Imagine a man walking into my office.

It’s not a specific man. Let this serve as someone who represents many people I’ve talked with over the years.

He walks into my office and he says, “I’ve been out of work for over a year. We are just about to lose our house. I can’t take it any more. I’ve done everything I know how to do to follow God’s leading, but it just doesn’t matter. It doesn’t work. I’ve had it with God, and I’ve had it with trying to do the right thing. Every time I try to do the right thing, life just gets worse. I’m sick of it!”

You can easily change the crisis, but still have the same situation. Instead of unemployment, it’s cancer. Or the death of a loved one. Or a broken relationship. The amount of ways we experience suffering is beyond counting, really. And many, many times, that experience of suffering leads to questioning God’s love and care for us. Many times it causes us to want to change the course of our lives, to give up on following God, and go somewhere, anywhere, to avoid the hurt.

How do you respond to suffering?

How do bad experiences affect what you believe about God? In my mind, this is one of those foundational questions we have to explore as followers of Jesus. We will face it at some point in our lives. No matter how well life has gone up to this point, there will come a day where suffering and loss will be your experience.

And what will happen to your belief in God at that point?

I hope that some of what we will focus on today will be a lifeline to those who are in the middle of a difficult time in life. But to be honest, this might be more helpful as a preparation for the rest of us for a difficult time that will come in the future.

I love to offer hope when things are difficult. But one of my fears is saying things that are too simplistic, too Pollyanna, too ridiculously sweet to be real in the world we live in.

I had someone who had just buried a child tell me that a well-meaning person came along and told them, “Don’t worry…you can always have another one.” I don’t want to offer band-aids to people who’ve had a limb amputated.

We need to acknowledge the reality of pain and suffering.

We don’t have to pretend it isn’t there, or gloss over it, or simply move on and try to replace the pain with something else.

Pain and hurt are real. But they are not bigger than God. Faith, following God, living as Jesus intends, whatever you want to call it…there is a way to live with God that doesn’t minimize suffering, nor does it get stuck in suffering.

The wonderful thing about the bible is that there are examples of both. There are examples of people for whom suffering completely destroys their trust in God and the direction of their lives. And there are examples of people who persevere and push into deeper trust and hope.

Let’s start in Exodus, with the people who struggle. Turn to Exodus 17. [READ something]

These people aren’t the poster children for faithfulness to God.

In fact, they are the poster children for rebellion. Many other places in the bible refer back to this incident as one of the worst examples of rebellion to God.

But put yourself in their shoes. Let’s try to figure out where they went wrong.

They’ve escaped hundreds of years of slavery in Egypt, miraculously released and led by God. They walk on the dry bottom of the Red Sea, and then watch the waters crash in on the Egyptian army. They’re free…but they’re in the wild desert with no provisions.

And after time in the hot wilderness, they get thirsty. That’s not a bad thing; that’s normal. They cried out for water. That’s not a bad thing; that’s normal.

But then they questioned what God had done.

They longed for a life that God had clearly said was bad and wrong, the life back in Egypt. There is the problem. A normal problem, but a problem nonetheless.

God, why did you do this? I wish you hadn’t done this. Because things are so bad right now at this moment, I wish I could go back to how things were before you started leading us.

Suffering and bad experiences have a way of causing some of us to behave just like the Israelites at Massah. I want to suggest that when that happens, it happens because we have one of two different faulty beliefs about God.

If suffering causes us to want to go back to life before God, it might be because we thing following God’s will means we won’t have any suffering. If we begin our journey with God assuming that nothing bad will happen if we follow God, then bad things will cause us to doubt we’re following God correctly. That’s one faulty belief.

The second faulty belief is that it’s only worth following God if God does as I expect. If God ever does something that doesn’t match our expectations, this faulty belief leads us to want out.

Those are the beliefs that God Israel in trouble. Exodus clearly describes them for us as a warning.

Now Paul holds out a different model.

Paul’s suggestion is that suffering–which is not a wrong thing–and crying out for help– which is not a wrong thing–do not HAVE to result in questioning God. [READ Rom. 5:1-5]

Suffering can be an opportunity for perseverance, for sticking with it. Sticking with what? Sticking with our trust and obedience to God. Sticking with the path that God has us on. That perseverance leads to character, and a change in character is what brings hope.

Paul’s words are not simply designed for us to put on a good face. They are teaching us something true about God.

God is not blind to our suffering. Suffering in itself doesn’t invalidate God or make what God says untrue. In fact, Paul reminds us, Christ died for us while we were powerless, struggling, suffering under the effects of sin. [Rom. 5:6]

God sees our need, God sees our suffering, and God has acted first to make a difference in us.

What does suffering do to you?

Is it more likely to cause you, like the Israelites, to question God’s motives, to long for a different path than God has set you on? Or can you see in suffering your need for help? Can you see the ways in which God has shown us help and love?

God is not the kind of God who leads us out of the frying pan into the fire. In another place in Exodus it says, “He did not bring us out this far to take us back again; he brought us out to take us into the promised land.”

That doesn’t mean there won’t be suffering or struggle or questions or doubts or pain. But it’s our view of God’s character that is essential to how suffering affects us. The Israelites thought their pain and hunger proved that God was not trustworthy of powerful enough. Paul reminds us that it is we who are powerless, and that we can trust God to lead us to hope.

This is why telling our stories to one another is important. We need to help each other see God’s true character. This is why being honest with ourselves and with God about our pain is important. Bringing our cries to God is what is implied in the perseverance.

What do you assume about God?

The bible is absolutely full of faithful people who went through horrible experiences. This reminds us that following God doesn’t mean we won’t suffer.

The bible is full of faithful people who developed perseverance and character and true hope only because they refused to give up on following God when things got hard.

Ignoring our suffering, ignoring our pain is not the answer. We can cry out to God! We can long for something different.

It’s only when we allow our pain to cause us to want to go back to life without God that we get into danger.

Clinging to God in our pain is what Paul calls perseverance. It’s what changes our heart, our character. It’s where true hope lies.