Pain and suffering

No life is complete without pain or suffering of some sort. Often it seems quite arbitrary. People ask "Why me?" or "Why does God...?". And it is not just for ourselves. It is painful to watch the suffering of others. The whole problem of suffering has taxed the minds of philosophers and theologians for centuries. There are no easy answers and we must be wary of those who pretend that there are.

Here are a few quotations from well known sources that I have found helpful:

• If you suffer, thank God! -- it is a sure sign that you are alive. --Elbert Hubbard
• Life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you respond to it. anon
• Bless a thing and it will bless you. Curse it and it will curse you...If you bless a situation, it has no power to hurt you, and even if it is troublesome for a time, it will gradually fade out, if you sincerely bless it. --Emmet Fox
• The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. --Anne Frank
• The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of being hurt. --Thomas Merton
• In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world. --Jesus Christ
• The problem of reconciling human suffering with the existence of a God who loves, is only insoluble so long as we attach a trivial meaning to the word "love", and look on things as if man were the centre of them. Man is not the centre. God does not exist for the sake of man. Man does not exist for his own sake. "Thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." We were made not primarily that we may love God (though we were made for that too) but that God may love us, that we may become objects in which the divine love may rest "well pleased".  ― C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net