The Tunnel

last week, in a bible study, a brother asked us about the benefits of sufferings for His sake. a number of us flipped thru the bible, and there we saw an ocean of list of good things we get out of suffering: closeness with God, pruning of our character, increasing our faith, etc. (romans 5:2-4; romans 8:17; 2 cor 1:7...)

and the next question which seemed to have been logically easy to answer based on the premise above, but was really difficult to, was "if there are a lot of benefits to it, and then why do we avoid sufferings?"

it made me think for a while. and in my mind, aside from the other obvious reasons of avoiding it such as fear of alienation, financial distress, pain, sadness, i realized that one thing that really makes this kind of suffering something we do not look forward to, is the thought of uncertainy...

suffering is always appreciated at hindsight, at that end of the tunnel when all questions are answered, all pieces of the puzzle are complete.

but while we are at it not knowing what is happening and the end is seemingly so far-fetched from what we hope it would be, suffering becomes so unbearable.

but it is in this uncertain period do we clearly see the stark contrast that we are mere mortals and that He is the all-powerful and all-knowing God! it is in this period that we have no one else to turn to but to Him, no one else to strenghten us but Him and no one else to hope to than on Him. and this is certainly an opportunity to exercise our faith and to look at these dark providences thru the lens of our Saviour...