Suffering and Humility

When we suffer, we find out where we really are, and we learn lessons we never learned while all was comfortable. If our humility cannot pass the test of suffering, wasn’t it just a disguise? Isn’t it better that we find that out before it is too late to do something about it? If we say, “I don’t deserve this kind of pain,” we should stop and listen, and learn something very important about ourselves. We are a long way from the cross, a long way from dying to self. Our suffering has revealed that we are much more self-absorbed than we have thought.

Nothing confronts us with our true selves like suffering. Suffering exposes self-righteousness, arrogance and ingratitude that has been lodging somewhere in the recesses of our hearts. Suffering does not produce these things. It only reveals what is already there. No wonder God allows us to go through some tough things.

The truly humble person, the person who stands in awe before God, will make it through the tests of suffering and be stronger on the other side. He may struggle and wrestle with God, but ultimately, he will come back to God in full surrender like Job did.

To humble ourselves in our suffering means to accept that suffering and allow God to teach us any lesson that we need to learn (and there will usually be several).

There is an old saying that goes like this: “Difficulty is the very atmosphere of miracle.” None of us welcomes suffering. Few of us are immediately or consistently humble in the face of it. However, if we will come to God in our pain with teachable and open hearts, we may yet see miracles.