Responding To Our Suffering
How do we respond when faced with suffering? I know often times, I am quick to run to the things of the world looking for comfort though I know that I should run to God first. Why is it that we so often choose to run away from Him? Rather we seek to find happiness from the things present in this world. How prone we are to run to other sources of happiness, to fill that void that has been left in our hearts. Time and time again we grasp the things most readily available to us, sources of temporary happiness. There are numerous things we use as distractions in order to escape our suffering. In my own life I have used music, tv shows, spending time with friends etc. to get my mind off a given situation ultimately to avoid processing the pain which I have felt. How often do we foolishly believe that the things of this world will fill the emptiness of our hearts.
In reality, we are searching for answers, unfortunately in all the wrong places. We desperately long for our suffering to just be taken away. We want to continually run away from our suffering when we should instead embrace suffering as God has called us to.
And yet the whole time, He in His merciful love, knows exactly what we are going through and how we feel. In his bewildering gaze, He says, ““It is I (Jesus) that you seek when you dream of happiness; I am waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you.”
How affirming it is to hear His words! In a simple sentence, He has just answered all that we were pondering. Ironically, He not only answers our question but also leaves us with a question, a call to action.
In return, we must respond.
We can do this through three practical steps:
- Pray and acknowledge your suffering. We should have no fear to let God know exactly how we feel and in turn we must surrender ourselves fully to Him allowing Him to christen us as He desires.
- Reflect. We experience the joys and sadness of live constantly. It is important that we reflect on how God has delivered us in our past sufferings and used our past experiences to help us grow closer to be the Saints He has called us to be.
- Exercise the virtue of patience. Know that out of our brokenness He desires to create beauty. He desires to use us for the unthinkable. He will turn our suffering into joy.
