Enduring Pain

I cannot say how many times I have heard people say they think God enjoys the pain we go through at times. That He intentionally makes it so that we go through the hardships and pain a lot. Every time someone says God enjoys our suffering I am reminded of the line from Bruce Almighty; the one where he says God is a mean little kid frying ants with a magnifying glass. It saddens me that there are people that have this image of God the Father.

The King James Version of Lamentations 3:33 says: For He does not afflict willingly; nor grieve the children of men. This translation is a little hard to understand. What is Jeremiah saying (it's said Lamentations was written by him). The New Living Translations buts it in a different way. It says For he does not enjoy hurting people or causing them sorrow. The New Living Translation gives us a more clear view of what the verse is telling us.

God does not enjoy seeing us hurt or suffering. When we are in pain God is in pain as well. While we are going through this suffering God shows compassion and unfailing love. Though while we are going through those times it's hard to see His compassion and love. He shows compassion in different ways sometimes more subtle than others. While at times God does allow us to go through times of suffering there is always something we can learn from it.

People have wondered how I could have cancer at such a young age, although cancer doesn't know age. Christians and non Christians alike have asked how could God have allowed that to happen to me. While I suffered and was in pain emotionally and physically I still knew God's compassion, and I learned so much from it. While we always will be going through trials and hardships, we don't go through them for nothing we learn from them. Keep in mind that God doesn't like us to be in pain, but knows we need to in order to learn.