Suffering is good for you

Growing up, whenever my sister or I would complain to our father about something, his standard response would be to proclaim with a twinkle of satisfaction in his eye, “Suffering is good for you!” Of course, my sister and I typically received this mantra with a roll of the eyes to say, “Thanks for the sympathy.” But as much as we laugh about it now, I must admit that I have come to appreciate this wisdom.

The Lord has allowed me a few experiences in recent months in which I have had to learn a difficult lesson -- namely, that often in painful or uncomfortable situations, additional pain must be endured as part of the solution before complete healing can take place.

Take the “suffering is good for you” guru himself, as an example. It became known last year that he would have to have open heart surgery. When I spoke to him on the phone, he said plainly, “The biggest pain in the ass is going to be that they have to break my sternum to get to my heart. That’s what will take the longest to heal afterwards.” His heart condition, though potentially life-threatening, was not giving him any physical pain, per se. But in order to get to the heart, the doctors had to inflict pain on him before complete healing would be possible.

Today I am reminded of this again, as I went in to the GP to sort out a seven-month-old shoulder injury. While the pain was enough of an irritation for me to go to the doctor, it was not excruciating. To fix the problem, the doctor injected me with two shots of cortisone. He warned me that it would be sore for 48 hours before getting better. Let me just say that sore is an understatement. The pain is close to unbearable. And I thought he was supposed to make it better!

But I believe the Lord allows these things to teach me and shape me. To make me more sympathetic to the elderly man in our church who just underwent a shoulder replacement. To humble me with each wince as I can only imagine the constant agony my own mother endures every minute without hope of relief.

Ultimately, I believe that the Lord allows painful experiences at a physical, emotional and spiritual level to shape my character in Christ. For “no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11).

“Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope” (Romans 5:3-4).

So perhaps suffering really is good for you, after all. Thanks, Dad.