hope:

• Romans 5:2b-5 “And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;  perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”

We do not have to call suffering good to believe that God is able bring good from it.

[1] https://keytopoetry.com/emily-dickinson/poems/i-shall-know-why-when-time-is-over/

[2] 2 Corinthians 1:4

[3] 2 Corinthians 12:10