The Greatest Human Emotion: Suffering.

I usually attempt to write without clear bias in favor of religion on the grounds of trying to appeal to the general secular public. I also believe that if you take God out of the equation and argue on a agnostic foundation then the argument only becomes stronger. With this method, you can more easily converse with the believer and it just becomes icing on the cake once you bring God in to support your argument. If you can prove a point without God and later support it with God, you’ve got the debate in the bag.

However, with this particular thought, I am unable to eliminate the bias of God. He must be included. I’m writing on the topic of suffering. All too many times do people use suffering and the evils that people must endure on a daily basis as a disproof for God. I, on the other hand, see suffering as a distinct proof for God. It’s radical, I know. It’s a thought that must take root in people’s mind.

Here goes it.

Every day people seem to say, “Why me?”, “Why did that innocent child die?”, “Why is this happening?”, “Would a truly good God allow this to happen?” Suffering is a phenomena that plagues humankind. We are struck with grief day in and day out. We are forced into some kind of suffering, angst, sorrow, and pain. We instinctively try avoid it. And naturally so because it hurts. It hurts us to our deepest core. We cry. We isolate ourselves. We avoid suffering at all costs. And I don’t blame us for doing it. But there’s a greater response to this suffering than to merely and arbitrarily avoid it.

There are a plethora of choices to deal with these sources of pain. Depression? There’s Prozac, Wellbutrin, Paxil, Celexa, to name a few. Massive industries are built to eliminate suffering: psychiatry, enormous multi-billion dollar drug companies, counselors, etc. Unemployed? There’s welfare, unemployment checks, go find a job, work at McDonald’s until you find another job, go get a better education, etc. Dealing with death? Mourn, grieve; these things are socially acceptable. Oh, your daughter died? Well I wouldn’t blame you if you locked yourself in your room and slept 18 hours a day. This is the society that we live in. And again, I’m not bashing it but there’s a better response to these things than eliminating these points of suffering.

I’m contesting that suffering is the greatest human emotion. There’s more potential to grow from this emotion than any other feeling that we can possibly feel. And there’s also more terror that we could walk into because of this emotion. Suffering is “the greatest” in terms of the drastic gamut of results that it can produce, from complete despair and suicide to perfect hope and assurance. If treated and viewed properly, suffering is our greatest ally. If left untreated and ignored or negatively acted upon, suffering is our greatest enemy. And oh how many times do we choose the latter!

Suffering. The mother that loses her child, the kid who has no hope for life, the anguish and bitterness of love, the helplessness of being truly sick with cancer. Every person has some radical form of suffering that they are always dealing with. But in suffering we find hope. Suffering intimately leads us to the heart of love, if we are right minded about the issue.

Look, if there was no suffering and life completely and always made sense, how, then, would Jesus have been brutally tortured? Christ seems to be calling us to face up to our greatest fears. He calls His disciples away from their comfortable livings as fishermen and tax collectors. He calls them to the Cross. He roughly says, “It isn’t going to be easy and you guys are going to see some things that you’d never want to see but the reward is infinite. Trust me on this one.” Give up your money. Be hated. Drop your jobs. Take up your cross.

 Jesus Himself suffered immensely, perhaps more than any other human to walk the earth. Being God, He knew everything. Imagine if you knew everything. I know that if I knew everything I wouldn’t be able to live a sane life, especially if I knew the day and time and method of my being slaughtered. Jesus dealt with completely ignorant idiots (ie the Pharisees, the Sadducees, even His own best friends), the stress of His ministry to get people to realize that He actually is God, during the Agony in the Garden just hours before one of His closest friends turns Him over for a couple dollars. Could you even begin to imagine these things happening to you? You try to convince the world that you’re God. It hurts when your own best friend just minorly lies to you; could you imagine your best friend betraying you and turning you over to your killer? Could you imagine being so distraught as to begin sweating blood while your best buds fall asleep instead of consoling you while you cry? Could you imagine being innocent and yet being put on Death Row? Could you imagine a thorn bush being beaten into your head? Could you imagine walking barefoot on roads of rocks with a 125 pound log on your shoulders in minimal clothing for even just a quarter of a mile while being whipped, hit in the face, taunted, tripped, kicked, laughed at? Could you imagine nails piercing your body? Could you imagine the equivalent of sour milk being offered to your lips while you hang from a tree as people jeer at you? Imagine these things as if you were truly the Son of God. You know you’re right. You know you’re God. Ha! But everybody just stares and laughs while you struggle to breathe and are hanging by nails on planks of wood still covered with abrasive bark as you have widely open wounds over the entirety of your body. What about your closest friends? Where are they? Hmm, well, nobody knows. Only your mother and one of your friends are there weeping helplessly, not being able to do anything about the world’s greatest injustice.This is true suffering.

