What if Life is Meant to be Difficult?

Do you wonder why you are suffering at the current moment? Do you question why God always allow you to go through difficult times? Do you blame or resent God for giving you a circumstance that seems too much for you to handle? Do you worry that life is about to get even more difficult for you? Do you feel tired for having to go through so much in your life?

I do.

I have never really understood why I am 'suffering'. I knew that God had a purpose in my suffering but I often blame God that I have it worse than most people. I complain when I struggle. I tried at times to bargain with God for a difficulty that would be easier to go through. I realized I got it all wrong when I am enlightened to the book of Job in the bible and looked at the example of a man who suffered greatly.

Who was Job?

In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. He had seven sons and three daughters, and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.

-Job 1:1-3

What happened to Job?

One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”

Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”

Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”

“Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.”

-Job 1:6-12

God permitted Satan to do anything to Job and instructed that Satan do not lay a finger on Job himself. In reading Job, we may perhaps go to verse 12 immediately to see God's instruction to Satan. However, we miss out on something important. Verse 6 gave me and us a glimpse of what happened when God instructed Satan. The angels came before the Lord and Satan too. As we are going through our everyday life, we do not know what is happening in the heavenly realms.

An analogy that was given by Pastor Francis Chan in his online sermon is this: In the past when overhead projectors were still used, he brought 10 bugs and got them to compete against one another to be the first to run into the light. He got his audience to choose which bug they support. These people who were businessmen and adults and they started cheering loudly when the 'race' began. The bugs just did what they did without a clue that there were giant humans cheering for them. Similarly, we are just like the bugs going about our everyday life. We are very clueless of what is actually happening.

If you continued reading Job, you will realize he suffered greatly, everything that he had was stripped away from him, his riches, his servants and his children. He was even afflicted with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. He was not spared in any area of his life and yet in all this, Job did not sin.

In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.
-Job 2:10

Something that I personally did not want to grapple with is that everything that happens in life is not about me. I did not have the say and have no control what happens to me. It was God who instructed Satan. In fact, it is interesting to see what God replied Job when Job questioned God. Surely Job deserved the answer from God right? After all that is done to him?

 Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:

“Who is this that obscures my plans

    with words without knowledge?

 Brace yourself like a man;

    I will question you,

    and you shall answer me.

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?

    Tell me, if you understand.

-Job 38:1-4

But yet, God replied Job in questions. In essence, God is questioning Job of his position before God. If Job was so great and mighty, he should have stood together with God when the earth was created.

One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’”

-Romans 9:19

And I realized when I questioned God in my suffering, I knew not where I stand before God. Paul reminded the church in Rome that our position before God is like the created towards the Creator. He has rightful authority over us. Job realized that and he replied knowing that he is unworthy. The hard truth to grapple with is that our lives does not revolve around us, around how happy we are, how we want life to be. It revolves around God. And all glory goes to God. Some time ago, I mentioned that we live our lives each day knowing our purpose, that is "to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever".

Therefore, the question now should not be how the suffering can be taken away because we missed the point. It is not a matter of bargaining if we recognize that we are no where near having the bargaining power with God. He is our Creator, our King and our Shepherd. Instead of questioning God in my suffering and to ask Him to remove it from me, I pray that I can ask: "God, what do you want me to do in my suffering?"

Then Job answered the Lord:

“I am unworthy—how can I reply to you?

    I put my hand over my mouth.

I spoke once, but I have no answer—

    twice, but I will say no more.”

-Job 40: 3-5