Suffering

[I_am_learning]

When a loved one suffers, and says things like "why me? When i’ve been good all my life? Why does God allow this to happen? Why did I get this? What should be answered?
I try to say things like “people are the ones that cause pain, we need to find the good things in life.” And things like that.
Thank you and God bless.

(Sorry if this is not in the right section of the forum)

 

[Mummsie]

Having overcome a few health issues, I can tell you what worked for me.

If you say, “Why Me?”, then the next logical question is “Then Who?”. My children? My brothers or sisters? My co-workers? My neighbors? The stranger down the street who is someone’s mother/father/daughter/son/sister/brother?

I believe cancer and other devastating illnesses are simply a part of life as it is now. The good news is we are not alone. God is beside us every step of our journey. That was my greatest comfort. I also believe there is a lesson to be learned through all of our difficulties. I learned gratitude and living one day at a time.

Hope this helps.

God Bless you.

 

[Antegin]

This is the toughest question that ever has to be answered. How does a God who is all powerful and all loving allow the terrible things that happen to those who love Him.

Free will-our parents, Adam and Eve, used free will commit that original sin from whence comes our pain and suffering. This was not a punishment but a consequence of their disobedience. Just as Adam brought senseless suffering into the world though, Jesus brought sense to our suffering by allowing us to unite with His passion and offer that suffering for the conversion of sinners.

Free will - people are given free will so they can freely choose to accept God’s love or refuse it. Sometimes when they reject God, they hurt innocent people horribly, like a pedophile harming a child, a murderer taking a life, a zealot planting an IED. God receives and accepts the victims, knows their pain, and yet the victimizers live. His mercy is infinite but not unconditional. To the very last second He waits for the sinner to turn to Him and ask forgiveness, which He will grant.

Unfair?

Job 40:9-32
Have you an arm like that of God,
or can you thunder with a voice like his?
Adorn yourself with grandeur and majesty,
and clothe yourself with glory and splendor.
Let loose the fury of your wrath;
look at everyone who is proud and bring them down.
Look at everyone who is proud, and humble them.
Tear down the wicked in their place,
bury them in the dust together;
in the hidden world imprison them.
Then will I too praise you,
for your own right hand can save you

 

[Stephen_says]

Hi!

This sounds like a good opportunity to evangelize or catechize!

Suffering, in whatever form, is an opportunity to grow closer to God!

Think about the suffering that Jesus Christ went through, and not just physically on the cross, but spiritually, knowing that he was going to be betrayed, and that he would be traveling into Hell, he that was always intimately connected to God knew that he was going into a place where he would be cut off from that feeling of love that he probably experienced for every minute of every day of his entire life.

That’s suffering.

And he rose from it.

The suffering that we experience in this life is an opportunity to unite it to Christ’s sacrifice and grow closer to God.

 

[Rosebud77]

I tell folk how brave and wonderful they are …They know my sufferings so know I understand. Not what we have but how we use what we have. All makes me so deeply appreciate of the tiniest things. And that is how God feeds us and nurtures us.

 

[Rosebud77]

I tell folk how brave and wonderful they are …They know my sufferings so know I understand. Not what we have but how we use what we have. All makes me so deeply appreciate of the tiniest things. And that is how God feeds us and nurtures us. Never in all my long life have I blamed God for my suffering. Not His fault and no I do not believe it automatically brings us closer to Him.

 

[Rosebud77]

Hi!

This sounds like a good opportunity to evangelize or catechize!

Suffering, in whatever form, is an opportunity to grow closer to God!

Think about the suffering that Jesus Christ went through, and not just physically on the cross, but spiritually, knowing that he was going to be betrayed, and that he would be traveling into Hell, he that was always intimately connected to God knew that he was going into a place where he would be cut off from that feeling of love that he probably experienced for every minute of every day of his entire life.

That’s suffering.

And he rose from it.

The suffering that we experience in this life is an opportunity to unite it to Christ’s sacrifice and grow closer to God.

Ah but He suffered so we need not suffer so I do not go that way. Can add guilt. Just love and comfort and praise their courage.

 

[T.A.Stobie_SFO]

see my Poems “Difficult World” and “Why Evil and Suffering” on this thread.