Suffering

This is an excerpt from the book, "Where is God When it Hurts?" by Philip Yancey.

"It seems to me that suffering involves two main issues: 1) whoever caused my discomfort, and 2) my response. Most of us expend our energy trying to figure out the cause of our pain before we'll decide how to respond...

In the book of Job, the portion of the Bible which most vividly poses the question "Who causes pain?" God deliberately sidesteps the issue. He never explained the cause to Job. All the way through, the Bible steers from the issue of cause to the issue of response. Pain and suffering have happened - now what will you do? The great discussers of cause, Job's three friends, are dismissed with a scowl. The Bible is so clear on this point that I must conclude the real issue before Christians is not "Is God responsible?" but "How should I react now that this terrible thing has happened?"

I remember reading a book by Viktor Frankl who was in a concentration camp in Germany during World War II. He said that his captors could take everything away from him (and they killed his wife and parents) but his attitude.

My attitude during suffering is that I want to just die. Yet God doesn't answer this prayer, he keeps my heart beating. Therefore, I now try to have the right attitude towards suffering - that God is with me, he suffers with me, and he loves me. This makes all suffering bearable for me.