From his book ‘The Will of God as a Way of Life’, Jerry Sittser shared:
About six months after the accident that devastated my family, a good friend challenged my perspective. I was surprised by his boldness. Of all people who should have been spared admonition, I was surely one of them. Yet there I stood, mouth agape, as he said to me, “Eventually, Jerry, you will have to make peace with the sovereignty of God. Either God is in control or he is not. You must decide which you believe is true.”
That there is suffering in the world is so obvious that it hardly needs mentioning. M. Scott Peck was right when he wrote: “Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest of truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we really know that life is difficult—once we really understand and accept it—then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.
Surprisingly, we still respond with shock and anger when it happens to us, as if we are supposed to be the one exception to the rule. “Most do not fully see this truth that life is difficult. Instead they moan more or less incessantly, noisily or subtly about the enormity of their problems, their burdens, and their difficulties as if life were generally easy, as if life should be easy.”7
Life is difficult for everyone at times. We may be able to avoid some suffering, but not all suffering. We eat healthy foods, exercise daily, fasten seat belts, drive the speed limit, build meaningful friendships, and think positively. Yet we must still face the reality that someday we may get cancer, die in a fatal car accident, face divorce, or fall into clinical depression.
What is God’s role here? Why does he allow suffering? The answer we give will in large measure determine how we respond to the suffering that forced the question on us in the first place. Is God in control or not? If so, then we can trust him as he works out his redemptive purpose—that is, his hidden will—in our lives. If not, then we might as well abandon our faith and find our own way through life without the help of God. The choice is that stark and simple, although the struggles and doubts we might have along the way are anything but simple.
John Calvin regarded suffering as one of the greatest tests of the Christian life. He acknowledged it was legitimate and even healthy to express human emotion in the face of suffering, for “adversity will always wound us with strings.” As Calvin put it so eloquently and compassionately:
When we are afflicted with disease, we shall, therefore groan and complain and pray for recovery. When we are oppressed with poverty
we shall feel lonely and sorry. When we shall be defamed, despised and offended, likewise we shall feel restless.
When we have attended the funeral of our friends, we shall shed tears.8
Yet Calvin believed that God is sovereign, working out a good purpose in suffering. Suffering makes us humble and hopeful, teaches us obedience, leads to discipline, and brings repentance. Our suffering then, fits into God’s providential plan. It is right for us, therefore, to trust God, even in our suffering. “Whether we are afflicted with poverty, of exile, or imprisonment, or reproach, or disease, or loss of relatives, or any other calamity, we must remember that none of these things happen without the will and providence of God.”9 ~Jerry Sittser, the Will of God as a Way of Life (Grande Rapids, Michigan 49530: Zondervan, 2000, 2004) 224-226
