Phillips Brooks once said, “When all that can be said has been said about suffering, there remains a dark mystery that cannot be fathomed.” Anyone who has tried to understand the purpose of suffering knows that to be true. It will be a mystery as long as we live on this earth.
In the face of unexplainable suffering, here are a few suggestions to help you:
1. Believe that God has an answer as to why we suffer and will, in his own time, give it to you. Faith, after all, is assurance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.
2. Believe that God will help you through your trials. British preacher George Buttrick was right in saying that life is essentially a series of events to be born and lived rather than intellectual riddles to be played with and solved. Courage is worth 10 times more than any answer that claims to be total. Even if he gives no answers, God will give you courage if you trust him.
3. Believe that God can overrule tragedy and can use it for some good purpose. Nowhere does God ever promise that we shall understand all in this life. Nor does he promise immunity from any tragedies. But he does promise that in the lives of those who love God he has an amazing power to overrule these tragedies and make them work for our good.