Topic: SUFFERING
There is no true love save in suffering, and in this world we have to
choose either love, which is suffering, or happiness…. Man is the more man—that
is, the more divine—the greater his capacity for suffering, or rather, for anguish.
Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936), Spanish philosophical writer. The Tragic
Sense of Life, ch. 9 (1913).
Comment: Our suffering is made divine by our ability to surrender our suffering and life
to Christ. Suffering takes on its own meaning and purpose as He works in us. When we
suffer we are made selfish, but when we suffer to do His will our selfishness turns into
selflessness PK
It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does
that sometimes, but suffering, for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive.
W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965), British author. The Moon and Sixpence,
ch. 17 (1919).
Comment: Suffering ennobles the character only when we have given up trying to suffer on
our own and suffer for our own purposes. Suffering ennobles the character when we suffer
for the cause of Christ. PK
There is not much sense in suffering, since drugs can be given for pain,
itching, and other discomforts. The belief has long died that suffering here on earth will
be rewarded in heaven. Suffering has lost its meaning.
Elisabeth K�bler-Ross (b. 1926), Swiss-born U.S. psychiatrist. On Death and
Dying, ch. 2 (1969).
Comment: Suffering has lost its meaning because so many people have lost their faith in
God. Suffering is the work of Satan. Suffering comes at us in shapes and sizes that are
not recognizable as Satanic. A lot of people believe suffering is the work of God. The
kind of God that makes people suffer unjustifiably is not a very nice person. What is most
correct is that suffering for many people is the result of going against God, God’s
laws, and His precepts. In other words, when you fool with God, you will pay. When you
play with fire you will get burned. Satan makes sure the devout children of God suffer
just so their faith will be undermined. If you are devout, and you are suffering, and if
you hold to your faith through the suffering there is a party waiting for you in heaven.
PK
It is not suffering as such that is most deeply feared but suffering that degrades.
Susan Sontag (b. 1933), U.S. essayist. AIDS and Its Metaphors, ch. 4 (1989).
Comment: We can make sense of suffering only if we make sense that God is not responsible
for it, did not "allow" it, and is not pleased with it. PK
It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but
suffering, for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive.
W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965), British author. The Moon and Sixpence,
ch. 17 (1919).
Comment: Suffering without a connection to God within the heart does devastate and makes
men and women petty and vindictive. However, suffering while keeping the love of God in
the heart as ones goal works for the glory of God. PK
Don’t look forward to the day you stop suffering, because when it comes you’ll know
you’re dead.
Tennessee Williams (1914–83), U.S. dramatist. Quoted in: Observer
(London, 26 Jan. 1958).
Comment: If you have decided to follow Jesus somewhere, somehow in your suffering, when
you stop suffering you will jump for joy and be in eternal happiness. Praise God that He
loves us so. PK
You can hold yourself back from the sufferings of the world, that is something you are
free to do and it accords with your nature, but perhaps this very holding back is the one
suffering you could avoid.
Franz Kafka (1883–1924), German novelist, short-story writer. The Collected
Aphorisms, no. 103 (Oct. 1917–Feb. 1918; repr. in Shorter Works, vol. 1,
ed. and tr. by Malcolm Pasley, 1973).
Comment: To turn your back on the suffering of others and not respond to that suffering is
a victory for Satan and a defeat for you. PK
Suffering is by no means a privilege, a sign of nobility, a reminder of God. Suffering is
a fierce, bestial thing, commonplace, uncalled for, natural as air. It is intangible; no
one can grasp it or fight against it; it dwells in time—is the same thing as time; if
it comes in fits and starts, that is only so as to leave the sufferer more defenseless
during the moments that follow, those long moments when one relives the last bout of
torture and waits for the next.
Cesare Pavese (1908–50), Italian poet, novelist, translator. The Burning
Brand: Diaries 1935–1950, 1952; tr. 1961), entry for 30 Oct. 1940.
Comment: Suffering can remind us of God if we want the touch of God’s love, even if
we are suffering to much to experience that love. Suffering is a fierce, bestial thing
that is put upon us by Satan. It is understandable only if we look at the evil of Satan.
You can fight against it by immersion of your pain and your heart in the love that is God.
Yes, suffering is random, but it is random by design so we will not see that Satan is the
real source of it. Yes, Satan’s attack called suffering leaves us defenseless if we
do not have a connection to God, but with God we have a person to whom we can complain, to
whom we can shake our fist in anger, and in whom we have someone to send us laughter to
ease the pain until He calls us home. PK
Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives, but on balance life is suffering,
and only the very young or the very foolish imagine otherwise.
George Orwell (1903–50), British author. Shooting an Elephant,
"Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool" (1950).
Comment: We can have fun even in our old age, our middle age, or in our youth. Suffering
tears out the heart of our fun-making, but we can look up into the sky, and look within to
see the angels of our God. When we look up we can see the goofy doings of cherubs that
bring us laughter from nowhere which makes others think we have truly lost our mind. But
we must not tell them about the cherubs, for the sane who suffer and cannot see them will
never believe us. PK
A man will renounce any pleasures you like but he will not give up his suffering.
George Gurdjieff (c. 1877–1949), Greek-Armenian religious teacher, mystic.
Quoted in: P. D. Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous, ch. 13 (1949).
Comment: We cannot renounce suffering but, oh, if we could. We cannot renounce suffering
because pain is not a choice it is a response. However, even in pain, we can choose how to
respond. We can choose to push our pain into the nail-scarred hands of Christ our Savior.
PK
We are threatened with suffering from three directions: from our own body, which is doomed
to decay and dissolution and which cannot even do without pain and anxiety as warning
signals; from the external world, which may rage against us with overwhelming and
merciless forces of destruction; and finally from our relations to other men. The
suffering which comes from this last source is perhaps more painful than any other.
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), Austrian psychiatrist. Civilization and its
Discontents, ch. 2 (1930; repr. in Complete Works, vol. 21, ed. by James
Strachey and Anna Freud, 1961).
Comment: We may be threatened but we need not fear. Although not in Freud’s paradigm,
we have a powerful, wonderful, and ever-present comforter who is within us, around us,
over us, and under us, called God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
PK