suffering

Many people go through life trying to live the best life they can, which often means reducing suffering and increasing pleasures. Given the choice, they will avoid the suffering and partake in the pleasures, reasoning that the pleasure might not be available later or that we may not live to see the pleasure if we don’t enjoy them now. Or, they may deny the suffering, as if to imagine it is not there, and so it might disappear. Or thirdly, they might claim that they are suffering only because of things or people around them, who are to blame.

The truth is, suffering is part of life. And its importance is not typically recognized. Suffering brings us closer to God, because, as we survive through it and come to see better days, we have a renewed appreciation of the things we do have in life, which were given to us by Him. It also seems that by believing in Him, who lives within us, we gain strength that helps us to pass through the difficult times.

And so, by avoiding, denying, or spreading blame for the suffering we inevitably experience in life, we are denying ourselves the valuable and fulfilling journey of the suffering itself. It is when you look at suffering as a valuable and oddly enjoyable part of life, that you can better handle anything that life throws at you,without falling into fear of future suffering and without trying to change that which is not in our control.

art by Steve Kuzma