But as God, all you have to say is, “Father in Heaven, forgive them. I love them regardless.” In the Garden, previous to His death sentence, Christ was overwhelmed by every single sin of the world, from Adam and Eve all the way to the last sin of the last man to ever walk the earth. The devil barraged Him with every trick in His book. Three hours of being in that forest in complete and utter agony, nearer to despair than He’s ever been. And He was God! Yet even He suffered. If there was a good God, people say, then this would have never happened. To that I simply say, bullocks!!

Listen, the plain truth of suffering is that Christ calls us to it. Day by day we are asked to walk into and face our pain. Not run from it. Walk into it. He asks us to give up money. My dad lost his job last year and shattered his leg. You don’t think that’s been a huge source of suffering? It has. My 22 year old cousin’s 4 year old baby girl died a month ago. You don’t think that’s been a huge source of suffering? It has. My grandpa developed cancer, was put in hospice, struggled to breathe, was forced to eat, and died. You don’t think that was a major source of suffering? It was. Kids commit suicide all the time. You don’t think that’s the result/creates suffering? It is/does. This stuff happens all the time. It’s a brutal reality of our existence. Where is the meaning in it all?! How is this supposed to make sense?! Why is suffering the greatest human emotion?!

Humans have this distinct ability to make meaning out of nothing. We can come up with reasonable explanations for 9/11, tsunamis, tornadoes, unemployment, death, war, hunger, suicide, and every other thing that haunts our existence. So here is my justification for it all.

Let us reflect on stories from the New Testament such as the leper, the adulterous woman, the truly outcasted from society, the Roman guard, the poor, Lazarus, the blind man, the paralyzed man. Once they confronted suffering, they found themselves at the feet of Jesus. The leper in Roman time was banned from the city and was often left on the side of the road with nothing and most usually died of starvation. One day when wallowing in grief and pain, he was met by Christ coincidently. In his complete suffering the leper, while being ignored by the people that tried to ignore him while passing by, humbly grasped at Jesus’ cloak. Get this, Jesus said, “By your faith and hope, you are healed.” In this man’s suffering he is met with the face of Christ and is healed. Suffering leads us intimately to the heart of love. In his suffering we find Christ.

We are all asked to live lives full of suffering. That’s the nature of being human, to suffer. It’s inevitable. We are told to go to the cross. What in God’s good name is so great about suffering?! Why are we told to be crucified? Because this is where we find our true essence. This is where we find out who we actually are.

Compassion. Compassion is Latin for “to suffer with”. Who is the most compassionate character to have been human? Jesus Christ. It follows, then, that He has suffered with His people the most. He takes on our suffering with us. This is how we find Him. He ultimately takes on and walks with us in our suffering more than we do ourselves.

If everything were honky-dory all the time, how would we find God? Where would the meaning of life be in that? How could we come to know that there is something more if everything were perfectly laid out for us? In suffering we are intimately led to the heart of love. Suffering must be a proof for God or at least a validation of the words that Jesus gave us, “Pick up your cross and come with me.” In fact, it would be the greatest disproof for God if the world was set up perfectly and there was no conflict, suffering, hate, or fear.

My final words. Love is great, joy is fantastic, hope is wonderful, fear is powerful. But suffering is breathtaking. It can be positively breathtaking or negatively breathtaking. Wallow in your suffering, but figure it out, work through it, find God. Above all, it is great to “give up one’s life for another” so, at the very least, be compassionate. Suffer with your friends, and for that matter, with your enemies. People are suffering of starvation; we are called to suffer with them. Be hungry. People have no water; we are called to suffer with them. Be dirty for a day. People have no beds; we are called to suffer with them. Have restless sleep on the floor for a night. People have lost their parents or kids; we are called to suffer with them. Appreciate your parents and kids--tell them you love them. The ultimate form of compassion and solidarity must be prayer. Pray with and for these people, for yourself. In prayer we divinely unite ourselves with humanity and God Himself. In prayer we imitate Jesus; we take on suffering of our brother and sister, friend and enemy.

Lastly, there’s no need to be a masochist and to search out suffering. If you look hard enough, it’s already there in your life. That’s what life is about, to suffer. We are empty people. However, we’ve been created to fill this emptiness with something that’s not of the physical world. It’s a helpless, hopeless feeling. But it’s one that will most fully bring you to your knees. It’s a feeling that will give you the greatest sense of fulfillment.

Oh my God, and I truly do mean “oh my God”, could you even imagine the world that we could live in if everyone was to bring this viewpoint into their hearts?

Lent is the perfect opportunity to infiltrate this mindset into your daily living if you’ve already screwed up your promises. I know I have. But holy mackerel, what a great alternative. Suffering intimately leads us to the heart of love.

Finally, this leads me back to my first two paragraphs. I find it a little ironic that Suffering, something that is seemingly so unexplainable, is easily explained by the presence of a God and yet more specifically by a God made man.

Shanti.