Quotes about Suffering

The first and foremost reality is that suffering and death are not only enemies of life, but a means of reminding us of life's twin realities, love and hate.

In his play "Long Day's Journey into Night, " Eugene O'Neill has one of his characters utter a powerful statement toward the end of her life: "None of us can help the things life has done to us. They are done before you realize it and once they are done, they make you do other things, until at

intellectual answers to the problem of pain are important. But intellect alone cannot help us navigate the minefield of pain and suffering. Other worldviews may offer intellectual answers. Christianity alone offers us a person.

What God wanted him [Job] to realize was that this same God who brought such pattern and beauty into a world He had fashioned out of nothing could also bring a pattern and beauty out of Job's brokenness. The universe is both complex and intelligible, and Job was reminded of that. There is intelligence behind the design,as there is also intelligence in helping us cope with suffering.

Note that in normal cases of procreation, parents risk bringing a child into a lot of suffering; even the most fortunate of human lives is accompanied by seasons of serious suffering. Even more than that, parents procreate knowing full well that one day the child will suffer death.

suffering" (Hebrews 2:10). I have often pondered this text. How is One who is already

What suffering teaches us is that three blessings flow from its tutelage: (1) the blessing of an amplified testimony, (2) the blessing of a fulfilled identity, and (3) the blessing of unshakable faith and strength that never drains away.

neither goodness nor love alone is the goal. It is reverence, and it must be chosen even when it is hard and costly. This kind of love is a choice to let the sanctity of life dictate the commitment of the will. This kind of reverential love can look upon suffering and see it beyond the clutches of time and through the victory of eternity.

For he who lives more lives than one More deaths than one must die . . .

Sartre went so far as to say that the only question he could not answer was why he did not commit suicide.

Crucifixion: The Ancient World and the Folly of the Cross.

The problem of pain has remained the single greatest question, not only for the skeptic who uses it as an excuse to doubt God's existence, but also for the believer who questions God's purpose.