People often react to suffering as if it were unreasonable, unfair, or somehow shouldn’t happen to them, long after the initial phases of shock and anger are over. However, suffering is, in fact, a natural and unavoidable aspect of life for us all, given our fragile, vulnerable, mortal bodies and minds. All of us will experience our fill of it one way or another before we die. What counts is how we react to it, learn from it, and use it, to help us on our journey towards maturation here on earth.
Suffering
* Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward (Job 5:7; NIV).
* Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away (Psalm 90:10; NIV).
* A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another (John 13:34; NIV).
* …show mercy and compassion to one another (Zechariah 7:9; NIV).
* …suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope (Romans 5:4-5; NIV).
Lord,
We know that life
Inevitably includes
Sickness and sorrow,
Suffering and pain,
Regret and loss.
In good times and bad,
Please help us to offer
Comfort, support and love
To one another,
As we journey through life,
Towards you.