Why do good people suffer? Why does God allow cancer to exist? Why are Christians being persecuted around the world? These are questions every preacher is asked again and again. Over the course of church history there has been countless perspectives on the subject of human suffering. I have been a preacher of the gospel for three decades and in that short amount of time I have personally witnessed many preachers swing from one extreme to the other on this issue. Many preachers declare messages that would lead one to believe that if you live a certain way, make specific positive confessions, and give faithfully you can virtually lead a life without suffering. Typically the messages they preach begin to drastically change right around the time a particular illness or tragic event occurs in their personal life or to someone in their family. Others seem to believe that God wants all people to suffer extreme hardship and that this somehow is the key to absolute faith and higher levels of maturity. They may even go far as to making people feel bad if they havent suffered like other people in the world.

I have tried to live my life and preach a gospel, in this and many other crucial areas of preaching and teaching, with one simple word in mind. That word is balance. I would like to unpack some basic things to consider when speaking about suffering.

God is working

I am convinced, beyond any shadow of doubt, that God is a whole lot more intelligent than I am. What do you mean by this Pastor Sam? I mean, simply and plainly, that God does things and uses things that make no sense to me but somehow he gets the glory, his people get the victory, the enemy is defeated, and the gospel is advanced. When speaking about suffering I never want the audience to forget that ultimately God is working all things together for the good of those who belong to him. God can use suffering to bring out good, but God does not only use suffering so there must be balance. I also do not want the audience to go on suffering without hearing a refreshing word that the God that brought them to this season is willing and able to bring them through this season. I am careful to speak about examples of how God brought people through difficult times. I do not avoid talking about suffering, but I refuse to park the bus in that season.

We will suffer

I am convinced that we will suffer. Yes, I said it, people will suffer in this world. When sin entered the realm of humanity its consequence was immediate and obvious. I cannot imagine a world where gardens never produce weeds and child bearing is without pain, but evidently those were some of the direct results of disobedience to God in Eden and we have been suffering those results ever since. In the midst of the curse God himself strikes a brilliant balance. Work produces harvest which brings joy, but work will be difficult and laborious because of the Fall. Similarly, child bearing is a joyous and beautiful human experience however the Fall made it a painful one. We suffer because of sin. Suffering is perpetuated in an environment of fallen humanity. Suffering is a natural consequence of sinful nature introduced to us by our ancestors Brother Adam and Sister Eve. However, I am not saying that every occasion of suffering is a direct result of a specific sin or the sins of our parents, etc. Jesus himself told the disciples: This man is not blind because of his sin or the sin of his parents but so that my name may be glorified. See the balance? Suffering is the result of original sin, but not necessarily the result of particular sinful activity. Yet there is another word of balance that must be expressed here. When otherwise smart people do really dumb things, natural consequences that can include suffering occur.

Suffering has a purpose

Suffering has a purpose. It produces something. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Romans 5:3-5, ESV). This passage is so clear and direct. There is suffering that occurs because of our stance for Jesus and his gospel and what is produced by this suffering is endurance, character, and hope that will not produce shame. God does not make you suffer so he can reward you with these attributes. It is sin that introduced suffering, but God can use suffering to carefully produce these things in the life of believers. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all (2 Corinthians 4:17). Balance is important here as well because one does not need to seek suffering, suffering has a way of finding you.

God does not want us in a state of perpetual suffering. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast (1 Peter 5:10). No one should dwell in a place of suffering. I have known a few people in my life that seem to get stuck in a place of suffering. Some are like the man by the pool of Bethesda whom Christ asked, Do you want to be well? I wonder sometimes, if you could picture yourself without the present suffering you are going through would you really want to go there? Before answering that make sure you are ready to give up the attention you get, the possible entitlements and other perks that some people become accustomed to in the midst of certain types of suffering.

Know Christ in power and suffering

Suffering does not mean that God has somehow abandoned anyone. Maybe you have heard people going through difficult times say, as I have, Where is God, I feel so abandoned. We must remember God will never leave us nor forsake us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? (Romans 8:35). People must be assured that they are not alone, they are not abandoned.

Consider the balance Paul spoke of in his letter to the Philippians; I want to know Christyes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection of the dead (Philippians 3:10-11). Like many I love the power portion of this Scripture. That resurrection power is something every believer would sign up for in an instant, but there are not a lot of people who would voluntarily sign up for that suffering part. Somehow when Jesus calls us into relationship he knows he is calling us into both. For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him (Philippians 1:29).

I feel that word balance screaming at me again. This does not mean Christ calls you to suffer only. Remember he is the one that came to give you life and life more abundantly. He came to give you exceedingly and abundantly above what you have asked or even imagined. So God wants your life to be good, he wants your life to be joyous, and he wants you to know that when you suffer you are in good company. He has a purpose for it, and he is not immune to it. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted (Isaiah 53:3-4). We have fellowship with him in the power of his glorious resurrection. We can live in this power, we can experience it in this life time, but we will also know Christ in the midst of our suffering.

There is one thing I do know for sure. Any suffering that occurs in the life of believers will be dwarfed when we attain our future glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us (Romans 8:18). Suffering in this present age produces Gods glory in this life, but we also will receive ultimate glorification in the afterlife. Yes, we suffer, but praise God we win. Yes, we ache, but praise God one day there shall be no pain. Yes, we suffer for the cause of Christ, but praise God our reward is coming and is here.

Samuel Rodriguez is the president of The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and the senior pastor of New Season Church in Sacramento, CA.