Purpose in Your Suffering

“Wow!” We crested the hill, and I stared around in wonder. Off in the distance, layers of mountains faded into the sky. Up ahead, I could see the beginnings of snow blanketing the sparse environment. But what captured my attention were the trees.

They were sideways.

As I got closer to one, I didn’t have to guess to realize why. The wind blew my hair around my face. These trees were growing sideways, all the branches frozen in one direction, because they’d grown up constantly pushed that way by the wind.

They didn’t look like the pretty tree a child would draw, but the trees were mesmerizing by their strength. Because these trees had grown in such harsh conditions, they were stronger than your average tree, able to withstand difficult circumstances and produce a unique kind of beauty.

Maybe the wind has been strong in your life recently—or always. You’ve been pummeled so hard by the wind that your life looks a little wonky compared to what you planned.

I get that. My life has included chronic illness, frequent moving, loneliness, mental health struggles, financial difficulty, and other things I’m not ready to talk about yet. But through all the suffering, I’ve found today’s passage to be true: suffering produces growth.

Maybe you don’t care about growth right now, you just want relief. I get that too. Growth doesn’t change the fact that suffering is suffering. But suffering is not our enemy, sin is. Suffering can expose and remove sin from our hearts. Suffering produces endurance, character, and hope . . . and compassion, strength, perspective, wisdom, clarity, comfort, and intimacy with God.

I write this from my recovery bed after intensive medical treatments (which I can’t afford) on a vulnerable part of my body. I’m exhausted, afraid to hope, and I long to be healed. But I also don’t want to miss what God has for me. I don’t want to be so focused on getting past suffering that I do not glean from it what God has for me to learn, experience, and grow in.

So friend, grieve your suffering. Yet also look at it with curiosity.

God, I trust that you have a plan, that you are powerful, and that you are good. This hurts, this is hard, but help me to see how you are working in my suffering.

Throughout the day: Make a list of all the ways God has grown you in your suffering and all that you have learned about him through it. Be specific!