11. My experiences of deep pain or loss have often led to significant changes in my spiritual life.
What are some of the transitions in your spiritual journey that were facilitated by suffering?
How have you come to understand suffering in your life? Can you embrace it as a friend? Do you struggle to accept it? What do you need from God in this?
Jesus modelled a life of letting go of worldly things: comfort, family, the opinions of others, the right to be treated fairly, and finally His physical body. How does this speak to you?
If we really desire to know, the Spirit is always willing to show us any attachments that interfere with our spiritual journey. What attachments are you aware of personally?
No one enjoys pain and yet everyone experiences it. It is part of life and part of our spiritual journey. Pain is not only physical; we can experience emotional suffering within ourselves and from relationship with others. Talking about pain and suffering is like talking about taxes or a visit to the dentist. We prefer to ignore it as long as possible. When we can no longer ignore it, we try to endure it as quickly as we can so we can move past it and hopefully forget about it.
But those who have journeyed far in their relationship with Jesus tell us that some of the most profitable places in their journey have been connected to pain and suffering. Pain is often followed by a deeper joy, a more intimate relationship with Jesus, and a greater sense of freedom and contentment than experienced prior to the suffering. Why is this so?
One of the primary roles pain plays in our lives is to help us let go of things we have become overly attached to. It is human nature to value things in our lives in ways that are unhealthy for us—not just physical things, but emotional and spiritual (non-material) things, also. These include approval from others, control over others and our environment, security in possessions, pleasure, and more.
We pursue these things believing that they will meet our deep needs, especially the need for love. But eventually these things will fail us, and this leads to pain and suffering. Pain always invites us to let go of something. In this case, our pain can be a natural way of reordering our desires and helping us place our needs before God.
Pain teaches us about ourselves, our unhealthy dependence on things, and helps us depend more on God and draw closer to Him. As we journey through this transition, we find that by letting go of something temporal we experience freedom and joy. The book of Job offers an example of this spiritual dynamic. Job experienced significant suffering.
Job was attached to a certain perspective about life and about God. When things went counter to how he thought they should, Job cried out to God. Eventually, God confronted Job and Job had to let go of his attachments. When Job surrendered, he experienced God in a new way and replied, “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-6, NIV).
When Job looked back on his journey and the suffering he had endured, he acknowledged that he had transitioned into a richer phase of his journey. His relationship with God was stronger and his understanding of God clearer. By contrast, Job regretted and even despised his previous place on the journey. So, too, will it be with us.
Our attachments hold us back. When we allow God to use pain as a way of helping us let go of those things, we will recognize that all along we had been settling for less.